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This
year's UN Report on Human Development once again reminded
us of global injustice. The ten percent richest people
on earth earn 124 times more than the poorest ten
percent. The 1% richest earn more than 57% of world
population combined. In 2001, the world's GDP was
45 000 billion dollars. If this wealth was divided
equally, a family with three children, be they living
in Africa, Asia or in the USA would have a monthly
income of 2260 Euros - enough to have a comfortable
life. Every human being on earth would have 14 dollars
per day, but 2.8 billion are currently living on two
dollars or less, and 1.1 billion on one dollar or
less. One person out of three has no electricity,
and one out of five no drinking water. Every day,
30 000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases.
More children died of diarrhea during the 1990s than
the total number of people who died in armed conflicts
since the end of the second world war.
Every
year, 10 million human beings die of hunger. Yet,
there is an annual surplus of food for at least 600
million people. But 800 million people suffer from
hunger: one person out of three in sub-Sahara Africa,
and one out of four in South East Asia. In India alone,
200 million suffer from hunger. However, the solution
is fairly easy. Saving them would only cost 5.2 billion
dollars, the equivalent of one month of US occupation
of Iraq. The report also notes that only 35 billion
dollars would suffice to prevent the annual death
of 8 million people from preventable diseases like
tuberculosis, malaria and diarrhea. That is less than
the 40 billion dollars spent by the US for their war
in Iraq between March and April this year.
What
is scandalous about those figures is that all this
misery is preventable. Compare on the basis of this
UN report socialist China and capitalist India for
example. In India, more than 200 million people suffer
from hunger and more than 400 million have to live
on less than one dollar a day. If India provided the
same health care as China, every year 1.5 million
children could be saved. Proportional to population,
China spends three times as much as India on health
care. India has an illiteracy rate of 35 per cent
compared to China's rate of 16 percent. The average
Chine can expect to live until 71, the average Indian
64. India's infant mortality rate is twice that of
China. In Cuba, there is one medical doctor for 170
people. In the rest of Latin America, the proportion
is of one doctor for 613 people. Cuba spends per inhabitant
twice as much on health care and education than the
rest of Latin America. In those countries, the ten
percent richest people earn 46 times what the poorest
ten percent earn. In Cuba, the proportion is five
times. A quarter of Latin Americans have to survive
on 2 dollars a day or less. In Cuba, less than two
percent do. This is a reminder that a more equitable
organisation of society is possible.
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