Poverty in the midst of plenty.
“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
-Mother Teresa
4.1. Global Poverty: Year after year, like a thunderbolt of heaven, the World Bank alarms consistently that 80% of global population is reeling under appalling poverty in the midst of plenty.
Almost half the world – over three billion people – lives on less than $2.50 a day.
At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $ 10 a day
More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.
The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.
4.2. Death due to poverty: According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
4.3. Forfeiture of education: Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
4.4. Weapons at the cost of education: Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
4.5. Wealth Distribution: in 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%. The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption.
4.6. Poor man’s burden: The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
4.7. World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.
4.8. The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).
4.9. the world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
4.10. Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
4.11. Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).
Financial control
4.12. The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”
In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.
4.13. For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.
4.14. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.
4.15. The poorer the country the more likely it is that debts repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.
4.16. In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. The shocking fact is when 26,500 children die per day on account of poverty the world spend $4.72 billion per day for military strength.
Global military expenditures hit $1.04 trillion in 2004 ($975 billion in inflation-adjusted 2003 dollars), nearing the historic peak of 1987-88.
In a world where billions of people struggle to survive on $1-2 per day, governments spend on average $162 per person on weapons and soldiers. ...
Bertrand Russell writes in his book ‘Political Ideals’ (PP: 72) as follows:
“The world in which we exist ……will pass away, burnt up in the fire of its own hot passions; and from its ashes will spring a new and younger world, full of fresh hope, with the light of morning in its eyes”