More than 1.4 billion people live in poverty so extreme that they can barely survive, and around 25,000 people die from hunger each day whilst a new billionaire is created every second day. The call for a global safety net has never been so urgent - and compels the international community to transform economic priorities and guarantee the universal securing of basic human needs.
I used to worry that the United States was in the grip of extremists who sincerely believed that the Apocalypse was coming and that they and their friends would be airlifted to heavenly safety. I have since reconsidered.
A new report defines 162 million people who live in 'ultra poverty' - less than 50 cents a day.
If all of the ultra poor were
concentrated in a single nation, it would be the world's seventh most
populous country.
The violence that constitutes the majority of human rights abuses is a result of the dominant powers using force to maintain a status quo of vast inequality. Of the six billion people in the world, half live on less than $2 a day, and a billion of those live on less than $1 a day. Only a small percentage of Americans will ever have a substantial interaction with the poorer half of the world’s population, and they are essentially ignored in the mainstream media. Their poverty is often fatal. Despite an abundant global food supply, over twenty thousand a day die of starvation, malnutrition, and associated diseases. Knowledge of this uncomfortable fact is limited and usually quickly forgotten.
On October 16, events in more than 150 countries marked World Food Day, which commemorates the founding of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, with the theme of “the right to food”.
Oil has made us billions and fueled our economic stability, but oil has also become the bane of our existence. For some, it is a curse that has caused poverty and corruption, but for others it is an essential source of untold wealth and power. But as the gap between rich and poor countries continues to expand, it is clear that intellectual capital and technology rule the world, and that natural resources such as oil, gold, and diamonds are no longer the primary determinants of wealth.
