STWR - Share The World's Resources

The economics profession underwent a revolution in December last year, as economic understanding of the world suddenly shifted. Suddenly the world has more poor. Incomes declined in emerging economies: down by 40 percent in China and India, 17 percent in Indonesia, 41 percent in the Philippines, 32 percent in South Africa and 24 percent in Argentina. For Indonesia, the decline was far worse than the Asian crisis, and for China and India, the decline was worse than the one experienced by Germany during the Great Depression. Yet hardly anyone noticed.

The established democracies are accepting flawed and unfair elections for political expediency, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2008. By allowing autocrats to pose as democrats, without demanding they uphold the civil and political rights that make democracy meaningful, the United States, the European Union and other influential democracies risk undermining human rights worldwide.

"Life's not fair," my parents always used to say. Bill Gates and Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim each have fortunes of about $60 billion, according to the rich-list boffins at Forbes. A 10 percent return on that lot would produce a $6 billion income, or about $200 a second. That is, very roughly, about what an American makes in a day or an Ethiopian makes in nine months. Small wonder that income inequality is a hot topic.

The international community has grown accustomed to the fact that economic growth between countries and regions will always be unequal, yet it is more and more uneasy with the “gap” in average incomes between rich and poor countries. That gap also bodes only embarrassment for the proponents of globalization. So, they would rather stress a diminution of the “proportion” of the world poor. Indeed, they remind us at every opportunity that, contrary to the claims of the alter-globalizers, the world economic situation has never been so good, because world poverty is retreating. The issue as to whether or not world poverty is decreasing or increasing must now be put in the proper perspective, if we do not want to see it buried in linguistic conundrums.

More than one in 10 people in the United States go hungry, according to new official figures that suggest government food programmes are falling short in the world’s wealthiest country.

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. The country is indeed in the grip of extremists who are determined to act out the biblical climax--the saving of the chosen and the burning of the masses--but without any divine intervention. Heaven can wait. Thanks to the booming business of privatized disaster services, we're getting the Rapture right here on earth.