What is causing this growing divide? We are told that poverty is a natural phenomenon that can be fixed with aid. The richest eight people now control the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world combined. Some 1 billion live on less than $1 a day. Today 4.3 billion people, 60 per cent of the world's population, live on less than $5 per day. Since 1960, the income gap between the North and South has roughly tripled in size. It’s a comforting tale, and one that is endorsed by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations. We have been told that development is working: that the global South is catching up to the North, that poverty has been cut in half over the past thirty years, and will be eradicated by 2030. For decades we have been told a story about the divide between rich countries and poor countries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |