Backgrounder
Wealth Gap A
World Fit for Us
A few weeks ago two teenagers spoke to the
world leaders at the United Nations Special Session on Children
and demanded a better world. Gabriela, aged 13, came from Bolivia,
one of the world’s poorest countries. 17 year old Audrey came
from Monaco, one of the world’s richest countries. The girls
spoke on behalf of all children suffering poverty and oppression.
They came from different worlds’ but this did not matter. We are
the children of the world, and despite our different backgrounds,
we share a common reality’.
This common reality is a world unequally
divided between rich and poor. Gabriella and Audrey demanded that
this be fixed. We are children whose voices are not being heard:
it is time we are taken into account. We want a world fit for
children, because a world fit for us is a world fit for everyone".
The world of 2002 is not fit for most of its
people, let alone the children. The growing gap between rich and
poor is the world’s greatest problem. Jeremy Hobbs, the Director
of Oxfam, says that the gap between rich and poor is the greatest
it has ever been. He says that it is morally unacceptable’ that
the wealth of the world is not shared equally. Mr Hobbs warns us
that if something is not done soon, then the terrible poverty that
billions of people live with every day will turn into anger and
conflict, and will affect us all.
If we can talk of terrible poverty, then we
can also speak of terrible wealth. The richest one percent of the
world has income equivalent to the poorest fifty seven per cent of
the world’s people. Twenty percent of the world’s people
continue to consume eighty per cent of its resources. On the other
hand, just one man, Bill Gates, earns more than the combined
wealth of all the countries of Central America. There are others
like him. At the same time, over 1.1 billion people live in
absolute poverty, on the equivalent of less than one dollar a day.
It is hard for most of us to imagine what
being really, really rich might feel like. Maybe we dream of those
truckloads of Lotto dollars and big houses, luxurious holidays and
beautiful clothes. Most of us cannot even imagine what it would be
like to be poor, really, really poor. Most, if not all of the
following, is what poverty means to billions of people at this
very moment.
Being poor means being hungry, really
hungry, and all the time. It means not having a place to call
home. It means being sick and not being able to go to the doctor
or get medicine or any health care. It means not being able to go
to school, not being able to read or write. It means not having
clean water to drink. It means being afraid of what tomorrow might
bring. It means not having a job, or owning some land. It means
not having a say in the running of one’s country, or being too
afraid to speak out. It means not being free.
When the United Nations Development Program
talks about making the world fit for all’ it mentions three main
areas for its work. It works so that people may lead a long and
healthy life, that they may acquire knowledge, and that they may
have the resources they need for a decent standard of living.
Gabriella and Audrey hope that this happens soon.
CLASS ACTIVITIES:
· Discuss the words of Jeremy Hobbs. What
does he mean when he says the gap between rich and poor is morally
unacceptable’?
· Debate: Global poverty – It’s not our
problem.
· Read the full text of Gabriela’s and
Audrey’s speech: http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/documentation/childrens-statement.htm
· Design a poster: A World Fit For Us’
based on the girls’ speech to the U.N.
· Find out the ten richest people in the
world and how they made their money.
· Relate this information to the Gross
National Products of poor countries.
· Compare and contrast the countries of
Bolivia and Monaco.
· Try the Poverty Quiz in New
Internationalist: http://www.newint.org/index4.html
· Visit: http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/poverty2000/index.asp
for simple small group class activities on global poverty issues:
food, health, education, housing, work
· Learn about the work of UNICEF : http://www.unicef.org/young/
· The United Nations Development Program
has a set of markers or indices for development. Check this out
for a list of countries and life expectancy http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/indicator/indic_10_1_1.html
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