>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >There is 1 message in this issue. > >Topics in this digest: > > 1. Extreme poverty plagues one-third of planet - UN > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >________________________________________________________________________ >________________________________________________________________________ > >Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 17:36:03 EDT > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Extreme poverty plagues one-third of planet - UN > >September 20, 2000 >Extreme poverty plagues one-third of planet - UN > >Mexico City (Reuters) - A third of the world's six billion people live in a >state of extreme poverty, a state of "brutal inequality" that mars the dawn >of the new millennium, the United Nations said on Tuesday. > >In a preview to a report on world population due out on Wednesday, the UN >Population Fund representative in Mexico said one signal of the gulf >separating rich and poor is that while per capita income in 17 nations >surpasses $20 000 a year, inhabitants in 21 other nations subsist with less >than $1 000 a year. > >At the far extreme of this scale lie Tanzania and Sierra Leone, with per >capita income of less than $500. On the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, >are the super-rich nations of the United States, Switzerland, Norway and >Singapore. > >Alfonso Sandoval, the U.N. Population Fund representative in Mexico, told >reporters that as of mid-2000, the earth's population was 6.055 billion >people and growing at an annual rate of 1.3 percent. This translates into an >addition of 76 million people, the number of inhabitants in Vietnam or the >Philippines. > >"It also means the net increase of 145 people per minute or 2.4 every >second," said Sandoval. > >Developed world > >Eighty percent of the globe's inhabitants reside in so-called developing >nations, while 20 percent live in developed nations like the United States, >Russia, Japan, Canada and Australia, according to the report. > >It also noted that during the five years stretching from 2000 to 2005, Europe >will begin to see negative growth levels and the developed nations as a whole >will reach this phenomenon within 20 years. > >The U.N. report mirrors a World Bank annual report on development, released >last week, that showed that poverty-reduction efforts have been very uneven >from country to country. > >The World Bank noted that in Latin America, for example, poverty rates have >declined in Brazil, Chile, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. > >In Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay poverty has shown little change, >while in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela it has worsened. > >One of the more striking effects of the globe's inequality can be found in >the area of health care. Because of limited access to birth control in scores >of countries, AIDS has caused more than 20 million deaths in just two >decades, with 35 million more currently afflicted by the disease, the UN >report said. > >The death toll from AIDS exceeds the number of deaths in World War 2, the UN >added. > >Add your comment to this story > >Copyright 2000 > > >________________________________________________________________________ >________________________________________________________________________ > > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
