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Globalization/Human Rights Violations Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. “The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels” The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people. “The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.” “The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.” “Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world’s nations and large numbers of people.” “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.” According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year. “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.” The world’s 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity. A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World. Number of children in the world : 2.2 billion
Shelter, safe water and health: 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5) 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7) Children out of education worldwide:121 million
Survival For Children Worldwide 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children Worldwide 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom) The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.” In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004. http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/
Immigration 8 million legal and illegal immigrants joined the U.S. workforce during this time, making up ½ of new workers in the U.S. Data from 2000 Census showed that the record number of new arrivals during the 1990’s prevented population loss in some cities and rural areas. According to Susuan Traiman, director of the Business Roundtables workforce education program, “We would not have been able to have this economic growth (of the 1190’s) without the growth in the workforce that was supplied by immigrants http://www.osjspm.org/pdf/fact%20sheet_immigration.PDF
HIV/AIDS Worldwide, approximately one in every 100 adults aged 15 to 49 is HIV-infected. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 8.8 percent of all adults in this age group are HIV-infected. In 16 African countries, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 15 to 49 exceeds 10 percent.(1,2) Approximately 47 percent of the 36.1 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women.(1) An estimated 5.3 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 2000; that is, about 15,000 infections each day. More than 95 percent of these new infections occurred in developing countries.(1) In 2000, more than 6,500 young people aged 15 to 24 became infected with HIV every day -- that is, about five every minute.(1) Through 2000, cumulative HIV/AIDS-associated deaths worldwide numbered approximately 21.8 million -- 17.5 million adults and 4.3 million children younger than 15 years.(1) In 2000 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 3 million people worldwide, including an estimated 500,000 children younger than 15 years.(1) An estimated 13.2 million children younger than age 15 had lost their mothers or both parents by the end of 1999.(2) Worldwide, more than 80 percent of all adult HIV infections have resulted from heterosexual intercourse.(1,2) Mother-to-child (vertical) transmission has accounted for more than 90 percent of all HIV infections worldwide in infants and children http://www.aegis.com/ |
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