Frightening facts about the world we live in.
Here are some frightening facts about the world we live in how millions of people live today...
- Less than one 1% 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
- Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names
- 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 worlds goods
- 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
- An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about :
3 to 1 in 1820
11 to 1 in 1913
35 to 1 in 1950
44 to 1 in 1973
72 to 1 in 1992
- The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants
- 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
- 7 Million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis. 8525038 children have died since the start of the year 2000 [as of March 24, 2001]
- 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
- 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.
Frightening and shameful isnt it!