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Map of the world showing poverty as a percentage of population

(red = highest poverty ratio, blue = lowest poverty ratio)

Let’s face it America - we’re addicts. What else could we be? We are a nation with the world’s largest disposable income, at the mercy of mega-corporations whose sole purpose is to convince us to dispose of that income on their products. Despite the fact that tobacco companies aren’t even pretending anymore that cigarettes won’t kill you, we smoke them. Even though beer is the cause of many a coyote morning, we drink it. We try to be conscious of empty calories, but we still devour sugar like it’s going out of style. And like most addicts, we’re getting worse rather than better. We have been on the top of the economic food chain for so long that the very threat of losing our place sends us into a tailspin of self-destructive behavior, aimed solely at distracting us from the long hard economic fall we fear.

Take talk shows, for example. Talk about getting worse rather than better. The days when talk show hosts were educated people with social agendas are long past…if they ever really existed at all. Today, Jerry Springer rules the roost - when his bouncer Steve isn’t stealing the show. Tyra spills her wig and her crazy all over the stage on her own talk show. Oprah tells us what to read, while Dr. Phil is busy dodging copious lawsuits due to the fact that he IS NOT LICENSED to practice psychiatry, which clearly doesn’t hold him back.

All of this leads us to wonder, with so many opportunities to bring attention to actual issues, why are talk shows so full of tripe? Sure, the lazy answer is that ad revenue is the real driving force behind talk shows, not audience interest or education. A show’s success really only depends on whether or not it can sell diapers or new cars to its target audience, and target audiences are in a better buying mood when they’re distracted from their problems by outrageous behavior. But lazy is for Dr. Phil. With hundreds of opportunities each year to create news, why not devote one or two episodes to issues that actually matter to someone besides advertising executives?

So this week, we’re devoting our own little post to an issue that matters to us: Global Poverty. Take a look at these statistics. They’re not sexy, they won’t put a shine on your shoes or whiten your teeth, but if you’re really looking for distraction from your own problems, you may find that they work better than a smoke and drive in fast car. A little perspective might help our mortgage-obsessed society to see that having to sell our house and move into a three bedroom apartment isn’t really as near to the end of the world as it sounds.

Causes of Global Poverty

1. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.^{Source 1}
2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.^{Source 2}

3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.^{Source 3}

4. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 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.”^{Source 4}
5. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

   If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.^{Source 5}

6. Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimisitic numbers.^{Source 6}

7. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.^{Source 7}
8. 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.^{Source 8}
9. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.^{Source 9}

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Ruins in Angkor, Cambodia

Kenneth Parker Photography - Temple ruins are overgrown with the roots of giant trees.

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