[asia-apec 987] UN, UNDP, UNICEF 1997 Statistics

[BAYAN]

United Nations Development Report/UNICEF 1997 and WHO 1998
Forwarded without comment

The latest  Annual United Nations Development Report/UNICEF 1997
and WHO 1998

$40 BILLION A YEAR It is estimated that the additional cost of
achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all,
basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women,
adequate food for all, and clean water and safe sewers for all is
roughly $40 billion a year--or less than 4% of the combined wealth of
the 225 richest people in the world.

1.3 billion people in the world today (1,300 million, or 1,300,000,000
people) struggle to survive on $1/day.

3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on $2/day.

2 billion have no access to power (electrical).

The net worth of 10 billionaires, ten human beings, is greater than
the combined national income of the forty-eight poorest countries
combined.

In the West, 100 million people live below the poverty line.

Globally, one in five people do not expect to live beyond the age of
40.

Three out of four in the poorest countries will not see their fiftieth
birthday

About 300 million people live in 16 countries where life expectancy
actually decreased between 1975 and 1995.

1997 Deaths

Out of of a global total of 52.2 million deaths, 17.3 million were due
to infectious and parasitic diseases; 15.3 million were due to
circulatory diseases; 6.2 million were due to cancer; 2.9 million were
due to respiratory diseases and 3.6 million were due to perinatal
conditions. The leading causes of deaths from infectious diseases were
acute lower respiratory infections (3.7 million), tuberculosis (2.9
million), HIV/AIDS (2.3 million) and malaria (1.5-2.7 million)

THE CAPITALIST HOLOCAUST: More than 15 million adults aged 20 to 64
are dying every year. "Most of these deaths are premature and
preventable." (WHO)

The gap between the poorest fifth of the world's people and the
richest fifth has increased from 30:1 in 1906 to 78:1 in 1994.

The world's 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are Americans with
total assets of $311 billion, have a combined wealth of over $1
trillion--equal to the annual income of the poorest 47% of the entire
world's population.

Debt relief for the 20 largest 3rd world "debtor nations" would cost
$5.5 to 7.7 billion, the cost of a couple of stealth bombers.

The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the
combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.

Microsoft Corporation makes $34 million (20 million) profit a day.
This is what sub-Saharan Africa pays each day in debt service
(interest and capital repayments).

The cost of meeting basic goals in Africa for health, nutrition,
education and family planning would be about $9 billion a year.

In 1996, sub-Saharan Africa paid the developed world $13.4 billion,
including $9.5 billion in new loans and $2.6 billion of its aid (23
percent of all grants). So nearly a quarter of aid to Africa simply
goes to repay debts.

Developing countries paid $270 billion in debt service last year - $60
per person. This has risen from $160 billion in 1990.

The assets controlled by the 200 wealthiest individuals are greater
than the Gross Domestic Product of the entire continent of Africa,
home to 600 million people.

Americans spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics--$2 billion more than
the estimated annual total needed to provide basic education for
everyone in the world.

Europeans spend $11 billion a year on ice cream--$2 billion more than
the estimated annual total needed to provide clean water and safe
sewers for the world's population.

Sweden and the United States have 681 and 626 telephone lines per
1,000 people, respectively. Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chad, and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have one line per 1,000 people.

40 percent of the Russian population now lives in poverty.

Mr. Knight, the CEO of Nike corporation has $5.2 billion net worth. To
reach that amount of money, a young Chinese woman in their factory
would have to work for 9 hours per day, for six days a week, for
one-hundred centuries.

The 16 billion Britain is spending on 232 new Eurofighters would
cancel the entire debt of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Nike paid Michael Jordan $20,000,000 per year to promove Nike
sneakers, which is greater than the annual income of 30,000 asian
women together who sew Nike sneakers.

USA

Between 20 and 30 million Americans suffer from hunger (Congressional
Hunger Center, 1995).

The U.S. has the highest infant mortality, AIDS, road accident,
pesticide consumption, homicide, reported rapes, imprisonment and
hazardous waste production rates among Switzerland, Japan, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria, France, Finland and Canada (The
World Bank, World Development Report, 1994 and UN, Human Development
Report, 1994).

"The United States is the richest country on the planet yet it has the
greatest income disparity.... Sixty percent of all U.S. jobs created
since 1979 pay less than $7,000 a year" (Fian Fact Sheet, Welfare by
Corporations is Corporate Welfare).

The US, with just 5 times the population of Italy, has 150 times more
children in detention" (UNICEF)

Share of global income going to richest 20% and poorest 20% of world's
population:

year  richest 20% share  poorest 20% share  rich to poor
1960  70.2%              2.3%               30:1
1970  73.9%              2.3%               32:1
1980  76.3%              1.7%               45:1
1989  82.7%              1.4%               59:1

During the period 1979 through the present, the growth in income has
disproportionately flowed to the top. The bottom 60% of the population
actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20%
saw modest gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase
18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes explode over 80%

In 1976, the wealthiest one percent of Americans owned 19% of all the
private material wealth in the U.S. Today, they own over 40% of all
wealth. Their share now exceeds the wealth owned by the bottom 92% of
the U.S. population combined.

Since the mid-1960s, the pay ratio, or difference between the
highest and lowest paid workers in an average company, has widened
from 44:1 to today=92s high of 209:1.3

UK

Since 1979 the income of the richest 10 percent has continuously risen
while that of the poorest 10 percent has steadily fallen. In 1992-93,
25 percent of Britons -- some 14.1 million people -- were living in
poverty, a majority of them women.

According to the London-based Child Poverty Action Group approximately
59 percent of people living in poverty are women. Women make up to 70
percent of the lowest earners and four out of five women employees
work part-time.