Dear Editor,
Oxfam, in its most recent survey, found that one per cent of the world’s population owns more wealth than the remaining ninety-nine per cent ! According to Oxfam, this trend of income inequity is likely to get wider unless policy-makers put mechanisms in place to redistribute income in favour of the poor and the marginalized.
This unequal distribution of wealth is the root cause of so much poverty in the world. Former President the late Dr Cheddi Jagan had long posited the need for a new global architecture that is more responsive to the needs of the poor. According to Dr Jagan, one part of the world is dying from under-consumption, that is, not having enough to eat, and at the other extreme, another part from over-consumption, that is, having too much to eat. He reasoned, justifiably, that the entire population would benefit from longer and healthier life if only there were a more equitable distribution of the world’s resources.
This disparity in living standards between the industrialized North and the under-developed South is what prompted him to advocate a New Global Human Order, which incidentally was adopted by the UN General Council.
Something is fundamentally wrong in the structure of the global economy when so much wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny few. This highly skewed income distribution has condemned millions of people, mainly from the developing world, to a life of hopelessness and despair.
It is time for the rich countries to scale down on military spending and redirect resources to meet the basic needs of the over one billion people who are forced to live on less than one US dollar a day.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally
