While many Americans are wringing their hands over the meltdown in the financial markets, much of the world is going about its business without taking any notice of the crisis.
On the road from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a 3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain blown from passing trucks with his mother, Esnat, 36, and her sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of maize, which will make a small dinner. The precious grains are about all there is to eat.
Half of the boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny. The two women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks. The family ran out of corn in April. Esnat and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one has any to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody left to beg from. So they are forced to live on gleanings from the passing trucks.
Even if the financial crisis in the U.S. markets ends in the worst possible outcome, Americans will be far better off than Slupeth and his family - and better off than many others as well.
More than three billion people - half the world's population - live on less that three dollars a day. 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.
The wealthiest 20 percent of the world also accounts for three-fourths of total private consumption; the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1.5 percent. About 0.13 percent of the world's population controls 25 percent of the world's financial assets.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. But less than one per cent of what the industrialized nations spend every year on weapons would put every child in the world into school.
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And little Slupeth from Zimbabwe might soon be one of them. But most of us are too preoccupied with the prospect of a financial meltdown to care.
Read more about the food crisis in Zimbabwe here.
Read more poverty facts here.
On the road from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a 3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain blown from passing trucks with his mother, Esnat, 36, and her sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of maize, which will make a small dinner. The precious grains are about all there is to eat.
Half of the boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny. The two women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks. The family ran out of corn in April. Esnat and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one has any to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody left to beg from. So they are forced to live on gleanings from the passing trucks.
Even if the financial crisis in the U.S. markets ends in the worst possible outcome, Americans will be far better off than Slupeth and his family - and better off than many others as well.
More than three billion people - half the world's population - live on less that three dollars a day. 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.
The wealthiest 20 percent of the world also accounts for three-fourths of total private consumption; the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1.5 percent. About 0.13 percent of the world's population controls 25 percent of the world's financial assets.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. But less than one per cent of what the industrialized nations spend every year on weapons would put every child in the world into school.
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And little Slupeth from Zimbabwe might soon be one of them. But most of us are too preoccupied with the prospect of a financial meltdown to care.
Read more about the food crisis in Zimbabwe here.
Read more poverty facts here.
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