A Dream for a Better World

Economic inequality is growing in the world’s richest countries, particularly in the United States. The gap between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years in nearly all the countries studied.  The United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the organization after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000.  France, meanwhile, has seen inequalities fall in the past 20 years as poorer workers are better paid.  Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the United States, Canada and Germany, they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind.

Although the standard of living has risen all over the world, there are still many parts where people are living in abject poverty. The world hunger statistics point out to the fact that not everything is rosy with the world and still a lot needs to be done. Developed countries can take the initiative and contribute their might towards solving this problem. They can reach out to the poor countries and help them out of the food crisis that they are faced with. Every individual on their part should make it a point to not waste food. This would be in a way our humble contribution towards fighting world hunger.

Many people focus on South America, and Brazil in particular, as the major culprits of deforestation. But Africa is losing forest land just as quickly and mainly due to the desperation of the poverty stricken population. Coal is lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than other forms of fuel. 80% of fuel is still coal based in Africa, which leads to a huge amount of legal and illegal logging to supply the demand for fuel. And people will continue to log the forests until the find an alternative cheap fuel and income.

I remember seeing an expose on how a young girl would sell herself on the street for a small amount of money and for a few dollars more would do it without condom.  Risking her life for just a few dollars more.  Is poverty really affecting the judgement of people or are they not informed enough of the risks?

We need to stop this.