I hope that someday soon we, third world peoples, have a movement that
at least articulates a demand (even if it seems to be a purely
intellectual exercise) for reparations from those that took and keep
taking.

Subject:   UN Human Development Report 1999 (fwd) 
Date:     Fri, 16 Jul 1999 11:57:26 -0500 (CDT)
From:     Kaet Hall 


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:08:12
Subject: (en) UN Human Development Report 1999

The annual UN Human Development Report 1999 is available online at:
htttp://www.undp.org/hdro/report.html

"The world's 200 richest people more than doubled their net worth
between 1994 and 1998 to more than 1 trillion dollars. "

"The assets of the 200 richest people are more than the combined income
of 41 percent of the world's people."

"The assets of the top 3 billionaires are more than the combined GNP
[Gross National Product] of all least developed nations and their 600
million people.

 More generally: By the late 1990s the fifth of the world's people
living in the highest income countries had: 86 percent of the world's
GDP [Gross Domestic Product]--the bottom fifth had one percent of the
world's GDP. The middle sixty percent had thirteen percent of the
world's GDP.

 Food production per capita increased by neaarly 25% during 1990-97,
BUT...

 "Nearly 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, and close
to 1 billion can't meet their consumption requirements." "850 million
people are malnourished. " "Nearly 160 million children are
malnourished."

 Education such as it is and isn't:

 "One percent of the assets of the richest 200 people could provide for
universal access to primary education for all." "850 million people are
illiterate." "In industrial countries more than 100 million people are
illiterate." "More than 260 million children are out of school on the
primary and secondary levels." "More than 250 million children are
working as child labourers."

 Women: "340 million women are not expected to survive to age 40." "A
quarter to a half of all women have suffered physical abuse by an
intimate partner."