The UN says that a 40 billion dollar increase in funding could feed, clothe and educate the entire world. Yet, the United States government spends 400 billion dollars a year on “defense” and spent over $310 billion extra so far on the Iraqi war. While almost half the world lives on less than $2.00 a day, the US people allow their government to waste resources imperialistically covering the globe with military troops:
Basic health, food, and nutrition for everyone in the world could be provided for the same amount that the people in the United States and Europe spend on perfume – about 13 billion dollars. However, that’s nothing compared to the US’s $400 billion military budget and the hundreds of billions more spent on the Iraq war.
Instead of feeding the 18,000 children who die from hunger every day, the US government does this:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bush is going down and he is taking this nation with him. He is feeding himself and all his friends with the enormous profits made from this war and he does not care if or how he destroys this nation. If Rome could fall, then so can this nation.
Yes the US spending on war around the world is shameful but don’t forget that it’s also the country that contributes the most to the World Food Programme.
In an ideal world the War spending and humanitarian contributions figures would be inversed.
It’s very easy to engage in activist thought but if you cannot see the full picture at your own level you are not in a position of pointing fingers or being a conductor of change.
Sojourners Magazine had an interesting brief article regarding this a while back…
Between the Lines
Mind the Gap
by Rose Marie Berger and James Ferguson
Two recent reports examining global economic inequality emphasize the need for substantive economic policy changes. “The Inequality Predicament,” published by the United Nations, warns that growing “economic and social inequality will continue to breed violence and terror if the trend is not reversed.” The World Bank’s “Equity and Development” report states that redistribution of wealth, along with incentives for economic growth, is necessary for reducing global poverty. Traditionally, the World Bank has promoted neo-liberal economic models based only on growth, while ignoring that those same models increased inequity and ultimately destabilized economies. Below are a few findings:
1 billion: The number of people in the developed world, which controls 80% of the global GDP (the 5 billion people in developing countries share the other 20%).
40: The percentage of children in Chad who have not been immunized. In comparison, nearly all children in Egypt have been immunized.
12 to 27 million: The number of people estimated to be in forced labor or slavery in the world today. Most are female sex workers.
64: The percentage of people with HIV/AIDS who live in sub-Saharan Africa. Another 18% live in South and Southeast Asia.
$900 billion: The amount spent annually around the world on arms and other weapons of destruction.
$150 billion: The amount needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which would cut world poverty in half.
Sources: “The Inequality Predicament” (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2005); “Equity and Development” (World Bank’s World Development Report 2006).
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0512&article=051242a