our world in 2020 As we progress deeper into the third millennium, coronavirus notwithstanding, the United States (US) is still the largest and most dynamic economy the world has ever seen and its influence pervades every continent on the planet. Even after the sub-prime mortgage meltdown of 2008, with just 4.6% of the world's population, the US economy comprises 24.7% of world Gross National Income*(GNI), absorbs 24% of the annual world output of natural resources and pumps out 14% of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The US is such a dominant player in the world that just one state, California, has an economy roughly on a par with that of Russia, whilst the third largest state, Texas, has a greater output than all of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the US is only first amongst equals in the wealthy league of 35 advanced economies which includes all 19 countries of the Euro Zone**, Japan, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Israel. Collectively these countries are often referred to as the 'North'. And together with only 15.3% of the world's population they make up a colossal 50.6% of global output. According to the 2019 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report total world wealth is calculated at US$361 trillion, equivalent to US$70,850 (£57,600) per adult, and is more than three times the US$117 trillion figure and US$31,400 (£25,500) per adult for 2000. (The figure for the US alone in 2019 is US$103 trillion) At the same time, according to Oxfam, the gap between the richest and poorest has now become absurd with the world's 85 richest people having the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity. Switzerland has the greatest wealth per individual at US$565,000 (£459,000) per individual followed by Hong Kong US$489,000, US with US$432,000, Australia US$386,000 followed by New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Denmark, UK and Netherlands. Wealth per adult ranges from US$418,000 (£340,000) in North America to US$154,000 (£125,200) in Europe to US$54,000 (£43,900) in Asia/Pacific and US$59,000 (£48,000) in China to US$23,000 (£18,700) in Latin America to US$15,000 (£12,200) in India to US$6,000 (£4,900) in Africa. The world average is US$71,000. North America (34%) and Europe (27%) together account for 57% of household wealth, but contain only 17% of the world adult population. To be included in the richest 1% of the world's population you need assets minus debt worth US$936,000 (£761,000) or more, including the value of equity in your home. The top 1% hold more than 50% of global wealth. To get included in the top 10% of global wealth holders net assets of more than US$109,000 (£88,600) are needed and here it is estimated that this top 10% hold 82% of the world's wealth. For inclusion in the top 50% net assets of US$7,100 (£5,800) are needed. At the other end of the table the report suggests that the bottom 50% of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. And the bottom billion people own less than US$250 (£200).



Most of the world's poorest people live in the developing world or the 'South', where things could not be more different from the 'North'. In 2019 World Bank figures suggest the GNI per head in the US was $65,112 (£52,900) as against $405 (£329) per head in Niger, a state bordering the Sahara desert and one of the poorest countries in the world where 90% of the population are destitute. Already Americans are more than 160 times richer than people in Niger, where life has barely changed in centuries. (In 1820 the ratio of living standards between the richest and poorest countries was some five to one. Then industrialisation cut in and the gap started to widen explosively. By 1913 the ratio was 11:1; 1950 35:1; 1973 44:1; 1993 72:1; and 2005 90:1. In recent years some of the larger developing countries have made giant strides in increasing economic growth year on year and the four BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) now account for 24% of world GNI compared to just 12% ten years ago. All of this has come at a price though in the increase in pollution. China now accounts for 27.2% of world CO2 emissions followed by US 14.6%; EU 9.8%; India 6.8%; Russia 4.7%; Japan 3.3%; Germany 2.2%. South Africa accounts for 1.3% whilst UK* for 1%. However, taking CO2 emissions/population as a factor the US pollutes three times as much as China. Surprisingly, perhaps, top of the list for polluters taking populations into account are Qatar; Trindad & Tobago; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brunei. According to the UN, carbon emissions have risen on average by 1.5% p.a. over the past decade and it warns that on current trends global temperatures are likely to increase by 3.7ºC by the end of the century. (*The UK government has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. But other countries need to pledge the same if serious efforts are going to be made across the world in tackling air pollution which most scientists now believe is affecting climate change.) [According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 5 nations are responsible for 60% of global marine plastic - China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. The most polluted river in the world is the R Ciliwung which flows through Djakarta in Indonesia with an average of 18,000 pieces of plastic per hour. In Europe the most polluted river is the Seine in France with 700 pieces per hour. Thousands of seabirds, turtles, whales, seals and other creatures in the world's oceans are killed each year by ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in it.] Since the turn of the millennium African economies have started to grow more rapidly thanks mainly to the insatiable demand for natural resources by China, US and EU. Unfortunately, though the gap between North and South may now be starting to close, the majority of Africans are no better off financially as few new jobs are being created, there are ever more mouths to feed and the domestic gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. The world is also becoming more urban with more than half the population now living in towns and cities. And this proportion is likely to get bigger for economists calculate that urban dwellers are 50% more productive than rural workers and 30% more prosperous. Today across the world there are now also 33 megacities - large metropolitan areas with more than 10m people. The largest is Tokyo with 37.9m people followed by Djakarta 30m, Delhi 29.3m, Seoul 26.1m, Shanghai 25.4m, Karachi 24.3m, New York 23.6m, Mexico City 22.2m, Beijing 21.6m, Sao Paulo 21.2m and Lagos 21m (London 14m). In 1950 there were only 2 - New York and Tokyo. For most of us living in the North, even after the 2008 near financial meltdown, we still have everything we need to make the most of our lives. We live in comfortable well-heated homes within easy reach of shops where the shelves are stacked with food from all over the world, clean refreshing water gushes out of taps and costs very little, first-rate medical services are there for everyone from the cradle to the grave, schools give every child the golden ticket to compete in our modern world where the choice of jobs has never been greater and the welfare state is there for those falling on difficult times. At the same time infinite communications and entertainment can be easily accessed on our smart TVs/computers/mobile phones whilst future holidays are often planned before the next one has been taken. Meanwhile, in most of the developing world, life as we know it, hangs in stark contrast. Here 2.7bn people struggle to live on less than $2 (£1.60) per day, 2.5bn people have no access to a toilet, 663m people risk their lives everyday by drinking dirty water, 821m people go to bed hungry every night, medical services - where there are any - are overwhelmed and often unaffordable, 59m children do not attend primary school and electricity, which has powered economies in the North for almost 100 years, is still not available to 2bn people in the South. Then there are the horrendous living conditions in most shanty towns with stinking open sewers running through the streets where children play, leaking roofs that make everything damp for days on end and crime and violence that can erupt at any time in places where crushing poverty is a way of life. All of this translates into a depressing death toll which should be at the front of all media reports in the North - for every single day in the South



*** 21,000 PEOPLE DIE FROM HUNGER *** yet there is enough food for everyone in the world;



*** 14,000 PEOPLE DIE FROM PREVENTABLE DISEASES ***;



*** 5,000 PEOPLE DIE FROM LACK OF CLEAN WATER OR FROM DRINKING DIRTY WATER *** yet we have the technology to find and deliver fresh water and even produce it from the sea.



***** 40,000 PEOPLE, IN TOTAL, DIE NEEDLESSLY EVERY DAY - MOTHERS, FATHERS, SONS, DAUGHTERS, GRANDPARENTS, COUSINS, NEPHEWS, NIECES, UNCLES, AUNTS - AND FEW PEOPLE SEEM TO CARE *****. Yet the world does care when tragedy strikes as was shown by the phenomenal international response to the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami disaster where an estimated 230,000 people lost their lives in 14 countries. Perhaps this was because it was a 'real' event where TV thrust the death and devastation directly into our living space and so people everywhere felt they wanted to help alleviate the suffering. As a result they gave magnanimously to the Disasters Emergency Committee and other charities to help save survivors and to rebuild lives and livelihoods. The tsunami was a natural disaster and the world-wide response was magnificent. However, the death of 40,000 men, women and children needlessly everyday is a preventable disaster which has so far seen the world unable to respond effectively. For those who are 'lucky' enough to survive in the very poorest countries, often as many as 85% of the population are forced to eke out monotonous lives as subsistence farmers, barely able to scratch a living for themselves and their families, from land long paralysed by constant use and often drought. There a typical day breaks down as follows:- 5 hours working in the fields

4 hours fetching water

3 hours cooking/caring for relatives

2 hours collecting firewood

1 hour milling

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= 15 hours of DRUDGERY ~ DAY IN, DAY OUT; WEEK IN, WEEK OUT; YEAR IN, YEAR OUT; LIFE IN, LIFE OUT! Most of the world's poorest nations are in sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its annual Human Development Report calculates progress throughout the world by using three criteria in its Human Development Index (HDI) - life expectancy, mean/expected years of schooling and GNI per capita. It then places countries into very high, high, medium and low human development. In the 2019 HDI, in a list of 189 countries, 31 out of the 36 Low Human Development countries were in sub-Saharan Africa. One more country, Somalia, had figures been available, would surely have been in this group too. That means that 32 out of the 49 nations which comprise sub-Saharan Africa are hugely under-developed. Furthermore, excluding the island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius, only one country in this massive continent (Botswana) is to be found in the Top 100 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index. And so, in this our modern world, with apologies to Charles Dickens:-



It is the best of times, it is the worst of times,

it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair,

i t is a season of opportunity, it is an era of apathy,

it is an age of decadence and of desperation

surrounded by wealth, obesity and starvation. In short, we in the North have won the international lottery whilst people in the South are still struggling to buy a ticket!

Former U K prime minister, Tony Blair, has called the current condition of Africa 'a scar on the conscience of the world.' And he is right. For in this modern age of globalisation, when man has never known a period of such creativity and technological advancement, why have so many people in so many countries in Africa been left behind? Several reasons can be put forward:- poor climate, bad geography, perennial famines, water shortages, pervasive illiteracy, chronic diseases, smouldering conflicts, rampant corruption, dysfunctional government, economic mismanagement, weak institutions, a small middle class, tribalism, strangling bureaucracy, lack of property rights, climate change, dilapidated infrastructure (roads, ports, power, telecommunications), tax evasion/transfer pricing, unpayable debts, trade barriers and miserly overseas development aid (ODA). And under the various headings (e.g. FOOD, WATER, HEALTH etc.) just1WORLD tackles these issues and considers the present situation. However, it is in RECOMMENDATIONS that we prioritise and deal with the main problem confronting the people of Africa as they seek to escape from poverty - rotten government. We then go on to offer constructive solutions which, if effected, could soon start to heal the ugly face of poverty found throughout most of the continent, without rancour. * GNI per hd is basically the total of goods and services produced by a country plus income earned from overseas divided by the population of that country. **European Union member states using the EURO:- Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Finland, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

Non-EU nations within Europe using the EURO are Andorra, Kosovo, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Vatican State.