Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Pillar Fight: The 'New' U.N. Blames the Poor

By Mickey Z.

“Make no mistake,” declared Paul Martin, Canada’s prime minister and co-chairman of the U.N. Commission on Private Sector and Development. “This is a new pillar of development -unleashing local private enterprise, supported by strong, indigenous, democratic institutions.”

With at least a billion people on the planet subsisting on the equivalent of one U.S. dollar a day or less, a March 8 report issued by the U.N. commission explained that its “new pillars” include “access to bank loans, encouraging job skills and training, and setting up simpler, fairer rules and regulations that can all help small-scale business flourish.”

Conveniently, Forbes magazine just announced there are 587 individuals and family units worth $1 billion or more ... an increase from 476 in 2003. All together, the world’s billionaires are worth $1.9 trillion ... a total higher than the gross domestic product of the 170 poorest countries combined. Score one for better access to bank loans, I guess.

“While the rich continue to accumulate wealth for themselves, millions upon millions of people around the world are trying to survive under conditions of unspeakable degradation,” writes Jamie Chapman at the <former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo (man who knows a thing or two about wealth disparity) was the commission’s other co-chairman. “Developing countries must have the right policies to develop if they want to develop,” he stated articulately.

“This is a new U.N. today,” added Mark Malloch Brown, head of the U.N. Development Program, “ a U.N. which ... celebrates the private sector and the power of markets and consumers.”

Let’s check the scorecard:

587 billionaires are worth more than 170 countries.

  • Nearly 4 billion people around the world earn less than $1,500 (US) a year.
  • The new U.N. has nothing better to offer than the celebration of free (sic) market consumerism.

    • What happens if it’s the 4 billion who get the last at-bat?

    Mickey Z. is the author of two upcoming books: “A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense” (Prime Books) and “Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda” (Common Courage Press). He can be reached at mzx2@earthlink.net.

    More from Mickey Z.

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