A new report from the government of India, covered today at Yahoo News tells us that
Seventy-seven percent of Indians -- about 836 million people -- live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies.
According to Netaid,
Living in extreme poverty (less than $1 a day) means not being able to afford the most basic necessitites to ensure survival. 8 million people a year die from absolute poverty.
But let's focus on the global "rich", making close to $1.00 a day. Net Aid's page on Global Poverty tells us that
Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
Follow me to find out what the G-8 finance leaders thought about all of this after their May meeting this year.
G-8 Finance Ministers say global economy is on track
Global growth remains robust and it is more balanced across regions and within our countries,'' they said in a communique released after two days of meetings at a resort on the shore of Lake Schwielowsee, with a heavy police presence and new fencing surrounding them.
As an aside, the G-8 met with developing nations
without President Bush, who was ill and stayed in his room after meeting privately with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Bush was soon feeling better and rejoined the summit after missing the session with African leaders and another with heads of state from developing nations China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
So, the global economy is on track, fundamentals are solid here in the U.S. and perhaps the biblical injunction that
"the poor will always be with us" is true; so it says in Deuteronomy. But let's examine the remainder of that scripture: "...The poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.' "
That's a quote from Habitat World where discussion about the 5.3 million Americans living in substandard housing takes place.
I am reading John Perkin's The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals and the Truth About Global Corruption and while I don't particularly recommend it because of Perkin's meandering style, it is instructive in terms of Perkin's experience. From PBS's "NOW":
John Perkins was recruited by the National Security Agency during his last year at Boston University's School of Business Administration, 1968. He spent the next three years in the Peace Corps in South America and then in 1971 joined the international consulting firm of Chas. T. Main, a Boston-based company of 2000 employees that kept a very low profile. As Chief Economist and Director of Economics and Regional Planning at Chas. T. Main, Perkins says his primary job was to convince Less Developed Countries (LDCs) around the world to accept multibillion dollar loans for infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Main, Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown and Root, and other U.S. engineering/construction companies. The loans left the recipient countries wallowing in debt and highly vulnerable to outside political and commercial interests. He documents his experience in the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN.
I'm not the only person who contends that those "outside political and commercial interests" are all about natural resources, none more so than oil. As every 'green' program tells us repeatedly:
U.S. is the world's largest user of energy. It has less than 5 % of the world¹s population, but consumes 25% of the world's commercial energy, 93% of it from non-renewable sources.
And, we have a long history of grabbing energy resources:
In 1853 Commodore Perry was sent on the mission to Japan, a country that had been closed to outsiders since the 17th century. On July 8, he led a squadron of four ships into Tokyo Bay and presented representatives of the emperor with the text of a proposed commercial and friendship treaty. To give the reluctant Japanese court time to consider the offer, he then sailed for China. With an even more powerful fleet, he returned to Tokyo in February 1854. The treaty, signed on March 31, 1854, provided that humane treatment be extended to sailors shipwrecked in Japanese territory, that U.S. ships be permitted to buy coal in Japan, and that the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate be opened to U.S. commerce. Perry's mission ended Japan's isolation.
[Gunboat diplomacy sounds like an antiquated phrase, but of course we still practice same as reported by CBS News in March. Navy Flexes its Muscles in Persian Gulf]
Thus the resource grab, acommplished through unfair trade policies (now called dollar diplomacy) or military might, results in a global poverty rate, including here at home, that is or is not rising depending on your sources. Stephen Byers is Labor MP for North Tyneside. He is a former trade and industry secretary and was a cabinet member from 1998 to 2002. This link will take you to an article titled "I Was Wrong" where Mr. Beyers tells us global poverty is rising. On the other hand, in 2003 Bill Emmet, editor of The Economist told us it was not. I suppose you'll have to look at your own life to make up your mind.
There is a great deal of discussion here on what we can do to elect better representatives to either ease our load vis-a-vis health care, housing, jobs or energy policy. What I don't think gets enough discussion is the simple notion of empire.
I am NOT picking on the U.S. After all, empires have only interests, no friends, and the fact that U.S. military expenditures now exceed the rest of the world combined is simply an indicator that we have taken up where European imperialism left off. Other nations, now holding seats in the G-8, have followed the arc of empire. Those empires enforced their will with military might, as do we. As Major General Smedley Buter USMC, author of "War is a Racket" said, "The flag follows the money and the troops follow the flag." I suggest that is exactly what we are doing in Iraq.
There is an instructive list of U.S. invasions titled "From Wounded Knee to Afganistan" that have taken place under both Republican and Democrat leadership. From Manifest Destiny, a phrase we are told was used by Jacksonian Democrats to justify expansion, and a political party that Wiki tells us "promoted executive power at the expense of Congressional power", to world superpower, this nation has followed its own arc of empire.
While there is discussion over whether China will become the next superpower, or whether that status will go to the E.U., I think it is undisputable that the U.S. is currently at the apogee of its status. Owning up to this fact, and recognizing the limitations of political organizing, short of a bloody revolution in the streets, would go a long way toward understanding what kind of engine is propelling this boat, and where we each fit within it.
It is my contention that the simple fact of empire is the reason why we cannot believe a word that comes out of national politicians' mouths, why we are constantly blind-sided by congressional caving and why GWB has only made overt what was once covert. Further, I think that without some familiarity with a true history of this nation, perhaps embodied most succinctly in Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States, dkos spends a great deal of time brightly floppsing around theories of a more participatory democracy, better candidates, et al.
I do not deny the efficacy of stumping for better candidates, as any change, no matter how incremental, is better than none. But I would like to see what limitations you think this process holds based on an historical analysis of the American Empire.