The US has hijacked the agenda of the UN World Summit, writes Faiza Rady "Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times -- times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation -- that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils." -- Nelson Mandela Attended by some 175 heads of state amidst much media fanfare and draconian security measures in New York City, the UN celebrates its 60th anniversary with a two-day World Summit starting 14 September. The summit's stated aim is to review progress in global poverty alleviation as spelled out in the UN's Millennium Summit, where rich nations pledged to halve world poverty levels by 2015 by contributing 0.7 of their GNP to development aid. Not much has happened since. Far from the madding crowds and the spotlight of international conferences, the rich largely reneged on their pledges. Five years on, inequalities are on the rise and dire poverty is rampant. In a pre-summit press conference UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the developed countries to make good on their commitments, stressing that the situation is urgent because people are dying. "We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals -- worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries -- but only if we break with business as usual. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the goals." The 2005 UN Human Development Report (HDR) reveals devastating statistics documenting soaring inequalities between the South and the North, as well as inequalities within individual countries. "The tsunami was a highly visible, unpredictable and largely unpreventable tragedy," says the report. "Other tragedies are less visible, monotonously predictable and readily preventable. Every hour more than 1,200 children die away from the glare of media attention. This is equivalent to three tsunamis a month, every month, hitting the world's most vulnerable citizens -- its children. The causes of death will vary, but the overwhelming majority can be traced to a single pathology: poverty. As an international community we allow poverty to destroy lives on a scale that dwarfs the impact of the tsunami." Rollbacks in social gains are glaring. In 2003, 18 countries with a combined population of 460 million scored lower on the HDR's human development index (HDI) than in 1990 -- a regression that the report describes as "unprecedented". And though the global economy is conspicuously prosperous when measured by the yardstick of soaring multinational company profits, every year 10.7 million children die before they reach their fifth birthday. Proportionally, poverty- stricken Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest share of child deaths: while the region registers 20 per cent of all births, it accounts for 44 per cent of child deaths. Out of a global population of six billion people, more than one billion live in conditions of extreme poverty, subsisting on less than one dollar a day. "One-fifth of humanity lives in countries where many people think nothing of spending $2 a day on a cappuccino. And another fifth of humanity live in countries where children die for want of a simple anti-mosquito bed net," notes the report. On a grander macro-scale the cappuccino/bed net equation is complemented by "obscene inequalities", to use Nelson Mandela's words. Under the neo-liberal economic system promoting capitalist-driven globalisation, contradictions have effectively become the norm. A case in point, a handful of individuals are richer than entire nations: the world's wealthiest 500 persons have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million people. The report singles out HIV/AIDS -- the pandemic that has ravaged Sub-Saharan Africa -- for having caused the single greatest reversal in human development. In 2003 alone, the disease killed three million people and left another five million infected. Today, a Zambian national is less likely to reach the age of 30 than someone born in England in 1840. Yet, unlike the tsunami, this too is preventable. Although scientists have not yet found a cure for HIV/AIDS, life-sustaining medication is available but prohibitively expensive for the majority of the world's poor, whose governments spend on the average between two and five per cent of GNP on health. Five years ago the world's governments solemnly signed the UN Millennium Declaration, promising "to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty". The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) aim to halve extreme poverty -- defined as subsisting on less than a dollar a day -- cutting child deaths, providing all of the world's children with sixth grade education, and combating infectious diseases. This lofty aim was to be achieved by forging a new global partnership expected to deliver by 2015. Yet, both rich and poor nations have so far failed to seriously invest in human development, says the report. The pledge to the world's poor is being broken, with the active support of the Bush administration and its recently appointed UN ambassador, John Bolton. A former undersecretary of state for arms control, Bolton is a right-wing ideologue who gained notoriety for dismissing the UN as a "non-existent" world body. He evidently means business. Since his appointment to the UN, he has kept himself busy with attempts to hijack the summit's agenda. Last week, Bolton demanded to make major changes to the summit's draft text that included omitting all references to the Millennium Development Goals from the document. Though vociferous opposition from the floor eventually forced the US to back down, Bolton scored points on other fronts. Armed with superpower pull and ample muscle, Bolton successfully diverted the summit's focus from poverty alleviation to the "war on terror". Should Bolton get his way, it is likely that inequality and extreme poverty are here to stay.
