A better world
Lots of Europeans and Americans see their live as a gift. They live enjoyable lives, earn good money, go on vacation, eat the things they like. They think the world is better than it ever was, they think that it’s improved enough. However, when you look at the average sub-Saharan or Middle-Eastern person, things aren’t that neat. Lots and lots of people, adults and children, live their lives in extreme poverty, from the beginning till the end. So it is a rhetoric question asking: ”Are your happy with your life?” You’d better ask: “Are you afraid of death?” Because it’s understandable that the most of these people aren’t happy with their (most of the time) short lives.
Okay, this sounds a bit extreme. Let’s put ourselves in a situation equal to one of those 5,71 billion people who live on less than 3 U.S. dollars a day. Imagine yourself that you can’t buy all the food you need to support your family. You work extremely hard for just a tiny amount of money. You live your whole life in fear because you know that at any time rebellions can storm in to take over your village in protest to the government. And you’ll have to know; extremists who handle out of pure hate don’t take account of who they kill and let alive. Well actually that’s a lie; extremists who fight against their corrupt governments do plan whom they kill and not. Women and very young children will be killed. But middle-aged men and children as young as eleven are good fighters. So they train them to kill and to let them do whatever they want them to do.
All this sceptic thoughts I wrote above, refer to the subject that was given to me. It literally said: How has the world become a better place to live in and what more can we do to improve it? I think this subject is completely wrong: The world has become a better place for only 30% of the world’s population. This percentage includes people from North-America, Australia and Europe. In those parts of the world, the normal standards for education, health and safety are reached or excelled. For the other 70% of the world, one, two or all of those three standards aren’t reached by far. In my opinion, the world hasn’t become a better place. The ‘western’ countries have just developed faster than all of the other countries. And as far as it concerns the ‘tiger countries’, it only applies to the happy few. So I think the world has become better for few of us in all those thousands of years, the balance between poor and rich in poor countries is only more and more imbalanced.
However, in the last fifty years there have been some really positive changes in the world. For example: A baby born in 1960 had a 20% chance of dying before her 5th birthday. For a child born today, it’s under 5%. This percentage has dropped so much because of the development aid given by the western countries. In my opinion, development aid is a very useful way to better the world we live in because it will accelerate the development of the poor countries. With a faster development these countries will get a stronger economy, there are less reasons for corruption and the population of the country will get a better life, maybe a life that’s worth living for.
However, in most of the poor countries a strong economy doesn’t mean there are more people who make more money. Most of the time only the top of the population (approx. 5-15%) will earn significantly more. These are the people who help the statistic percentages up. This unbalancing in rich-poverty rate is called GINI. Because of this unbalancing, the statistics increase positive, but the wrong picture for a country is created.
In conclusion I think that the world is never really bettered. Only the western countries have significantly developed more. The other, more poor countries haven’t. I think in this countries it is the other way around: the difference between the rich and poor in underdeveloped countries has only become bigger and bigger because the money that should be used by the government as development aid, is used by the government itself to strengthen the position of the top of the society in those countries. The sub-Saharan, Asian and other poor countries do show positive increases on some statistics. But this is only because the top of the society earns more and more money. Because of this unfair distribution of money there is a lot of hate in poor countries. This leads to conflicts as currently seen in Syria and Mali. I think the GINI problem can never be solved if their isn’t going to be in change in their governments.
Lots of Europeans and Americans see their live as a gift. They live enjoyable lives, earn good money, go on vacation, eat the things they like. They think the world is better than it ever was, they think that it’s improved enough. However, when you look at the average sub-Saharan or Middle-Eastern person, things aren’t that neat. Lots and lots of people, adults and children, live their lives in extreme poverty, from the beginning till the end. So it is a rhetoric question asking: ”Are your happy with your life?” You’d better ask: “Are you afraid of death?” Because it’s understandable that the most of these people aren’t happy with their (most of the time) short lives.
Okay, this sounds a bit extreme. Let’s put ourselves in a situation equal to one of those 5,71 billion people who live on less than 3 U.S. dollars a day. Imagine yourself that you can’t buy all the food you need to support your family. You work extremely hard for just a tiny amount of money. You live your whole life in fear because you know that at any time rebellions can storm in to take over your village in protest to the government. And you’ll have to know; extremists who handle out of pure hate don’t take account of who they kill and let alive. Well actually that’s a lie; extremists who fight against their corrupt governments do plan whom they kill and not. Women and very young children will be killed. But middle-aged men and children as young as eleven are good fighters. So they train them to kill and to let them do whatever they want them to do.
All this sceptic thoughts I wrote above, refer to the subject that was given to me. It literally said: How has the world become a better place to live in and what more can we do to improve it? I think this subject is completely wrong: The world has become a better place for only 30% of the world’s population. This percentage includes people from North-America, Australia and Europe. In those parts of the world, the normal standards for education, health and safety are reached or excelled. For the other 70% of the world, one, two or all of those three standards aren’t reached by far. In my opinion, the world hasn’t become a better place. The ‘western’ countries have just developed faster than all of the other countries. And as far as it concerns the ‘tiger countries’, it only applies to the happy few. So I think the world has become better for few of us in all those thousands of years, the balance between poor and rich in poor countries is only more and more imbalanced.
However, in the last fifty years there have been some really positive changes in the world. For example: A baby born in 1960 had a 20% chance of dying before her 5th birthday. For a child born today, it’s under 5%. This percentage has dropped so much because of the development aid given by the western countries. In my opinion, development aid is a very useful way to better the world we live in because it will accelerate the development of the poor countries. With a faster development these countries will get a stronger economy, there are less reasons for corruption and the population of the country will get a better life, maybe a life that’s worth living for.
However, in most of the poor countries a strong economy doesn’t mean there are more people who make more money. Most of the time only the top of the population (approx. 5-15%) will earn significantly more. These are the people who help the statistic percentages up. This unbalancing in rich-poverty rate is called GINI. Because of this unbalancing, the statistics increase positive, but the wrong picture for a country is created.
In conclusion I think that the world is never really bettered. Only the western countries have significantly developed more. The other, more poor countries haven’t. I think in this countries it is the other way around: the difference between the rich and poor in underdeveloped countries has only become bigger and bigger because the money that should be used by the government as development aid, is used by the government itself to strengthen the position of the top of the society in those countries. The sub-Saharan, Asian and other poor countries do show positive increases on some statistics. But this is only because the top of the society earns more and more money. Because of this unfair distribution of money there is a lot of hate in poor countries. This leads to conflicts as currently seen in Syria and Mali. I think the GINI problem can never be solved if their isn’t going to be in change in their governments.