“Not Everyone Has Been Invited to the Party”
THE Human Development Report 1998, an annual report compiled by the UN Development Programme, or UNDP, focused on the world’s unprecedented boom in consumption. It revealed that, globally speaking, we now spend six times as much on economic goods as we did in 1950 and twice as much as we did in 1975. Despite this boom in consumption, UNDP executive director, James Gustave Speth, says: “Not everyone has been invited to the party.”
To illustrate: The richest 20 percent of the world population eat seven times as much fish as the poorest 20 percent of the people in the world. The richest 20 percent also consume 11 times as much meat, use 17 times as much energy, have 49 times as many telephone lines, use 77 times as much paper, and possess 149 times as many cars as the poorest 20 percent of the world.
Commenting on these findings, UN Radio noted that in order to slow the decline of the earth’s natural resources, the industrialized world needs to change its consumption patterns. At the same time, richer countries need to share more of their wealth with the world’s poor so that they can also benefit more from earth’s resources. How much wealth sharing would be needed?
Mr. Speth calculates that if the industrialized countries were to double their present level of development assistance—from $50 billion to $100 billion a year—all the poor around the world would be able to enjoy food, health, education, and shelter. Now $50 billion may sound like a lot of money. But, reminds Mr. Speth: “It’s the amount that Europe spends annually on cigarettes, and it’s half of what the US spends today on alcoholic beverages.”
Clearly, then, a concerted effort to share the resources of this planet more evenly would go a long way in bringing an end to painful poverty. What is needed to make this happen? One UN official observed: “What is required in the final analysis is the transformation of hearts, minds and wills.” Most people agree but also realize that today’s policy-making organizations, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, are unable to perform such transformations, much less root out qualities like greed.
Nevertheless, for people who are concerned about the future of the human family and of our planet, there is hope. It is heartening to know that the earth’s Creator has promised to deal effectively with man’s problems. The psalmist foretold: “The earth itself will certainly give its produce; God, our God, will bless us. There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth; on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.” (Psalm 67:6; 72:16) Yes, then each one of earth’s inhabitants will be “invited to the party”!