Inequality between rich and poor highlighted by UN panel
http://news.bahai.org/story/886


UNITED NATIONS, 7 February 2011, (BWNS) – While the economic crisis has led
many to focus on inequalities at the national level, the extremes between
rich and poor internationally have also grown to become a threat to global
stability.

That was among the themes raised by a panel here, held as part of this
year's session of the UN Commission for Social Development, which runs
until Friday.

Focusing on the Commission's theme of poverty eradication, the
discussion – organized by the Baha'i International Community and
co-sponsored by ATD Fourth World – brought together top-level UN
diplomats, officials from UN agencies, and representatives of
non-governmental organizations.

In his remarks, Ambassador Jorge Valero – Permanent Representative for
Venezuela to the UN and Chair of the Commission for Social Development –
blamed growing inequality on the excesses of global capitalism.

"Inequality and poverty, climate change and the destruction of
ecosystems are outstanding issues on the international agenda," said
Ambassador Valero.

"These calamities can only be effectively addressed by attacking the
structural causes that generate them: a consumerist, selfish and predatory
global system that is based on the commodification of man and nature."

Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic
Development, said that while the issue of inequality is often examined
from the national viewpoint, two-thirds of global inequality stems from
differences between countries.

International differences are "very, very stark," he said, noting
that such inequalities have increased over the last three decades.

"The big promise of financial globalization was that if you ease
restrictions, there will be a free flow of capital, and it will flow from
rich to poor. This didn't happen. Capital flowed uphill, from the poor
to the rich," said Dr. Sundaram.

Other participants in the panel – held on Wednesday 1 February – included:
Isabel Ortiz, Associate Director of Policy and Practice at UNICEF;
Christine Bockstal, Chief of the Technical Cooperation and Country
Operations Group for the Social Security Department of the International
Labour Organization; and Sara Burke, a Senior Policy Analyst at
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Dr. Ortiz reported that the top 20 percent of the world's population
has more than 80 percent of the world's income – but the poorest 20
percent have less than one percent of the global income.

"National redistribution is not enough to address inequality,"
she said. "There is a strong link between high income inequality and
social unrest and economic instability."

In his remarks, Ming Hwee Chong of the Baha'i International Community
(BIC) drew attention to recent remarks made by UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon about income inequality at all levels increasing over the last 25
years and posing a serious barrier worldwide to poverty eradication and
social integration.

Mr. Chong said it is time to ask some critical questions regarding the
relationship between poverty eradication and the economic extremes that
now exist in the world.

Introducing a BIC statement prepared for the Commission, Mr. Chong noted
that relationships of dominance – one nation over another, one race over
another, or one class or gender over another – contribute to inequitable
access to resources and knowledge.

The statement also expresses concern that a "materialistic worldview,
which underpins much of modern economic thinking, reduces concepts of
value, human purpose and human interactions to the self-interested pursuit
of material wealth."

Read the statement here: http://news.bahai.org/sites/news.bahai.org/files/do
cumentlibrary/886_BIC_Statement.pdf

Mr. Chong said that – while much attention has been paid to the political,
policy and transactional dimensions of the current crisis – the aim of the
discussion was to collaborate on "creating a space to dig deeper in
order to bring to the surface some of the underlying assumptions that
shape our economic and social reality."






To read the article online and view photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/886

For the Baha'i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/


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