~1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.~

 The standard scenario for economic development in a poor country calls for industrialization via investment. In this “top down” view, creating opportunities for employment is the only way to end poverty. But for much of the developing world, increased employment exacerbates migration from the countryside to the cities and creates low-paying jobs in miserable conditions. I firmly believe that, instead, the eradication of poverty starts with people being able to control their own fates. It is not by creating jobs that we will save the poor but rather by providing them with the opportunity to realize their potential. Time and time again I have seen that the poor are poor not because they are lazy or untrained or illiterate but because they cannot keep the genuine returns on their labor.
 Self-employment may be the only solution for such people, whom our economies refuse to hire and our taxpayers will not support. ~
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 I believe it is the responsibility of any civilized society to ensure human dignity to all members and to offer each individual the best opportunity to reveal his or her creativity. Let us remember that poverty is not created by the poor, but by the institutions and policies that we, the better off, have established. We can solve the problem not by means of the old concepts but by adopting radically new ones.

information - http://www.grameenfoundation.org

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from: http://www.zukav.com >> guests >> JeffGates
 While It's certainly true that global capital markets display an uncanny capacity to seek out profitable investments worldwide, that search has left in its wake grotesque social inequities and environmental tragedies. For example, the top one percent of Americans now have more assets than the bottom ninety percent. The UN reports that the world's richest 225 people have assets equal in value to the combined income of the poorest 2.5 billion people. The world's three most well-to-do families own wealth greater than the combined GDP of the 48 poorest countries.

 Last year, the richest fifth of humankind had eighty-two times more income than the poorest fifth. Nearly three-fifths of the 4.7 billion people in developing countries lack basic sanitation facilities. A third lack clean water. Two billion are anemic. Three billion get by on less than $2 per day. World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn cautions that unless we address this "challenge of inclusion," in thirty years five billion people will be living on less than two dollars a day.

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ABC TV news, Jan00 : while the stock mkt. and global economy continue to rise, 11% of bird species, 25% of mammal species, 34% of fish species are endangered.
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