Reforming UN – III

International Political Science Department – 2005 – b. North-South False Dichotomy The huge discrepancy between North and South is emphasized by some scholars, who present a catastrophic picture of the present world: 1.5 billion people in developed countries, having opportunity to live decency; and 5 billion people in developing countries, in a struggle to stay alive. Such unequal distribution of the world wealth is disturbing, and the people’s frustration is used as a main weapon to target the prosperous North establishment. But is that somber statistic as an Armageddon true, and who’s in charge to eradicate this proportion? Let first of all to find the criteria to defining the terms, “North” and “South”. Because we talk about the struggle to survive, the Gross Domestic Product GDP) seems to be the best choice of calculation. The total population of the World, estimated by UN in July 2005 is 6,446,131; the total Gross Domestic Product in 2004 was 55,550 trillion dollars. Table 1 shows the countries with the highest GDP. In this statistic, the European Union is considered as an entity, and its GDP is the total of the national GDP of its members (France, Great Britain, Italy, etc). Nr. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 – Country China India EU USA Brazil Russia Japan Mexico Canada TOTAL Population [million] 1,306.313 1,080.264 456.953 295.734 186.112 143.420 127.417 106.202 32.829 3,735.244 GDP [trillion $] 7.262 3.319 11.650 11.750 1.492 1.408 3.745 1.006 1.023 42.655 Per Capita [$] 5,560 3,072 25,495 39,731 8,017 9,817 29,392 9,472 31,184 – If we take a look at the first nine countries, the $1 trillion seems to be the natural border between North and South. But, if we calculate the world average distribution of GDP per capita, this is around $9,738. A realistic life quality standard is between $9,500 and $5,000 per capita. The countries in this range could be considered the “middle class” of the World. Based on these estimations, the “upper class” population is 1.930 billion, the “middle class” is 2.110 billion, and the poor of the world are 2.870 billion. An Annex containing a table with the population, the national GDP, and the GDP distribution per capita is attached at the end of this analysis. If we take in consideration other factors as the huge economical potential of many countries like: Nigeria, Venezuela, South Africa, Colombia, Argentina, Iraq, Iran, some of them being considered part of the developing countries, than we find out that so named “Dichotomy North-South”, a sharp separation poor-rich by a proportion of 5:1 is just a stereotype, an heuristic device. And this heuristic device is used to increase the frustration of the developing countries against the more developed ones. Terrorist groups or leaders as Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela funnel the popular discontent to promote their aggressive agenda against the democratic world. „That’s crazy, one person with a huge car … that is using up gas and polluting the atmosphere,” Chavez said at a news conference in New York. „The world cannot tolerate this model of development called the American way of life.” But let’s take a look at Zimbabwe, the former British colony Rhodesia one of the most in need African states. Once, Zimbabwe was a country that feed Africa, with over 5000 farms and a flourish agriculture and tourism. Today, 63 percent of the population cannot afford the basic needs and the famine is rampant. Mugabe’s repressive regime is known by human rights abuses, torture of opponents, theft of elections, and racial discrimination. The same “distribution” was in Iraq, where Saddam, his family and the supporter took the power and share the richness, the rest of the people living in fear and misery. A similar situation is finding in North Korea, where one of the most dictatorial regimes caused the die by starvation of almost 2 million people. To conclude, the above examples show that beyond the false dichotomy North-South the main cause of the misery in the impoverished countries is the lack of democracy, mainly by restraining the human rights. The large population in the Less Developed Countries lives in semi-slavery working to produce the richness for a small number of potentates. The bad management and the siphoning of country’s wealth to the people from the circle of power show that the real problem is the wrong and inequitable distribution of the national product. Even if the aid for the country will sum billions, the international help will go not for the people welfare, but to enrich the tyrants and their cliques. Of course it is a difference of development between countries, but the gap becomes smaller every day, because the “North” helps the “South” raising the level of life as a condition “sine qua non” to increase the global consume, and the share of the world wealth to be more equitable. Without such trend, without power to consume, the global development will slow down and the quality of life will degrade constantly, causing a bigger instability worldwide.There are really poor countries members of the UN. Usually we think to the countries from Africa or Asia. These countries need a special attention from the World community, and nobody denies that. Back: Part I. – The analysis of today UN stereotypes 1. Principles of non-intervention 2. Principles of Compensation – International Affirmative Action Next: Part II. – Consideration about the UN transformation 1. Principles for the construction 2. Methods of democratization