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Monday, May 08, 2006
Echaves: Counting weight
By Lelani P. Echaves
For seven days, the Internet connection at home was down. For daily surfers, that’s a terrible predicament. Every day my daughters called to follow up; every day they were given a reason different from the previous days’. We so desired to follow the normal course of events instead of bother busy friends, to wait until our turn came up. On the eighth day, however, my girls’ patience went zero balance. Daily surfers themselves, they asked if I could please let out my fangs this time.
Instead, I called up friends for intervention. Two hours after, we were wired once again. To Nimfa and Mon, thank you very much for your assist.
Talks about the forthcoming arrival of the Brangelina baby has certainly brought world attention to Namibia, their chosen country for childbirth. We’re told only that the place they’ve chosen has magnificent sand dunes that stretch all the way on to meet the sea. The imagery is powerful. We’re told that the expectant mother first visited Namibia while filming a movie, and there fell in love with the place.
Except for the easy name-recall by Brangelina association, and it being a young independent state since 15 years ago, Namibia has a population that’s difficult to define. That’s because of deaths associated with high infant mortality, HIV and Aids, etc.
Majority in the list are African countries, but the group also counts in the Asian countries of Thailand, Burma and Cambodia, and some South American countries like Brazil, Honduras and The Bahamas.
Understandably, Namibia is among 32 countries with the lowest life expectancy. While average life expectancy at birth of the world’s population is 64.3 years, Namibia’s is 43.9 years.
In this African country, the couple Brangelina get to have their cake and eat it, too; celebrity treatment and a privacy not assured elsewhere, whether in their own US of A or even Europe. Theirs might be a comfort not available, ironically, to 10 human beings, all billionaires, whose combined national income is, according to the CIA, greater than the combined national income of the 48 poorest countries combined.
If the world’s suffering has not abated markedly, it’s not from lack of information for people who really want to help. The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, for instance, reports that the world’s 225 richest individuals have a combined wealth of over US $1 trillion. This is exactly equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the world’s population. A century ago, the gap between the poorest fifth of the world’s people and the richest fifth was 30:1. Now, this has worsened to 78:1.
Many other ironies abound. Microsoft Corp. reportedly makes US $34 million profit per day. It’s what sub-Saharan Africa pays each day in debt service for interest and capital repayments. Also, the entire African continent has a total population of 600 million. Yet its gross domestic product is less than the assets controlled by the world’s 200 wealthiest individuals.
If beauty-crazy America didn’t spend US $8 billion each year on cosmetics, how could this amount have benefited the world?
For less than that amount, America could’ve provided basic education for everyone in the world. And if Europeans were less ice-cream addicted, where could it use its $11 billion instead? To provide clean water and safe sewers for the world’s population. For the same $16 billion Britain spends to buy 232 new Eurofighters, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa could fully wipe out their debts.
Then there’s basketball legend Michael Jordan. We’re told he got $20 million per year to promote Nike sneakers. The amount is more than the annual income of 30,000 Asian women sewing the sneakers. But to the world of big-budget advertisers, the nameless don’t make cash registers sing.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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