Some readers may have noticed a book called “If the World Were a Village of 100 People” in the bookstores. Frankly, though I helped write the book ( I did the English translation ), I am wondering why so many people are buying it.
The book gives a portrait of the situation of the world’s people. By imagining the world as a village of 100 people, the statistics become vivid. The statistics showing the rich-poor gap shocked many readers. The numbers show that most of the world’s wealth is controlled by a minority, while the majority have little.
I think part of the shock effect comes from the word “village.” A village is not just a crown of people. A village is a group of families living together. Traditionally, villagers distribute wealth pretty fairly and help each other. You cannot find a village where some people have nice houses and others no shelter, where some people have access to clean water and others don’t. In short, a real village that has the statistics of the “100-person village” does not exist.
Missing from the book is an explanation of how the rich-poor gap has come into being. Do the poor live in regions with fewer resources? No. Is it because the poor don’t work hard? This is not true. Is it because the poor countries are less “developed”? Many people believe this, but it is a great mistake. Since the project of “developing the underdeveloped countries” began in 1949, the rich-poor gat has widened. In 1960, the wealthiest 20 percent of the world’s people had incomes 30 times that of the poorest 20 percent. By 1990 the gap had doubled: 60 to 1.
“Development” doesn’t get rid of poverty; it brings poor people into the world economic system, and uses their poverty to create wealth, which most benefits ― guess who?
Should we, who live in one of the wealthy countries, feel guilty? Not at all. People are nor responsible for where they are born, but only for what they do, or fail to do. But it does mean that our “100-person village” is both unjust and unstable. And so there is much to be done, many changes to be made, before we can call it a decent and safe place to live.
