The American Third World

Earlier last month, the United Nations released the 2005 Human Development Reports, an annual report that usually deals with the status of poverty, inequality, and development in the “Third World.” However, this year’s report, in an effort to analyze on how inequality around the world is slowing down the process of the eradication of poverty, the reports decided to add a focus on a country they normally mention in passing: the United States of America.

Focusing on the inequalities on the availability of health care in the USA, the report tears apart the American pro-military policy and the lack of the proper distribution of health resources. I strongly suggest you read the report, as it details how America’s infant mortality rate is the same as Malaysia’s and other very interesting yet sobering facts.

It’s true that the public outrage after Hurricane Katrina disaster response has been influential in exposing these inequalities with the USA, and this report is further proof that instead of trying to fix the world through military occupation, maybe Americans - and perhaps all of us - should try and fix our own problems first.