Third World Order

It's become clearer and clearer in the last week that John Edwards was right. There are "Two Americas" in existence today.

If you still doubt it, perhaps the latest UN report will change your mind:

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality.

Claims that the New Orleans floods have laid bare a growing racial and economic divide in the US have, until now, been rejected by the American political establishment as emotional rhetoric. But yesterday's UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare.

(snip)

The annual Human Development Report normally concerns itself with the Third World, but the 2005 edition scrutinises inequalities in health provision inside the US as part of a survey of how inequality worldwide is retarding the eradication of poverty.

It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday.

It's sad when the richest nation in the world has child poverty and death numbers that rival those in underdeveloped countries. One has to wonder how long the media and America will be able to focus on this issue and begin calling for change. I;m not that hopeful it will happen anytime soon.