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Introduction:

During colonization, Latin America, Asia and Africa served as raw material 
producers. Mines and land were taken by colonizers, and people were used and 
misused by governments and companies from the imperial countries. Today, many 
countries in Latin America, Asian and Africa are still raw material producers. They 
do not have any substantial production of finished products for sale domestically or 
internationally. Instead they export minerals, oil, timber, and fruit, to the rich part of 
the world, and they import the refined products back for much higher prices since 
labor costs and profits are added. 
 
Many poor countries have few products they export, for example Ghana still has 
cocoa as their main export product. This is what is called a mono-culture and makes 
the country more vulnerable to world markets prices, since they do not have many 
other products to rely on. 
 
There are different ways to measure poverty and wealth. 
 
GDP (gross domestic product) is one, here all values of products and services 
produced in a country are measured. This figure does not say anything about how 
the values are distributed. In 2009, USA had the highest GDP of 14,119 billion 
USD, Japan the second biggest of 5,069 billion USD, and China the third biggest of 
4,986 billion USD. The whole of Sub-Saharan Africa had a GDP of 837 billion 
USD. 
 
Purchase Power Parity, ppp, is measure of how much money you need for buying a 
basket of food. Here what you can get for your money is reflected. You need more 
in one country than in another because of different prices of goods and services. 
 
Human Development Index, HDI, is another way to measure wealth and poverty, 
taking more factors than economy into consideration. The following factors are 
measured: life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living. In 2010, 
Norway was leading; Iceland was number 2 and Australia 3. Of the lowest 40 
countries on the HDI-list worldwide, 30 were in Africa. 
 
The Gini Index is another way of measuring inequalities of distribution of income 
or wealth within a country. It is a measure of the gap between the rich and the poor. 
 
Measurements of poverty and wealth are published annually by UN agencies. This 
might open eyes of some, but the fact remains that the rich are getting richer while 
the poor remain poor. 
 
The obvious conclusion &ndash; that the rich simply do not want to share their wealth &ndash; is 
never mentioned in speeches by politicians of rich countries. Instead politicians 
declare their good intentions in opening speeches at international conferences &ndash; 
while avoiding to follow up on their words.

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