May/June 2006

Column

Global Balance :
Before you finish eating breakfast this morning...

you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tungsten filament from Bolivia: Due to privatization, companies started importing toxic waste from Europe, and environmental degradation greatly increased due to the operations of recently privatized mining companies.

Clothes from Pakistan: The Gross National Product (GNP) per capita is US$740; infant mortality is 136 per 1000 live births (in the US it is 7 per 1000).

Teak furniture from Indonesia: Much of Indonesia suffers from deforestation. Indonesians make less than US$650 annually. The government has a policy called transmigrasi which moves people to less populated areas of Java, destroying their culture and way of life.

Basebal glove from Haiti: The GNP per capita is US$410 with an annual inflation rate of 23 percent in the 1990s. Only 37 percent of Haitians have reasonable access to safe water.

Rubber from Thailand: Deforestation has resulted in decreased rubber production which has contributed to migration to cities. Cities suffer from a serious pollution problem caused by industry, automobile emissions, lack of proper waste disposal and unrestricted industrial growth.

Radio assembled in Vietnam: Although Vietnam has recently become more market-oriented, on average Vietnamese workers earn only US$350 annually. The per capita external debt is $288. Only 45 percent of the Vietnamese people have reasonable access to safe water.

Bastenite from Burundi: Life expectancy in Burundi is 43 years.

Coffee from Honduras: The per capita GNP is US$740, but per capita external debt is US$814.

Cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire: Life expectancy is 47 years, and, though agreements among companies are in place to change this, many cocoa growers used forced child labor.

Electricity from coal mined in Martin County, Kentucky: The median income in Martin County is 50 percent below the Kentucky average. Over 37 percent of the people live below the poverty line in some of the worst housing conditions in the country.

Beef from Buffalo County, South Dakota: Four of the five counties with the highest rate of US child poverty are in South Dakota. Around 60 percent of the children in these four counties live in poverty.

Bananas from Dominica: With 9.3 percent of land suitable for crops, Dominica uses 10,000 kilograms of chemical fertilizer annually per hectare (Canada uses 604; the US uses 1,142.) Dominica receives an average of US$263.6 per capita in foreign aid.

Lumber (for the house) from British Columbia, Canada: Restrictive US softwood lumber tariffs and economic policies of the BC government have created the second highest poverty rate in Canada. Until recently, British Columbia was one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada.

Tuna and beef from Somalia: Extensive agricultural land use has led to desertification. Explosives used for catching fish has irreparably damaged the coastal ecosystem. Over 74 endangered mammal, plant and bird species live in Somalia. Despite exporting food, tens of thousands of people have died from recent famines there.

Pineapples from the Philippines: People in the Philippines receive over US$2 billion dollars a year from the estimated 2.4 million Filipinos working abroad as housekeepers and nannies.

Sugar from Costa Rica: 75 percent of infants aged one-to-two years old have some degree of anemia.

Note: The information given here was compiled by Craig Harding, a junior high social studies teacher in Calgary, Alberta in Canada. He teaches various university courses, including those which address global education. A major source was The World Guide: An alternative reference to the countries of our planet 2001/2002; Oxford, England: New Internationalist Publications, 2001. For more information, go to International Federation of Alternative Trade; Transfair International (tfi @ oln.comlink.apc.org); Transfair USA; Network of European World Shops (EUNEWS @ worldonline.nl); Fair Trade Federation; Co-op America; SERVV International; Ten Thousand Villages; Equal Exchange. This graphic design is adapted from art by Erin Kennedy Mayer. The Breakfast Poster is updated from 1987, copyright 2005, Seeds of Hope Publishers. Used with permission.

©2006 Fellowship of Reconciliation