Jordan Wilson
11/18/10
4:15pm
The United Nations Development Programme director for Latin America, Heraldo Muñoz, said that despite a few countries making progress, in general, Latin American countries are “champions” of inequality at a global level. He goes on to say that this inequality has negative impacts on the people, economy and society, and that this is why inequality should be a priority on the political agenda. Latin American countries have been trying to alleviate poverty and make them more equal, but food and economic crises have set them back. Muñoz believes that “it is necessary to recover good levels of equality, education, and health, and to create instruments that efficiently reach the poorest populations and strengthen the effectiveness of policies.” Of the world’s 15 most unequal countries, 12 of them are in Latin America. Muñoz says that there is a problem with structurally weak institutions of democracy that may also feed into the lack of progress in the fight against poverty.
It is good that the UN director recognizes where they are weak in the goal for worldwide equality because it means that these weaknesses and problems can be addressed. The director, Muñoz, makes several good points and observations, such as the admittance that food and economic crises play large roles in this journey to equality and that this should be a priority for every country. It amazed me to read that based on the Human Development Index for inequality, the first Latin American country is Uruguay and it came in the 41st place, after the most unequal country in Europe. This simple fact helps paint the picture of the more stable global North and the unequal global south. Two things confused me, however. First, the last paragraph mentions something called the G192, in the context that the region of Latin America should start using it since now it is chaired by Argentina. I have no idea what a G192 is and I think it would help to have a description of what it is and what it’s used for in order for me, and for most people, to understand the paragraph. Secondly, this, like many of the articles I’ve done thus far, has a lot of facts about what country is doing what, which is incredibly helpful. But what it’s lacking is what to do about these issues that arise. Mr. Muñoz says that it is necessary to have good levels of equality, education, and health, and that instruments should be made to reach poor populations. But he does not mention how he thinks these things should happen. It is very frustrating.
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