by Qutb » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:18 am
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article311066.ece" target="top">The Independent</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>By Paul Vallely <br>Published: 08 September 2005 <br><br>Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality. <br><br>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. <br><br>The document constitutes a stinging attack on US policies at home and abroad in a fightback against moves by Washington to undermine next week's UN 60th anniversary conference which will be the biggest gathering of world leaders in history. <br><br>...<br><br>Decline in health care <br>Child mortality is on the rise in the United States <br><br>For half a century the US has seen a sustained decline in the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>But since 2000 this trend has been reversed.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>Although the US leads the world in healthcare spending - per head of population it spends twice what other rich OECD nations spend on average, 13 per cent of its national income - this high level goes disproportionately on the care of white Americans. It has not been targeted to eradicate large disparities in infant death rates based on race, wealth and state of residence. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The infant mortality rate in the US is now the same as in Malaysia</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/44/442/442636/sp852a33_Art.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>"Everything's going according to plan." <p><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:black;font-family:century gothic;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Qutb means "axis," "pole," "the center," which contains the periphery or is present in it. The qutb is a spiritual being, or function, which can reside in a human being or several human beings or a moment. It is the elusive mystery of how the divine gets delegated into the manifest world and obviously cannot be defined.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><br><br></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=qutb>Qutb</A> at: 9/8/05 8:27 am<br></i>
