THE UK, ONE OF THE RICHEST NATIONS IN THE WORLD!!

In spite of the UK being one of the richest nations in the world there are some very shocking figures coming to light. The latest figures indicate that there are 2 million of its citizens suffering malnutrition. Almost half of all patients in care or residential homes and one third of those attending out-patient clinics and GP surgeries are not getting enough to eat. Malnutrition affects up to 14% of the elderly living at home. It seems that malnutrition is not restricted to the Third World, in the UK it is on the increase, but hidden by the State’s spin and act with smoke and mirrors, also its obsession with obesity, ( we are all getting too much.)
In Scotland, that poorer part of Britain, during the 2003/04 winter there were 2,900 cold related deaths among the elderly, an increase of 400 on the previous year, the worst figures in Europe. People who were just too poor to heat themselves. All this happening and Scottish and Southern Energy, whose profits jumped 11% to Ł267.9 million, in line with other energy companies, have increased their prices.
Almost half of all Scottish pensioners are living in poverty. Debt counselors have stated that the number of pensioners facing debt problems has doubled in the last ten years. During the same period the council tax has shot up 81% while pensions have risen by only 40%. In Scotland 300,000 households are trying to get by on an income of less than Ł10,000 a year, 34,000 (1.6% of the adult working population) are still being paid below the minimum rate. In that citadel of consumerism, Glasgow, the life expectancy of the average male is 69.1 years, the only city in the UK where it is below 70. Add to that the fact that 41% of all households in Glasgow are living in poverty.
If this is not an indictment of the system and those who manage it, then what is. Surely if we took control of our own lives, commonsense and compassion would drive us to devise a system of social justice and eliminate these gross injustices that are the product of a system that is driven by profit and greed.

WORLD POVERTY IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY.

The 1996 UN figures for the number of children who die from starvation in the world worked out at 18 every minute of every day. With the developed world promising to pour more money and resources into this problem and the vast increase from “charities”, by 2001 the number of child deaths had risen to 22 every minute of every day. Add to this the fact that 13 million children are facing winters of sub-zero temperatures with nothing to keep them warm and may not survive. Meanwhile the developed world is stock piling food and resources in a crazy system of profit and greed. Unicef states that Ł2 a month could provide 5 children with blankets, buy 28 oral re-hydration salt sachets that could save the lives of 9 children suffering from diarrhoeal dehydration, supply 2 boxes of high energy biscuits, (more than a weeks supply for a malnourished child), or provide vaccines to immunise 5 children against measles, polio, tetanus, whooping cough diphtheria and TB. It will not happen, there is no profit in to be made from the poor. Our system would rather spend millions on fighter planes and aircraft carriers as these bring huge profits to the manufacturers and are paid from tax payers money. How long can we accept this system?