A WORLD DIVIDED

Never before has the world been both so integrated and so divided. But for a big proportion of the world's population the ongoing march of globalisation is irrelevant. Theirs remain lives of quiet desperation. The Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme, reminds the affluent of some harsh facts about the world they live in. As it notes: 1. By 1997, the fifth of the world's people who live in high-income countries generated 86 per cent of world product; the bottom fifth produced 1 per cent. 2. The top fifth generated 82 per cent of world exports; the bottom fifth produced just 1 per cent. 3. The top fifth make up 93 per cent of the world's internet users; the poorest fifth are 0.2 per cent. 4. Ten countries accounted for 84 per cent of global research and development in 1993.