Can Star Power Save Latin America's Poor? - by Marcela Sanchez
It's certainly unusual and perhaps unprecedented that a Nobel Prize-winning author, one of the world's most popular Latin American singers, and the world's third-richest man would join forces. But under the new Latin America Solidarity Action Foundation (ALAS), notables such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Shakira and telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, intend, in the words of the Colombian writer, to help take "a formidable leap toward a Latin America of equals."
Reducing inequality couldn't be a more fitting cause in the world's most unequal region. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the richest tenth of the population earns 48 percent of total income, while the poorest tenth earns only 1.6 percent. World Bank researchers have found that in the two decades between the 1970s and the 1990s, the Gini coefficient, a standard measure of inequality, was nearly 10 points higher in Latin America than in Asia, and 20.4 points higher than in Eastern Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment