It is no secret that we live in a two-speed world, but the alarming truth for millions in today's world is that the other speed is reverse, writes Paul Cullen.
This is the core truth of this year's UN Human Development report, which was launched with great ceremony in Dublin yesterday.
Each year, the report charts the snail-like progress of nations towards a decent standard of living. Generally things have been getting better over time in most regions. Not so this time. The latest report shows just how disastrous the 1990s were for millions of people, with over 50 nations growing poorer. Some 21 countries have more people going hungry. In 14, more children are dying before the age of five. Life expectancy has fallen in 34 countries.
Yet the 1990s marked a period of sustained boom in many Western countries (nowhere more so than in Ireland). Unimaginable amounts of wealth were created and, in most cases, shared out more unequally than ever before (again, nowhere more so than in Ireland). Income inequality has risen to grotesque levels, as the report points out. The richest 5 per cent of the world's people receive 114 times the income of the poorest 5 per cent. The richest 1 per cent receives as much as the poorest 57 per cent. The 25 million richest Americans have as much income as almost 2 billion of the world's poorest people.
Even in those countries that have done well, such as China and India, increased wealth has brought with it growing disparities in income.
It is no longer a world of "haves and "have-nots", therefore, but one of "haves" and "have-less".
What, then, is the point of industry, technology, political discourse and all that we include under the rubric of "progress" if it does not lead to meaningful human progress in the lives of millions of poor people?
Ironically, given these challenges, the 1990s found the West at its most insouciant. It wasn't just the refusal to intervene in gruesome catastrophes, such as Rwanda's genocide; aid spending by the rich countries fell throughout the decade.
It is of course lazy and inadequate to say in response to these challenges only that "something must be done". However, the UN isn't proposing simplistic solutions and has learned from past mistakes, so its proposals cannot be dismissed. To start the millennium with a new burst of energy, it formulated a series of Millennium Development Goals. Clear, definable, attainable targets were set, such as halving poverty in the world between 1990 and 2015, or reducing child mortality by two-thirds. World leaders have pledged themselves to meeting these targets.
Role models can be found in the relative successes of some countries. Brazil has performed well, partly thanks to greater decentralisation and the east Asian economies grew during the 1990s. Even in Africa, Ghana and Mozambique achieved some of the world's sharpest reductions in hunger.
Overall, though, the report shows that "the world is already falling short," in the words of UNDP administrator, Mr Mark Malloch Brown. Only the first target, to reduce poverty by half, is likely to be reached, and this only because of sustained economic growth in the world's two most populous countries, China and India.
The Human Development report identifies 59 countries where the goals will not be met, unless urgent action is taken now. These tend to be the countries mired in conflict, afflicted by HIV/AIDS or heavily in debt.
While attention has focused on whether developing countries will reach targets, the real focus should be on the developed world, which has the wealth and power to effect the necessary changes.
There are many ways of skinning this cat. It isn't just about aid, which is starting to increase again after a decade of decline. Even so, current commitments are only about one-seventh of what the UN says is needed to meet the goals. Ireland has shown leadership in this area in recent years, and its aid spending is now almost twice the average of all rich countries. However, we are less imaginative when it comes to trade subsidies and tariffs.
As the UN points out, Western countries provide more than $300 billion in agricultural subsidies each year. The US pays three times as much to its cotton farmers as it gives to Africa. The EU subsidises its dairy cows more than it gives in aid to sub-Saharan Africans.
The report also points to technological inequalities, with only 10 per cent of research and development focusing on the health problems of 90 per cent of the world's people.
It isn't a matter of charity. Neither AIDS nor conflict respects political boundaries. Terrorism is frequently born in conditions of poverty. If people can't make a decent life at home, they will make it elsewhere.
It should have surprised no-one that the four Special Olympics athletes who failed to return home from Ireland (12th place on the Human Development Index with an annual per capita income of $32,410) came from Niger (174th of 175 countries with an annual per capita income of $890).