Oleg Ignatkin: Global Inequality - Problems Unsolved

There is no state of denial that global inequality exists- commentators are daily quoting statistics on miserable state of poor countries. Still, morally, there is something here, that doesn’t correspond to our moral beliefs – that is, there is something wrong that some people can afford exorbitant lifestyles, whereas others are destitute and miserable.

And I don’t speak about millions here, oh no, here we speak about a billion people, who live at the condition of 1 dollar a day. It is their conditions that require from us some attitude.

Let’s look at the measures, they are clearly insufficient. Aiding poor countries aggravates the riches elites, but what about the poor populations? Bread riots, indignados, financial bubbles, surprised IMF and World Bank, these all are intrinsic qualities, accompanying modern world. Postcolonial warfare is a new old-fashioned quality of the modern world as well – imposing democratic regime on the willing and not so, propagating westernization as sole panacea, more resembling mission civilizatrice, rather than concise multilateralism. The latter’s beyond reach.

Oleg Ignatkin, Associate professor, PhD. Department of Foreign policy and area studies.