ABSTRACT
Poverty is an inherently political subject. Not only does it define the extent to which one has opportunity or access to material resources, it also defines relative power status. The poor are invariably the disempowered; they are the least able to alter their circumstances. The reduction in poverty in monetary, if not wider, terms from 37 per cent in 1990 was in large part due to the economic progress of China, with absolute poverty at an historically low 6.5 per cent. Since World War II, which presaged decolonisation and the broadly conceived development paradigm, global wealth has increased while global distribution of that wealth became increasingly unequal. The world has never seen a greater accumulation of wealth, or a more extensive escape from material deprivation. During the 1980s, the global debt crisis escalated as surplus investment funds were made available subsequent to the massive hike in world oil prices in the 1970s.
