Wealth Disparity and Inequality

Pictures of the poor

Wealth Disparity and Inequality

As a Cambodian, I understand there are no quick fixes to the issues wealth disparity and inequality. The recent development, the luxurious buildings and the city life in Phnom-Penh design to create the image of a good life but do not reflect reality for most people. According to the UN report on local development (The Cambodia Daily, 1st July 2010), 3.7 million people estimated to be living below the poverty threshold, and only ten percent of the rural population owns a title of their land. Yet, those people also want decent housings, clean water, good sewage, and electricity. They want justice. They want basic health care. They want education. They want a piece land to grow their crops. They see poverty worsening, corruption spreading, and inefficiency rampant. The widening gap between the rich and the poor expands and rising inequality persists to the highest level. It is pity and heartbreaking that our present government doesn’t acknowledge the problem and try to find the real solutions. Here, once again the government is more interested in assigning blame than fixing problems for the poor. The leader doesn’t seem to acknowledge and grasp the legitimate issues raised by the UN, let alone be genuinely prepared to make the right and strategic decisions to help those really in desperate needs by looking into the validity and recommendation of the report. As we all know actions always speak louder than words and what the poor needed now is concrete actions. May ALL see the truth of what really happened.