I stopped for a few minutes to think about something I had read in Jimmy Carter’s book, “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis.” The former president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author, is one of the planet’s most respected voices in the areas of human rights, diplomacy and good government. And when a clearly agitated Carter suggests America is on a slippery slope, globally speaking — as he does throughout his book — it is wise to pay heed.
He compared the average annual income of middle class families in the US — some $55,000 — with more than half the world’s population who survive on less than two dollars a day and the 1.2 billion people surviving on less than a single dollar per day.
Carter doesn’t like much what he sees. His book outlines his worldviews while pondering what he posits are key problems for the 21st century.
He talks about the challenges of the new millennium and the increasing struggle between the rich and the poor because there is a huge gap and imbalance between the two. At the beginning of the 20th century, the 10 richest countries were nine times richer than the 10 poorest countries of the world. In 1960, the ratio was 1:30 and at the beginning of the 21st century, the average income of an individual in the richest 20 countries was $27,591 and in the poorest countries $211.
Carter then reviews the different levels of poverty in most of the poorest countries of the world where he has opened branches of the Carter Center.
The Carter Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. It is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering.
One of the most important issues that Carter discusses in his book is related to his country’s policies in offering help to poor countries. He believes that these support attempts amount to very little in comparison to his country’s wealth and to the real needs of the countries that suffer so much poverty and sickness — especially when the help is tied to political and military restrictions.
“Sharing wealth with those who are starving and suffering unnecessarily is a value by which a nation’s moral values are measured,” he writes.
He calculates on the basis of America’s $11 trillion gross national income that the US government and people together give as aid about 22 cents for every hundred dollars. In Carter’s analysis, the heartless side of capitalism has entered the body politic of America.
Some of the facts Carter mentions explains that the budget dedicated to outside support to fight malaria, for instance, is $9 million with 95 percent of this spent on consultants and less than five percent spent on medications, insecticide and mosquito nets.
There are many crucial and contemporary issues the United States has adopted since the 9/11 attacks. They are related to human rights violations in the name of anti-terrorism campaigns and how these have deprived the US of its values and defamed its reputation. Fear of more terrorism attacks was the umbrella used to excuse violating the rights of Guantanamo prisoners and torturing them.
Carter explains many tragedies that were committed against innocent people and says that these defamed the face of America and destroyed its morals and values.
