Michael’s Reviews > The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions > Status Update

"... with the backing of the US military, [Israel] asserted total control over the aquifers beneath the [occupied] territory. Israel draws the majority of this water — close to 90 per cent — for its own use in settlements and for irrigation on large industrial farms."

"The sign announced a USAID initiative ‘to help alleviate recurring water shortages’ by adding a new well in the area. It was branded with the American flag and bore the proud words: “This project is a gift from the American People to the Palestinian People"... But Palestine doesn’t have a shortage of water. When Israel invaded and occupied the West Bank in 1967..."

"The charity paradigm obscures the real issues at stake: it makes it seems as though the West is 'developing the global South, when in reality the opposite is true. Rich countries aren't developing poor countries, poor countries are effectively developing rich countries - and they have been since the late 15th century. So it's not only that the aid narrative misunderstands what really causes poverty, it's backwards."

"Three trillion dollars in total net outflows per year is twenty-four times more than the annual aid budget. In other words, for every dollar of aid that developing countries receive, they lose $24 in net outflows."

"In 2012, developing countries received a little over $2 trillion, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But more than twice that amount, some $5 trillion, flowed out of [poorer nations]. In other words, developing countries 'sent' $3 trillion more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $26.5 trillion."

Hickel is immediately on-target, identifying that the massive divide between the global South and the global North, between the massive over-exploited population of oppressed nations and those in the wealthy core, is not from a lack of institutions or targeted policies, but rather the extraction of wealth and shutting out from global market by the north. The "Development" scheme from the US/WB/IMF is false.