Human Wrongs Watch
Geneva – The UN and its partners called for $7.7 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 51 million people in 16 countries over the course of next year.
Just for comparative purposes, it is estimated that the U.S. has spent some $4 trillion spent on its war on Iraq, while the world spends well over 1,6 trillion dollars a year on weapons.
At the same time, the nine nuclear-armed nations will spend in 2011 an estimated US$105 billion maintaining and modernizing their nuclear weapons, according to Tim Wright, from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
“Millions of people will be affected by emergencies caused or worsened by the impact of climate change, insecurity over food and water, economic and political crises, migration, urbanization and rapid population growth,” UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said at the launch of the appeal on December 14.