most UN organizations. Even at UPU there used to be discussion about how rich Western nations could support poor nations in improving their postal services. In December 1961, at the UN Assembly in New York, US President had boldly declared that “Sixties will be a decade of development.” The intention was to reduce global discrepancies. It was targeted that the annual national income of the poor (“developing” was the euphemistically used word) countries would increase at the rate of 5% per year in that decade. However, the statistics in 1970 revealed that this growth was barely 2%. In the same decade, the rich developed countries had grown at a much faster rate; inequality had increased. Then in 1970, United Nations, during its 25th assembly, declared that seventies would be the “second development decade”. It was targeted that during that decade the developing countries should grow at the rate of 6% per year instead of earlier target of 5%. To make it feasible, a resolution was passed that all developed countries would give one per cent of their income to the developing countries as aid. But despite that inequality kept growing rapidly. In 1975 the average income of the developed countries was twenty times the average income of developing countries! Around this time the debate of “aid versus trade” had started globally in a big way. The conditions that accompanied aid and conditions that accompanied trade were both in favour of the developed countries. For instance, when aid was sanctioned it was with a condition that certain percentage of that had to be spent in buying certain goods which were manufactured by the developed countries. In other words the aid was useful in increasing the market for the produce of the developed world. To some extent it was inevitable; because the kind of machinery and technology that was necessary to build the infrastructure in developing countries was available only with the developed countries. Similarly, the prices of Years in Switzerland
Q
63
