WEEK 5 Jan 21st to 27th 2002

   20 PERCENT OF EU-CHILDREN IMPOVERISHED

   Almost 17 million children and youths below the age of 18 live in poverty in the European Union, a new report is showing. That is 20 percent of the children. The situation is worst in Great Britain, where 25 percent are existing below the poverty limit line, the report from the children rights organization Euronet shows.
   The report is exposing a quagmire of misplaced funds and misplaced goals and priorities. Figures show that just a slight shift in funding and priorities from military and industrial budgets would correct a lot of the injustices. At the very least it would surely slow down the escalating number of both adult and juvenile homeless. So the question is: Why doesn't the spending governments do it?
   One well-known answer is that society needs impoverished people, needs to have someone to point at as a warning to an increasingly grumpy work force and disillusioned population.