In a capitalistic world, most of us assume our status to be ‘free’ when in reality we do not own the means to shape our respective lives. In everyday activities of ours, we protest against injustice, and yet duly serve the unjust masters.
Such struggles in human lives have forever existed. And yet at the same time, not all beings are equally affected owing to exclusive historical benefits. However, the reality is that majority of people in every epoch of history have suffered at the hands of a small minority of owning class. Which is why, some among us have constantly tried to remind the world of the collective human struggles led by the economically poor to attain betterment for all. Lest we consider only our respective privileges and view the world from those lenses, it is imperative that we address ourselves to the critical thoughts that have not forgotten the majority of the world.
This website then, has two purposes:
1. To bring forth all the thoughts which have been critical of the ruling anti-people elites. An incisive and painstakingly critical understanding of history alone can lead us to create a better future world.
2. Critical School is perhaps variously attributed to different kinds of academic endeavors that have been elitist at their best. Many “left” thoughts have actually left out the majority of potential actors from their deliberately inaccessible scripts. Acknowledging this inherent contradiction, that of theory-buildings on behalf of people who are bereft of their knowledge, we will try our best to make critical education a tool of empowerment for the most.
Thank you for showing support, and solidarity.
Saswat Pattanayak
Critical School - the school where you UnLearn
WORLD STATISTICS:
WHY WE NEED REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES
★ The top .01% (14,000) families in the U.S. now own 22.2% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 90% (around 133 million) families, a mere 4%.
★ Out of 6.2 billion people in the world today, 1.2 billion live on less that $1 per day. 70% of these people are women and girls. One half of the world population lives on less than $2 per day. 160 million live on less than 50 cents. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
★ The World Health Organization estimates that 1/3 of the world population is well-fed, 1/3 is under-fed, and 1/3 is starving.
★ Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read or write.
★ A quarter of the world population lives without electricity.
★ The GDP of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world's 7 richest people combined.
★ Approximately half the world's population lives in cities and towns. By 2005, one out of three of urban dwellers was living in slum conditions, approximately 1 billion or 1/6 of the world's population.
★ There are about 14 million refugees (estimates range from 11 to 17 million) and 26 million internally displaced people (2007) in more than 50 countries.
★ 12 million people die each year from lack of water, including 3 million children from water-born disease. 1.1 billion lack access to clean water; 2.6 billion live without decent sanitation; 4 billion without waste water disposal-that's approximately 1/6, 1/3 and 2/3 of the world's population respectively. The poorest 10% accounted for .5% and the wealthiest 10% for 59% of all consumption.
★ In 2007 global GDP was $47 trillion. The top 250 companies in the world had combined sales of $14.87 trillion, that's 1/3 of global GDP and exceeds the GDP of the USA and EU. The combined sales of the top 5 companies of $1.5 trillion is larger than the GDP of all but 7 countries.
★ One Measure of the Bubble: The gross amount of financial transactions amounts to two thousand trillion dollars, while the world GDP is only 44 thousand trillion.
★ The UN Development program estimates that only $13 billion is what is needed to provide for the health and nutritional needs of the world's poorest people. There are now over 1000 billionaires in the world. The net worth of the richest thousand or so is about twice that of the poorest 2.5 billion people on the earth. The poorest 10% accounted for .5% and the wealthiest 10% for 59% of all consumption.