Special Report: Poor vs. Rich : A New Global Conflict

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less spiritual. But I suppose this is a price we all pay." Moreover, the image of underdeveloped countries as idyllic Arcadias despoiled by contact with the First World is a myth. Disease, famine and violence (sometimes even cannibalism) were rampant in primitive societies; inequality of wealth and power was the rule rather than the exception. Almost all the underdeveloped nations were poor before industrialization began in the North, and they cannot blame their continued Impoverishment on the First World's success.

It is also fallacious to blame the poor countries' lack of self-sufficiency on waste and overconsumption by the rich. The First World may indeed consume a greater share of the planet's output than is warranted by its share of the population; but it produces a greatly disproportionate share of the world's manufactured goods, surplus commodities, inventions and technology.

How should the Third World redress these grievances, real and imagined? There are many solutions, offered with varying degrees of reason and logic by spokesmen for poor nations, but they all come down to one. As Economist Samuel Parmar sums it up: "The developed nations must accept a new lifestyle." At the U.N., the Group of 77 has proposed that the First World double or triple its financial-aid contributions. Such capital transfers, moreover, should no longer be voluntary, but mandated—perhaps by a tax on commodities. Under this proposed "new order," national currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and German mark, would be phased out as reserves held by central banks. In their place would be the Special Drawing Rights (S.D.R.s) issued by the International Monetary Fund. The principle governing distribution of the S.D.R.s should not be maintenance of international monetary stability, as it is now, but promotion of the development of poor countries.

The LDCs insist on tariff preferences for their exports and that the First World ban production of potentially competitive synthetics and substitutes. The purchasing power of the poor should be protected from any sharp decline in the value of their community exports by "indexing"—setting a fixed relationship between the price of the developing countries' raw materials and the price of the First World's manufactured goods.

Spokesmen for developing countries privately concede that they do not expect all of the proposed "new order" to be accepted. Even so, the poor states' demands—if only because of the new strength of their voices—constitute an agenda for action that the rich must confront. After long dismissing LDC demands as unrealistically shrill, Washington is now ready to talk about a number of them. "We have heard your voices. We will join your efforts," Secretary of State Kissinger told the U.N. last September in a speech read for him by Moynihan. In it, the U.S. offered more than two dozen measures aimed at improving the poor countries' prospects for growth (TIME, Sept. 15). Washington also agreed to attend this week's ministerial-level Paris Conference on International Economic Cooperation, backing down from its original insistence that the agenda be limited to energy matters. The 27 delegations* are now empowered to establish commissions to deal with the problems of trade, economic development and international finances