An. A. GROMYKO

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords: poverty, hunger, globalization, UN Charter, global conflict, multiculturalism

The unsightly facet of globalization is the poverty and hunger that accompany humanity. Poverty is widespread not only in developing countries, usually the poorest, but also in developed countries, even rich ones, where it would seem that it should not exist. The entire second half of the twentieth century was spent trying to overcome poverty and hunger, to put an end to the situation when hundreds of millions of people are not able to provide themselves with a decent existence. These goals have not been achieved, and the "poor billion" has every chance to remain so for many years to come.

About the attitude towards the poor, even in rich countries, including in England, the English scientist W. Hutton frankly said: "Instead of helping the poor, society found it easier to revile, ridicule and even fear them. This reduces feelings of guilt and responsibility for the fate of others. After all, we tell ourselves, the poor have a choice. They can succeed if they want to. They don't deserve help, because they drink, smoke, loaf, and often resort to violence... Britain has a tradition of looking at the poor as a different race... " and it doesn't deserve ^any help1. Neocolonial Britain feels the same way about poor countries.

All of the 1970s and 1980s were marked by expectations that the fall of colonialism would bring prosperity, if not abundance, to developing countries. That didn't happen. The world community is steadily divided into rich and poor countries, and the "development gap" has taken on gigantic proportions; such recognition has become a kind of "classic". I will quote in this regard the statement:"...most Earthlings live in poverty and deprivation, the scale of which is difficult for residents of rich countries to even imagine. How could such an absurd and morally unbearable situation arise?" This was said not by a Marxist, but by the well-known English bourgeois scholar P. Donaldson2. And he also gave an answer to this question: the failure in the development of poor countries is "... the product of an operation over 150 years to create inequality (disequalizing operation. - AG) with the help of the market " ³.

Developing countries need the right to protect their economies and to have free access to the markets of rich countries. We need "positive discrimination" in favor of poor countries, because "... foreign capital and technology, instead of contributing to economic development ... are killing traditional sectors of the economy"⁴. Such conclusions largely coincided with the views of Soviet Africanists on the causes of backwardness in the world of poor countries.

Even today, the political elites are not sufficiently familiar with the situation in the world of people. In prosperous countries, many people have accustomed themselves to the idea that Earthlings entered the XXI century with dignity, and everyone is happy, albeit modest, but "affluence". This, in my opinion, is a kind of"megalomania".

At the same time, the most far-sighted leaders of the capitalist countries, after the appearance of the Soviet Union on the world stage, realized the need to mitigate social inequality. The United States has been very active in this regard. In 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt declared Washington's desire to make "free from want" not only the citizens of the United States, but also other peoples.⁵ This was not surprising, since millions of Americans were still reeling from the Great Depression of the 1930s that hit America, and how hard life was for the indigenous population in the colonies was anyone's guess. The entire second half of the twentieth century was marked by assistance to the development of countries freed from colonialism.

So what?

The answer to this question is provided by the World Bank (WB), an authoritative source of assistance to developing countries. In the 2003 edition of the World Bank's Rural Strategy, it states:: "More than half a century of efforts by the World Bank and other world policy institutions have not changed the stubborn reality of rural poverty, and the income gap between rich and poor is growing." ⁶

That's right - almost half of the world's population lives on $2 a day, and more than a billion live on $ 1 or even less than ⁷. It is impossible to live on such an "income", especially for young families, single women and children. Whatever the cost structure, even if you adapt to a life of squalor, you still can't make ends meet...

The main cause of the pestilence, when a child dies of hunger and systematic malnutrition every few seconds on Earth, is the shameful living conditions and social apathy that have affected the human world. It is impossible not to be surprised at the indifference with which we all relate to the extinction from hunger and disease of millions of unfortunate people. Few representatives of the "civilized nations" are seriously concerned about what is happening in Africa and Asia. It is widely believed that they are "to blame for everything", "hate democracy", and in general "stupid".

The article was prepared with the support of RGNF in the framework of project N 14 - 01 - 00324 "Ways of interaction between diplomacy and science in improving the effectiveness of Russia's foreign policy and diplomatic activities".

Who cares about the extinction of people somewhere out there, "beyond the horizon", if endless wars are being waged on Earth, and militarists, intimidating fellow citizens with each other, go in heroes and are hung, even in peacetime, with orders and medals? If they also consider themselves representatives of an "exceptional nation"? Then "ordinary" peoples can expect anything, up to unleashing wars against them with the use of weapons of mass destruction. Is it worth worrying about some kind of "global poverty" if people are used to destroying each other by the millions? Such is life.

Such a train of thought is becoming commonplace for political and state elites. Of course, their representatives never admit their commitment to violence-from relatively " soft "to unusually" hard " force.

In such an international environment, there was a persistent indifference to the fate of hundreds of millions of people in the world, lagging behind in their development of lands that were trampled under the shoes of colonialists for centuries, and their inhabitants were deceived by financial fraud. In the second half of the twentieth century, in response to the futility of attempts to end poverty and hunger, a kind of "invisible front" of resistance to such a deadly anti-human way of life for many emerged. The global conflict between the well-fed minority and the hungry majority has begun to gain momentum.

All of us today are witnesses to this global social conflict. It has two poles-the rich billion northerners and the poor billions of southerners. A certain conventionality of this approach to relations between the North and the South is evident. True, in the northern hemisphere there is also poverty in significant segments of the population, and in the southern hemisphere you can find a lot of well-off and even rich people. But, in general, the difference in incomes of the population of the industrialized countries of the North and the agricultural countries of the South is obvious.

Another thing is also clear: for the inhabitants of poor countries, the ecosystems in which they live, as well as local self-government, are of great importance for their food supply. Hundreds of millions of people still feed the local natural ecosystems: land suitable for agriculture, animals in the forests where they are, good conditions for fishing. In Africa, for example, 7 out of 10 poor people live in rural areas and have tiny farms. This is their "ecosystem" that allows them to survive. The management of these lands requires new rules and skills from local authorities, but the main requirement is to leave alone the local system of providing people with food for survival, not to destroy it, not to be clever in trying to "improve" the living conditions of aborigines. Too often, "modernization" brings debilitating poverty and stagnation to local residents in backward areas, especially villages.

EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

International relations were greatly affected by the collapse of colonialism. By the early 1970s, a quarter of a century after the creation of the United Nations in 1945, major changes had taken place in international relations, affecting international law and the practice of its application. The landscape of world politics has changed, and dozens of new states have emerged. Yes, of course, anti-colonial sentiments in the 50s and 60s of the XX century would certainly have made themselves felt over time, but not with such force as after the creation of the UN and the adoption of its Charter.

The change in the situation was reflected in the fact that many norms of international law began to change in accordance with the norms and provisions of the UN Charter. International scholars had to talk and write about what "natural law" means. it is filled with new content. For a long time, colonial law was considered normal. And suddenly, unbeknownst to many ,the" changing content " led to the collapse of colonialism.

How could this happen?

It is enough to take up the UN Charter, and already at its very beginning, in the Preamble, you will see that the peoples of the United Nations are determined " ... to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war..."and" ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and in the equal rights of nations large and small." When signing this text and ratifying it in parliaments, many representatives of the colonial Powers did not fully realize what all this would lead to. They were influenced by the euphoria of the victors, which engulfed the political and business elites, all the peoples of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Equally important in the UN Charter was the determination " ... to create conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be respected..."⁸ The use of the word 'justice' has become iconic, as it covers many aspects of people's lives. The concept of "democracy" was no longer limited to politics. As soon as anti-colonial revolutions won and countries became independent, the problem of eliminating poverty and hunger arose in their societies. After colonial rule, however, came a time of masked dependence and exploitation - the time of neocolonialism. In the new conditions, updated methods of coercion have also appeared.

What has Africa come to today, for example?

In 2010, against the backdrop of a severe economic crisis that engulfed the global economy, the "Millennium Development Goals" announced by the world community, including in terms of poverty reduction, were still unfulfilled. Health care and education are in decline. Africa's population, meanwhile, grew rapidly and by 2014 exceeded 1 billion. The share of Africans in the world's population has increased. The Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences has made a fair conclusion: "The growing processes of globalization in African countries were accompanied by a decline in real incomes per capita, quality of life, investment and savings, an increase in debt per capita, etc." ⁹

Academician A. M. Vasiliev, Director of the IAfr RAS, notes that the world community has taken a course to reduce global poverty.

In the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000, this goal is at the forefront: "Eliminate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015; halve the proportion of the population with an income of less than $ 1 a day; halve the proportion of the population suffering from hunger" ¹⁰. Of course, to achieve this goal in international relations we need peace and quiet. Otherwise, it is more than problematic to ensure the sustainable development of African countries.

Another aspect of overcoming poverty and hunger is also important. A. M. Vasiliev also draws attention to it: "Various aspects of poverty are connected with each other and reinforce each other, so Africa is trapped in poverty, and this poverty is both a social and economic phenomenon..."¹¹ This approach helps to better understand the nature and level of poverty in each African country. Monitoring of the level of poverty should be open and honest, it cannot be determined by one ruling elite, because it tends to embellish the results of its rule.

The position of Russian Africanists in relation to Africa is based on fundamental scientific knowledge. They provide an opportunity to draw conclusions about the present and future of this continent. "A continent rich in resources," emphasizes A. M. Vasiliev, "still cannot escape from poverty, although the pace of its development is somewhat higher than the global average." ¹² Globalization can do a lot to preserve Africa, make rational use of its wealth, promote the emergence of legal States and sustainable development. It can also destroy the healthy growth of prosperity on this continent in the face of constant international tension.

With collective action based on international law, turning Africa into a" black hole", a zone of world politics where the manifestations of terrorism will increase, will become impossible. In Africa, multilateral diplomacy of consent and cooperation is in demand, including from countries such as China, Russia, the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Such a forward-looking partnership is necessary, and it is time for politicians to believe in it and act.

The United Nations and its specialized agencies can help fight hunger and poverty in Africa. Among them, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is in the first place. The International Fund for Agricultural Development also plays an important role in mobilizing resources for social development in rural areas. The UN develops many programs and creates various funds for Africa, they solve, among other things, the problems of combating poverty. The United Nations Development Fund, for example, is involved in the development of poverty reduction strategies, including in Africa.

International aid, including UN efforts in Africa, is an important factor in the fight against poverty and hunger. And yet, the rescue from extreme poverty and all that is associated with it is primarily the work of Africans themselves, especially women - they make up 3/5 of the African population. To do this, it is necessary to increase their role in public life, government bodies and business. In a society where the influence of the traditional way of life, the dominance of men over women, is still great, this is difficult, often impossible. But, although slowly, times are changing, and if not in power, then in business, women are gaining more weight.

POVERTY AND HUNGER AND THEIR CAUSES

Russian Academy of Sciences institutes deeply investigate the causes of poverty and hunger in developing countries. Most of these countries are in Africa, where there are 54 states, and this, as we can see, is the most backward region of the world; poverty and hunger are its "calling card".

When I was director of the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences (1976-1991), I visited 16 African countries, and such important ones as Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Egypt - several times. As a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as the Malagasy Academy of Sciences (Madagascar), he has made numerous presentations there, discussed with Africans the causes of the backwardness of their economy and ways to overcome poverty and poverty. The meeting with Hassan II, King of Morocco (1961-1999), is particularly memorable.¹³

Officially, Hassan II was a constitutional monarch, but in fact he had absolute power and did a lot to strengthen Morocco as a state, including for science in the country. It contributed, for example, to the search for water sources in Morocco and, on the contrary, did not finance the search for oil reserves. Those close to Hassan II have repeatedly said that it is water, in his opinion, that is the source of prosperity for countries with arid climates, and not oil, which attracts large foreign companies to countries with oil, and this leads to a weakening of sovereignty.

Soviet and Russian scientists have conducted in-depth scientific research into the causes of backwardness, poverty, and hunger that afflict the African continent. I have often found that our scientists have a good understanding of how to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa, especially in its tropical part. I was convinced of this, in particular, by my meetings with Western scientists.

I recall that in the early 1980s, during a visit to the United States, I was invited to lunch by a rich American woman and suggested that the Famine Foundation and the Africa Institute should help feed the hungry. I was once again convinced that American charities do not understand what kind of help Africans need most, and call for fighting the consequences of colonial and neo-colonial policies, to which neither the Soviet Union nor Russia today have the slightest relation. In addition, starving people, figuratively speaking, need a fishing rod more than fish.

Poverty and hunger in Africa, of course, are largely due to natural phenomena, but they are not the main cause of them. The main problems of the economy of countries where poverty, poverty and hunger are observed are their dependent position in the system of international economic relations, low level of social development, and low level of social development.-

poor development of production forces in industry and agriculture, poor use of human potential. African countries regularly suffer large economic and financial losses in their foreign trade. They are poor in terms of income, not protected from risks - not only material, but also personal safety of citizens. They are poor in terms of education and health. Tropical Africa is the poorest region in Africa, where the share of the population with an income of less than $1 per day was 38% of the total population by the mid-2000s.¹⁴

This situation of deep-rooted poverty of hundreds of millions of people in the international environment of prosperous countries, in my opinion, can be called a " sobiglobal conflict "(socio-bipolar global conflict). In the relations between the wealthy North and the poor South, this conflict plays the role of a kind of "trigger". When it works, wars and revolutions occur.

Many scientists in the West feel this danger and call on the international community to develop and conclude new contracts at the global level that would take into account the requirements of social justice and development.¹⁵

FAO and the UN Committee on World Food Security provide significant assistance to the poor and hungry. The UN World Food Program provides 2/3 of the world's emergency food assistance, which has exceeded $30 billion over the past ⁴⁰ years16.

An important decision was the Millennium Declaration approved by the UN in 2000. However, the goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, which should help stop Africa's marginalization and relegation to the margins of global development, will not be achieved. In Tropical Africa, hunger is appalling: 30% of the population is malnourished, which is at least 300 million people, and about 60 million are hungry, mainly in Ethiopia, Somalia, DR Congo, Sudan, Mozambique, Burundi, Liberia and other countries.¹⁷

To overcome poverty and hunger, Africans need to address a number of long-term socio-economic and political challenges on their own. But even these efforts will not be sufficient if the global economy does not end discrimination in foreign trade and clear inequality in the distribution of national wealth. These goals cannot be achieved without democratizing international economic relations. Instead, the Atlantic community is being drawn into a deep vortex of endless international conflicts that undermine the peaceful nature of globalization processes.¹⁸

China's activity in Africa is impressive; its total trade turnover with African countries by 2013 exceeded $210 billion.¹⁹ Such a policy is good for Africans - it is not neo-colonialist in nature and develops the continent's economy.

It helps Africa embark on a path of sustainable economic growth and development, to the best of its ability. In recent years, Moscow has written off about $20 billion in debt to African countries, ²⁰ which has helped them strengthen their national budgets. In addition, through the structures of various international funds, Russia helps Africans fight poverty, illiteracy and diseases. Russian diplomacy actively extinguishes various conflict situations on the continent. There are great reserves for expanding cooperation between Russia and Africa, including through the UN.

The most developed countries provide significant assistance to African States, reaching tens of billions of dollars. The goal is to bring its volume to 0.7% of the GDP of a single donor country by 2015. In 2009, only Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands achieved this goal.

Russian Africanists, assessing the situation in Africa at the end of the first decade of the XXI century, nevertheless come to the conclusion that the economy of the continent's countries, as a rule, is not able to establish effective production structures, it retains a rental, rather than an industrial economy. It destroys traditional farms, and they have no replacement. In these circumstances, poverty and hunger persist ²¹. It also highlights the diversity and complexity of poverty in Asia and Africa. On this basis, it is concluded that the current scale of assistance is lower than the needs of the countries of the South and their satisfaction was beyond the power of the world community.

The nature of global poverty is changing: if earlier the border between the rich North and the poor South was visible, today " ... there are clusters of poverty in the North and islands of extreme wealth in the South. The border between wealth and poverty has lost its clear geographical outline. " ²² Typical stagnant poverty and beggary have also affected the population of large cities. According to UN forecasts, in 2015, among the 23 cities in the world with a population of more than 10 million people, 14 will be located on the Asian and African continents. This time has actually come: the number and concentration of urban poor is growing.

You can talk and write endlessly about the causes of poverty in Africa. Droughts, crop failures, debts and diseases, the early death of breadwinners, their deaths in military conflicts torment millions of people. The world's population, meanwhile, is growing and has already far exceeded 7 billion, and by 2100 it will reach 10 billion. If the current processes of deepening poverty and spreading hunger continue, it will be a shameful facet of globalization, a reflection of its inability to address development challenges.

Poverty and hunger are driving the inhabitants of poor countries to richer regions like Europe, the United States, and Russia. Over time, the flow of migrants, if left unchecked, will increase. Africa is becoming one of the main sources of migration to prosperous countries. Multiculturalism is not only a phenomenon, but also an acute problem.

The number of countries with multiple races and peoples will inevitably grow. But migration from poor countries, including those in Africa, to rich ones cannot solve the problems of poverty and hunger. Migration is a forced phenomenon, which can only be weakened by an increase in the standard of living.

Another means of controlling the flow of refugees from Afri-

in Europe, especially in France, Germany and England, there is a national law that makes it difficult for immigrants to enter the country. Thus, there is a growing contradiction between the processes of democratization of international relations and multiculturalism, when it becomes a destabilizing factor in the life of the country.

PROBLEMS OF MULTICULTURALISM

In international relations, multiculturalism has been manifesting itself in accordance with the circumstances since the mid-twentieth century, when the horrors of war shook the foundations of European civilization to their foundations. As a reaction to the crimes of fascism, the formation of a universal civilization, in its very initial stage, took place, and its values were established. This was reflected in the creation of the United Nations, a product of the collective human mind.

The UN Charter, especially in its purposes and principles, enshrines many human values in legal form. They entered international life not for a year or two, but for centuries. These goals and principles were not destroyed by the Cold War or a series of power conflicts. They resisted. Their protection is necessary because the risks of further weakening the UN's influence on international relations are too great.

These are troubling times in international relations. Many people, including scientists, have a sense of not only concern, but also great anxiety for the future. The foundations of the global legal order established after the end of World War II are crumbling and giving way to deep cracks. Historical experience, including negative ones, is forgotten, especially the destructive nature of abandoning the basic principle of international law-treaties must be respected.

Historical heritage based on democratic values is under heavy attack. Under these conditions, any positive actions are the guardians of the Paradigm of harmony and tolerance of people towards each other.

Multiculturalism in international relations is a positive force when the voice of reason is heard, and not the explosions of bombs and rockets. In world politics, good does not always win over evil, and the opposite happens. The examples of France, Great Britain, Germany, and many other countries show that there is no easy way to establish cooperation between representatives of different ethnic groups and cultures fleeing poverty and hunger. The Middle East is a good example . The Russian Federation is also going through a difficult time of developing multiculturalism and forming a new socio-economic community.

In all countries, multiculturalism is ensured within the legal framework, on the basis of the constitution and state laws. If they don't work, chaos ensues in society, and it breeds new revolutions. In international relations, the legal field is provided by classical international law, civilized behavior in conditions of tolerance of people to each other.

The history of the creation of the UN and the development of its institutions within the framework of agreed principles and norms is very instructive. The level of tolerance in the UN is higher than in any other state. Here, there is no mechanical majority when making responsible decisions. The legal framework of the UN Charter forces States to seek and find compromises without using a power policy. This is a normal state of civilization, it must be protected and preserved. It is unfortunate that Russia's rivals in the Atlantic community and those who bend to their demands for tough sanctions do not understand this.

The problem of poverty and hunger is clearly interrelated with many other international issues. The state of the international environment will rapidly deteriorate, as confrontational thinking has temporarily taken precedence over concord and positive diplomacy. Like Caesar before the Rubicon, fed up with "bread and circuses", NATO politicians must remember the need to respect the destitute and hungry, otherwise their migration flows will overwhelm the world, and it will cease to be as we know it.

^{Hutton Will.} 1 Them and Us. Abacus. 2011, p. 291.

^{Donaldson Peter.} 2 Economics of the Real World. Penguin Books, 1992, p. 224.

³ Ibidem.

⁴ Ibid., p. 228.

⁵ World Resources 2005. The Wealth of the Poor-Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty. World Resources Institute. Washington DC. 2005, p. 5.

⁶ Ibidem.

⁷ Ibid., p. 7.

⁸ UN Charter. Preamble "We, the peoples of the United Nations".

9 Africa: in 2 volumes. Moscow, Publishing House "Encyclopedia". 2010, vol. 1, p. 113.

^{10 Afrika i vyzovy XXI v. M.} Afrika i vyzovy XXI v. M. (in Russian) 10 Afrika i vyzovy XXI v. Moscow, 2012, pp. 88, 89.

¹¹ Ibid., p. 90.

¹² Russia in the Global world, 2000-2011. Russian International Affairs Council. Anthology, vol. IV, p. 1013.

¹³ Hassan II belonged to the dynasty of sultans and kings of Morocco, natives of Arabia, tracing their origin to the family of Hassan, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. This largely explains the reverence for the kings of Morocco as representatives of one of the oldest dynasties in the world.

^{Malakhov B. V.} 14 Elimination of poverty and hunger - the most urgent problem of socio-economic development in Tropical Africa, Moscow, IAfr RAS, 2006, p. 7. (Malakhov B. V. 2006. Likvidatsiya nishchety i goloda ... M.) (in Russian)

^{He Baogang and Hannah Murphy Hannah.} 15 Global social justice at the WTO. The role of NGOs in constructing global social contracts // International Affairs. V. 83, N 4. July 2007, p. 707 - 729.

^{Malakhov B. V.} 16 Decree. soch., p. 11.

¹⁷ Ibid., p. 16.

¹⁸ For more information, see: Vigand V. K., Korendyasov E. N. Offensive on poverty in Africa / / Asia and Africa Today. 2009, N 1. (Vigand V.K., Korendyasov E.N. 2009. Nastuplenie na bednost v Afrike // Aziya i Afrika Segodnya. N 8) (in Russian)

^{Deich T. L.} 19 Kitay torguet s Afrikoy [China trades with Africa]. 2014, N 8. (Deich T.L. 2014. Kitai torguet s Afrikoi // Aziya i Afrika Segodnya. N 8) (in Russian)

^{Oganesyan A. G., Saltanov A.V.} 20 Rossiya i Blizhnyj Vostok [Russia and the Middle East]. 2009, N 12. (Oganesyan A.G., Saltanov A.V. 2009. Rossiya i Blizhniy Vostok // International Affairs. N 12) (in Russian)

^{Vigand V. K., Korendyasov E. N.} 21 Edicts of works, pp. 36-39.

^{22 Mass poverty as a} phenomenon of the Afro-Asian area / / MEiMO. 2012, N 3; OECD. Development is back. Paris, 2002, p. 282.

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