UN General Assembly
1982

this debt can be repaid or the interest serviced. 215. Default on even a portion of the massive debts that have accumulated could trigger a total collapse of the global financial system, which would, in turn, lead to a deep global recession. The mild panic that seized the financial pundits of the West when they grasped the implications of the situation that they had got themselves into now seems to have been replaced by a mood of superficial confidence, perhaps because no one dares believe otherwise; no one dares say that the emperor has no clothes. 216. Another problem with grave implications is that of starvation. As much as 40 per cent of the world's population suffers from some form of undernourish¬ment. The fate of millions is downright starvation. As the population continues to increase in the poorest regions of the world, more and more people will be forced below the subsistence level of food intake. Undernourishment and starvation are the work not of fate but of human action. They can be prevented. Much of the increasing starvation can