Life sentence: as the world's rich bemoan terrorism, the world's poor live another kind of reality--death by poverty.

In the aftermath of last December's devastating earthquake and tidal waves, rich nations admirably rushed to help the victims. It was a classic response that painfully contrasted with the relative paucity of adequate and sustained efforts to help people who live in extreme poverty in other countries.

The contrast was so sharp that prominent U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs said: "The world continues to overlook the silent tsunamis" referring to the millions who die annually from preventable diseases. Consider these statistics: Nearly 11 million children die annually before their fifth birthday from such diseases as diarrhea and pneumonia; 2 million to 3 million people die annually from malaria; 500,000 women die each year giving birth, the equivalent of an Asian tsunami every four months; 3 million die annually from AIDS, equivalent to an Asian tsunami every three weeks.

Early this year, the United Nations announced a three-year study on global poverty headed by Sachs that's a blue-print for halving extreme poverty, defined as living on US$1 a day or less, by 2015. The 3,000-page assessment by 265 experts is straightforward--rich countries must increase development aid to poor countries so they can finance clean water projects, sanitation, food, medicine, housing and school lunches.

There are 221 million poor people in Latin America--44% of the total population--of which 97 million live in extreme poverty, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In a speech this year to the Organization of American States, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said millions of Latin Americans could turn to "radical and destructive" behavior unless their sub-standard living conditions improve. "The greatest challenge of our time is the growing gap between the rich and poor," he said.

That gap could narrow if rich countries raised development aid to $195 billion by 2015, a figure the U.N. projects, from $58 billion a year in 2004. The world's current military budget is an estimated $900 billion.

Increasing development aid would also meet U.N. Millennium Development goals set in 2000 and endorsed by 190 member nations to not only halve extreme poverty within 15 years but end hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child and maternal mortality and reverse the spread of diseases such as malaria and AIDS.

To meet U.N. objectives, rich nations agreed to increase foreign aid to 0.7 percent of their gross national incomes by 2015. To date, only Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have complied. The United States, with the world's largest economy at $12 trillion, gives 15 one-hundredths of 1% (not including private aid), dead last among major donor nations. In his State of the Union address in February, U.S. President George W. Bush made no mention of world poverty or foreign aid.

"The world is crying out for leadership on this issue. If the U.S. leads, other countries will come on board," David Morrison, chairman of the board of Directors of NetAid, a philanthropic organization founded by the Silicon Valley's Cisco Systems and the United Nations Development Program, told me.

Poor countries are ultimately responsible for their own development, and much aid money has been historically lost to corruption. And, yes, throwing money at problems is not always the answer. But the U.N. report mandates poor nations to do their part by developing a national plan to end poverty, combat corruption and demonstrate that they can use aid effectively. Preoccupied. The U.N. report will likely force global poverty to the top of the agenda, along with security, at the G-8 meeting in July. Last year, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the developed world's interest in global poverty is "near a low point" since it has "become preoccupied with security." Rising crime and global terrorism are certainly real threats, but crime and terrorism feed on poverty.

If rich countries keep their promise, billions of people will join the global economy, more than 500 million people will be lifted out of extreme poverty, millions will avoid death from "silent tsunamis," and countries that would have descended into political chaos will stabilize.

This is not a utopian idea but a ticket to a better and a safer world. The question is not whether rich countries can afford it. These are trivial sums, 50 cents of every $100 of income. The question is whether they can afford not to.

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