"Incensed About Inequality"

In his analytical article, "Incensed About Inequality," Martin Wolf explains that, while many accuse globalization of widening the gap of inequality between nations, it has in fact narrowed this disparity. He goes on to state that it is actually easier for countries with more poverty to grow economically, and that "the incomes of poor developing countries, with more than half the world's population, gr[o]w substantially faster than those of the world's richest countries" in a given amount of time (Wolf, 184). It would therefore seem logical to conclude that countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America with high rates of poverty should be growing at a higher rate than wealthier developing countries. However, this is unfortunately far from the truth. Even Wolf goes on to say that one cannot "ignore the fact that a great many countries have not enjoyed rapid growth, most notably in Africa, but also to a lesser extent in Latin America [and] the Middle East" (186). Why is it then that improvements in health, life expectancy, and hunger are significantly less noticeable in countries that need them the most, and that should be, according to Wolf's theory, experiencing them to a higher degree than further developed countries? While factors such as "the AIDS epidemic, or the gross incompetence (or worse) of governments" can be blamed for a fall in life expectancy in countries such as "North Korea and Zimbabwe" they do not explain the unusually slow and stunted growth of these countries in a shrinking world (187). Perhaps the real reason that Sub-Saharan Africa seems to be an exception in almost every category regarding positive growth is that it has failed to share the "move towards the market economy" that the "successful countries" have so willingly embraced (185). If this is indeed the problem, then the question then becomes how do we get these nations to move towards a more global economy and society in order to decrease the poverty, hunger, and inequality in our world? How do we get leaders such as Mugabe to loosen his grip on a moribund economy in order to welcome foreign markets into Zimbabwe? How can we facilitate globalization in the countries that need its benefits the most?