Emphasising the unequal distribution of wealth it is also noted that the richest 2% of adults in the world own more than 50% of all household wealth.

The comprehensive report deals with all the countries in the world through either recorded data for the year 2000 or estimates based on statistical analysis.

Wealth is defined as the net amount that people own, less any debts that they owe. The assets include land, buildings, animals and financial assets.

Wealth is skewed geographically being concentrated in North America, Europe and Japan and Australia with these countries accounting for 90% of household wealth. In these nations, landowners can afford not to farm their properties and use them for leisure activities.

In less developed nations, land and farm assets are far more importantbeing used mainly for agriculture in those economies.

Shelter further says that 1.6 million youngsters in Britain are living in housing judged to be temporary, overcrowded or unfit.

The charity, which is marking its 40th anniversary, described the situation as a “scandal” and is calling on the chancellor to commit to funding 20,000 extra social homes each year to give these children a fair start in life.

Shelter was set up 40 years ago shortly after the drama-documentary Cathy Come Home, which is being marked by the BBC with its No Home season of programming.

It is believed that living in poor housing had a significantly detrimental impact on children’s lives. Furthermore it is claimed that children in bad housing were twice as likely to underachieve at school. Shelter advise that more than 40,000 young people aged 16 to 18 who lived in poor accommodation in England had no GCSEs. Each year, more than 57,000 children living in bad housing in Britain are excluded from school.

Also almost 310,000 children living in bad housing in Britain were suffering long-term illness or disability they also were twice as likely to be persistently bullied and had almost double the chance of suffering from poor health.

The number of people affected by floods in Kenya has risen to 723,000, the Kenya Red Cross Society said on 28 November 2006.

The worst hit areas are in Somalia at Hiran and Middle Shabeele, Two of the country’s biggest rivers, the Juba and Shabeele burst their banks.

These tragic events are an untimely reminder of the real impact of climate change on poor people and that the developed world must start to take action to prevent further destabilisation of the world weather systems.

Shelter, the housing charity, states that the last few years have seen a decline in the number of social homes to rent. This has resulted in a rise in the number families and young people being forced to live in substandard temporary accommodation and hostels.

The initiative is designed to highlight the issue at Christmas and act as a vehicle for a call to Chancellor Gordon Brown to urgently address the issue. They are calling on Gordon Brown to fund an extra 20,000 social rented homes each year to help put an end to the housing crisis.

It is hoped that the appeals supporters will transform the grey Wall of Shame into a red Wall of Hope using thousands of red ‘brick’ stickers customised with their signatures and messages of support.

Antonio Hill, Oxfam’s Senior Policy Adviser said “The conference has let Africa and the rest of the developing world down. It has put forward only vague promises to help the world’s poorest countries adapt to climate change, beyond the pledge to set up a fund that has to date only $3m in its coffers. This urgently needs to be turned into a multi-billion dollar fund if poor countries are to be helped in adapting to climate change.”

Many meetings yet little real action is the order of the day. Few are surprised at the outcome to the twelfth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change.

Governments are not under any visible pressure from their local electorates to deliver firm actions to stop climate chaos. This shows typical human lethargy to plan ahead and actions are only demanded when disaster befalls us or is seen nightly on our tv screens. This is despite the fact that most sane people are aware that the science is telling us that we are on a route to disaster for the developing world.

Approximately forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world and the figure increases each day. It is not just a developing world problem, in the UK more than 60,000 people are living with HIV. This figure is also increasing and rises by more than 7,000 every year.

The tragedy is that ignorance and prejudice are enabling the spread of a preventable disease.

The red ribbon has been an international symbol of AIDS awareness since 1991 and is worn as a sign of support for people living with HIV.

If you want to help you can make a donation to the National AIDS Trust who aim to help stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice.