Suriname - Poverty and wealth

Suriname ranked 67th out of 174 countries in the United Nations Development Program 's development index, which places it in the middle spectrum of nations. This ranking conceals the wide variety of living standards in the country, ranging from Paramaribo, with its roads, full electricity and water services, cosmopolitan shops, and affluent suburbs, to the Maroon and Amerindian villages of the interior, often accessible only by river and with little or no telephone and electricity connections. The index also does not convey quality of life, which even in Paramaribo has been increasingly undermined by

urban crimes such as household burglary and armed robbery. The interior, which has considerably less police supervision, can be even more dangerous. Crime reflects growing disparities in wealth and opportunity, not just between the employed and growing numbers of unemployed, but even within the wage and salary sector, where industry salaries run significantly higher than those in the public sector .