Wow, that's a bleak view of things, although admit there is some truth to it, it's not always like that.
Take EU as an example about how cooperation has been to the benefit of all. Ireland was once one of the poorest countries in Europe, but is now among the richer countries.
Also Spain, going from being a backwards dictatorship as late as the 70's, to now being a full fledged progressive democracy with a vastly better economy.
This is because of the inclusion of the EU model, and the help that goes to promote development of less well off regions. Which has shown mutually beneficial.

I agree on the global scale things could be a lot better. But the culprit is no longer exploitation by the rich countries, as much as it is religion and totalitarian regimes.

The Arab world constitute 456,520,777 people according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world.
Yet Arabic has fewer translated works than a small Scandinavian country like Denmark of only 6 million, with about 10 million world wide that speak the language.

[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 1 points 2 hours ago

I think you still didn't understand.

Yes, our lives are better, but the many Danish books are bought by (figuratively) having less arabic books. Denmark has next to nothing, just like Germany or Austria. But with cheap energy from the global south and cheap manufacturing in third countries they could get ahead quite a lot.

Yes, Spain got rid of its dictatorship, but that's been 50 years ago and Franco's grave is still a place of worship.

The EU is only inwardly inclusive. It doesn't give a shit about Africa for example. Ukraine also only became relevant when the EU proper was threatened.