It's raining in Baton Rouge, I'm surfing through web sites of organizations that provide aid and relief while watching a 'Project Runway' marathon. It occurs to me that while I've provided a link to the Millennium Development Goals, I've not listed them for those that didn't want to follow the link.
The eight specific recommendations of the UN Millennium Project are:
- Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
- Achieve Universal Primary Education
- Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
- Reduce Child Mortality
- Improve Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Develop a Global Partnership for Development
It is widely accepted that over 1 billion of our world's population live under conditions of extreme poverty - a condition defined by people that do not have access to the basic human necessities of food, water, shelter, education and health care. There are not extreme poor in the U.S. Extreme poverty is a condition of the developing world. This is not to say there are not poor or people in need in the U.S. I can look around my neighborhood and you can look around yours, and we'll both find there are people who are in need, but not to this extreme degree. I have spent the last eight months helping people in need, and it has been rewarding.
Sub-saharan Africa and Asia are the two regions most affected by this condition.
The G8 has pledged to cancel debt and increase aid to these nations. In the past week, Bono's group Debt, AIDS, Trade and Africa Group (DATA) reported that the G8 was collectively off-the-mark in its pledge to increase aid to Africa. There was some good in the report, but there was much room for improvement. It seems he even left his audience with a lightly veiled threat. From the article, "Next year when we get to Germany and we're not back on track we won't be talking pop concerts ... we will be demonstrating in very different ways."
Anyway, to bring this back to the 4th... I'm a child of the seventies, and was raised watching School House Rock. In addition to learning that three was indeed a magic number, and finally learning what the functions of conjunctions were, I also learned the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, in song. In it, is described domestic tranquility, general welfare, and blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity while striving to create a perfect union. Don't the Millennium Goals sound like implementations of these principles? Or at least vaguely parallel? What better way to promote those principles and our 230 years of maturity than to help the greatest number in the greatest need. This would be a foreign policy that I could embrace, wholeheartedly.
3 comments:
okay, so I think that we share the same soul, Matt. I swear it! Let's look at the facts: an abiding love for pink, the G8, Bono, DATA, Millinium Goals, dashing good looks, Gates Foundation and the list could go on. Well... if we don't share the same soul, we surely are kindred souls. :-)
when you're right - there's no point arguing. did i tell you i'm moving to NZ, and my dreads are finally starting to hold together?
no, i'm not really moving to NZ, although if the right thing came up i would. my comment should not be taken seriously (i don't have enough hair to grow dreadlocks). however, there is a volunteer organization (volunteer.org.nz) that i have been looking at for the last little bit. when/if i end up doing something new/different, be assured i almost certainly will announce it here, first.
Post a Comment