Just a quickie.
This morning Debi posted about how Italy, France and Canada are backing out of their pledge to donate 0.7% of their national income towards the fight against poverty. That money has the potential to save millions of lives and yet they’re no longer willing to give it; they’d rather keep the whole pot for themselves, even though they already had 99.3%. If that isn’t selfish, what is?
I’m so glad I was made aware of this because it’s up to us all - each and every one of us that are lucky enough to have secure homes, a meal on the table every day, adequate clothing and a comfortable bed - to do our bit to help those who are far less fortunate than us. Surely the world’s governments all know that? It isn’t difficult to work out what “love thy neighbour” means.
Avaaz currently have a petition to try to persuade the leaders of the aforementioned countries to stick to their promise. The petition will be delivered, along with a speech, to the UN assembly by UN summit tomorrow by Jeffrey Sachs, UN official and economist.
If you’re like to sign the petition, just click here.
Sharon J
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7 comments:
I'm already on their subscribers list Sharon... an excellent organisation to support!
What a shame!!
Excuse my ignorance but what's the UK's stance on this?
Jade x
This is an important issue. I have a future post in mind re this, but is more US-centric. Would you believe that the US is the industrialized country with the highest percentage of poverty in the world? Well, I guess it's actually not so hard to believe.
J
http://adventuresinvoluntarysimplicity.blogspot.com/
@ jack - the US also has the smallest percentage of GDP towards aid. another thing jeffrey sachs (who is also a director of the earth institute at columbia) talks about in his book...
@ Emmani. I'd never even heard of them before I saw Debi's post but yes, they do seem like a worthwhile organisation.
@ Jade. I googled it and it seems that the government have hit the target 0.7% that they pledged last year and have doubled their aid to Burma.
@ Jack. I can believe it yes, although why or how that has happened in such a wealthy country as the US is something I really don't understand.
@ Paragigmshifted. It sounds to me as if the US government is very selfish if they not only allow a certain percentage of their own people to live in poverty but aren't willing to help anybody else either. Where does all the money go?
Cheers, Sharon. I hope your readers also know about Blog Action Day on poverty on 15th Oct.
We may each have only one voice, but added together and through organisations like Avaaz, we really CAN make a difference.
I've also posted a load of links in the comments on my post. (No time to anchor them, even though it's resulted in 'skewiffy'-ness.)
Thank you for the link to this. I will post it on my blog and get my friends to do so to!
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