In my work with the Bible College of Victoria, I'm frequently impressed by the people I meet. Not only are the faculty fascinating, but a range of guest speakers visit the college from time to time, each with their own particular field of expertise. Last year, Dr. Jim Hoffmeier described some of the archaeological explorations he's been involved in, and it exploded my understanding of archaeology, and also the Bible. But in March this year BCV will host the visit of one of the most remarkable people I've yet had the privilege to meet!
Baroness Caroline Cox has a CV that runs into many pages, is a former Deputy Speaker of Great Britain's House of Lords, and has been awarded more honours than I can begin to list. But most significantly, she's used her considerable influence to be a powerful force in humanitarian work. Perhaps best known for releasing countless slaves from slavery, she's now Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) and continues to campaign tirelessly on a wide range of human rights and humanitarian issues.
Baroness Caroline Cox will be addressing a public meeting on 20th March 2009, at 11:30am at BCV in Lilydale. Her talk is entitled "A Light in the Darkness: The Privilege of Making a Differennce". Further details are available on the BCV website. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
A Light in the Darkness: The Privilege of Making a Difference
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
U.N., Google, Cisco Unite on poverty-tracking web site
(Article from Computerworld)
The United Nations, Google and Cisco Systems have launched a Web site that will track the progress toward decreasing global poverty by 2015.
The online project, called MDG Monitor (Millennium Development Goals) was launched by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to focus attention on the need for people, companies and governments around the world to work together to fight poverty.
In September 2000, a group of world leaders adopted eight goals called the Millennium Development Goals that called for countries to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle such issues as disease, gender inequality, illiteracy, lack of access to clean water and threats to the environment.
The MDG Monitor Web site tracks progress toward these goals in a number of categories in nearly every country in the world. It also provides the most current data from multiple sources in areas such as public health and education.
A visitor to the site, for example, can use Google Earth to find places where work is being done to reach the goals. "MDG Monitor enables more than 300 million Google Earth users to better understand the MDGs and what it will take to achieve them," according to the statement.
"Achieving the goals is a truly global task, requiring governments, international organizations, private companies and civil society to work together," said Ki-moon in a statement. He cited the support of Google and Cisco in developing the MDG Monitor as an example of the kind of "innovative partnerships we need."
Information is available for download on the MDG Monitor Web site and will soon appear as a global awareness layer in Google Earth.
Cisco provided financial and technical support for the Web site.
"Cisco believes that the power of technology, along with human ingenuity in deploying it, can effectively address global socio-economic issues and lead to sustainable change," said Cisco Senior Vice President Carlos Dominguez, in the statement.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
The tension between our own needs and others needs
Ok, I succumbed and spent $29.95 to buy "Planet of Slums" by Mike Davis. I think this is going to become one of my most valuable texts in understanding and prioritising the needs of poverty relief. It's packed with so many cross-references to other sources to back up his studies, and even just reading up on those referenced sources boggles my mind with so much available information!
In the first paragraph of Chapter 2 Davis quotes the World Bank's warnings during the 1990's that urban poverty would become the "most significant, and politically explosive, problem of the next century." I'm inclined to agree. The problem is almost incomprehensibly huge. It's just that most of the urban poverty and slum dwelling is centred in developing countries, and therefore most of the richer nations are comfortably oblivious to the true scale of the issue.
And the more I consider this reality, the more I'm disturbed at how much effort and finance we can throw into combatting global warming whilst simultaneously allowing a huge percentage of the world's population to suffer in unimaginable poverty. If you were walking down the street and encountered a malnourished, ill person dying on the pavement would we not immediately call an ambulance and ensure that they received medical attention? And yet, because they're a few thousand miles away, we don't do anything! But we're happy to spend thousands of dollars on installing rain water tanks, subsidising Green Energy, building Energy Efficient houses, replacing our whitegoods with more efficient models, upgrading our sprinkler systems for better water use, and buying hybrid vehicles to cut down our "carbon footprint".
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for us being environmentally friendly - but why is it that we can't reach out compassionately today to people who, right at this very instant, are suffering worse than we've ever experienced?
I guess it feels like a sad irony, indeed selfishness, that we should put so much emphasis on the environmental issues that may afflict us in 50 years time, when the majority of the world's population is at this very moment in tough, if not dire, circumstances and we do nothing to assist them.
If we can't show love and compassion for our fellow humankind, what hope is there for this planet anyway??
Friday, February 01, 2008
Citizen Journalists
Whilst browsing Blogs this evening, I found this interesting story about Citizen Journalists in Kolkata, India - I was immediately fascinated as, despite the lack of refinement and grammatical perfection, the stories being shared online by inexperienced local Indian writers give such vivid insights into the lives of real people living in real poverty. Even though we can't directly connect each story to a particular outcome, I firmly believe that awareness of the impact of poverty in real human lives is a major prerequisite to affect change, and it's great to see people from within their own community contributing to this goal.
I'll have to keep reading about the specific methods being employed to develop this team of Citizen Journalists, but I'm already fascinated! It's great to see the Internet being used in such creative new ways to share life-changing stories.
Planet of Slums
Last night I read just the first ten or so pages of a book called "Planet of Slums" by Mike Davis. Fascinating and thought-provoking stuff. I'll have to go back to Borders (my regular haunt) and keep reading it (or even buy it!).
Davis points out that right about now, for the first time in human history, we've reached the 50/50 point where 50% of the global population lives in an urban environment. This growth of urbanisation is amazing, with some cities experiencing as much as 4000% growth in the past 50 years, and mega-cities of 10, 15 or even 20 million people becoming more and more common.
But a curious aspect of this is that the growth of urbanisation is radically greater in developing countries (particularly Asia, Africa and South America) than in western countries. And the formation of these urban areas does not follow the previously expected patterns with a single nucleus and high density living at the centre of a city, but rather many, many communities are expanding and merging together to create massive urban corridors even as long as 600km.
The most worrying part of all, however, is that urban growth does not equate to economic growth. Instead, these developing countries are experiencing rapid growth in poverty, and the explosive growth of the slums that inspired the title of the book. Along the west coast of Africa, Lagos (the former capital of Nigeria), which had a population of about 290,000 in 1950, now has a population of about 8 million and is referred to as a 'conurbation' due to it's sprawling nature which amalgamates many cities/towns/suburbs/communities into one huge mass of humanity spread over 1000 sq.km. Yet in spite of all this growth (or perhaps because of it?) The Economist, in their December 2006 Liveability Survey, identified Lagos as only 64.7% liveable (where 0% is perfect and 100% is intolerable) and ranked it 130 out of 132 of all the cities surveyed.
Anyway, that's enough for now - just some food for thought. Once I've had a chance to read more of Davis' arguments, I'll share my analysis with you. Apparently Davis argues that these issues are further exacerbated, and manipulated, to the advantage of the rich, by organisations such as the IMF intentionally setting policy (e.g. 'Structural Adjustment Programs') which further entrench the poverty and transfer wealth and resources from the poor to the rich. Whether he's right or wrong, it undoubtedbly calls our attention to a very real crisis faced by humanity.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Why are people more interested in Britney than the needy?
Doesn't it strike you as strange that Britney Spears can still make the news headlines day after day after day, and yet we struggle to draw people's attention to the need for financial and practical contributions toward helping genuinely needy people discover a path out of their poverty?
It seems that "Britney Spears" is among Technorati's Top 10 Tags every day when I view the list! Come on!! Surely we can't STILL be that fascinated? Aren't there even 10 other things more important in our lives than Britney Spears?
I mean, sure, Britney needs people to take an interest in her and help her through the emotional/mental crisis she's in, but those people are the handful of family, friends, and appointed professionals who are close to her - not the rest of the world gawking.
But my real point is - why, when we try to bring home to people the urgent need for compassion and assistance toward the most disadvantaged in this world, do we struggle to raise even a few dollars or get a few clicks through the web sites? Why do people not go searching for ways to help? Why are people not reading up on these predicaments and educating themselves about what can be done?
I guess my questions above are largely rhetorical - in one sense I feel like I already know the answers... but I wish everybody would prove me wrong. I believe the answer is: because we don't want to face the realities. Most people find their own life tough enough, they don't want to invest the emotional energy, time and money into what feels like an impossible and incredibly daunting task. I don't berate people for feeling this way, and I'm sure in 99% of cases it's a sub-conscious tendency rather than an intentional avoidance.
But how then are we to help the 2 billion people living in extreme poverty on this planet? How are we going to stir up in the hearts of those with the means, the desire to assist those who don't have the means?
I believe one of the big challenges we face is that of how to alert people in a meaningful, thought-provoking, and inspirational manner about the potential for them to have a huge impact in the lives of the poor, and to do it in such a way that people don't just tune out to a continuous stream of pitiful images. If the realities of poverty were headline news every day of the week as Britney Spears is, I imagine people would rapidly become 'immune' to the message.
The only way that the message can become 'epidemic' and spread perpetually throughout the entire developed world, is for people to have some form of encounter with it, and be shown opportunities for them to make a meaningful contribution, the contentment arising from which will spur them on toward further involvement and participation. Put in the simplest possible bullet-point form:
(1) People need to be emotionally engaged in the needs of others, and
(2) experience the satisfaction that comes from some form of achievement in assisting others
These two factors will foster commitment and involvement which is long term and will in term rub off on others around. This is one reason why short-term 'mission trips' and visits to affected areas are so valuable - because they help participants to change the way they perceive poverty, and really become emotionally engaged.
I don't yet know how I can best utilise the above theory to greatest effect, but one of my earliest visions was to be able to communicate the realities of poverty in the Philippines back to developed countries like Australia and USA by photographing and writing up the personal stories of individuals who have lived in that situation and been helped by effectived programs for poverty relief. I still dream of being able to do this regularly (some of my earliest photos are at www.flickr.com/photos/philipbrookes/collections/72157600037843194/).
I'm also working on a project which should launch within the next couple of months, to establish a significant business in Philippines for the purpose of training, employment, and economic benefits to the community through exports.
For me personally, this involvement is the greatest example of the above principle - nurturing and growing my passion constantly to help the Filipino people. For others, I hope my words of encouragement and example might help to inspire something similiar.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Bill Gates and Creative Capitalism
Okay, it might be almost 3am but I've just read an article reporting on Bill Gates' newly-coined term of "Creative Capitalism" that I finally felt is starting to 'get it', so I just HAVE to throw in my 2 cents!
I suspect that Bill Gates and I are still a fair way apart in our thinking on this, but if you put us in a room with 10 other individuals to debate how to "Make Poverty History", I reckon we might be the two most likely to team up against the rest.
The point that Bill's starting to articulate is that there's a crucial role for commercial enterprise to play in turning around the fortunes of the 2 billion poorest people on the planet. We might approach the question of business involvement, or "creative capitalism", differently but we both recognise that companies play an important role.
Up until recently, I've accepted unquestioningly the repeatedly reinforced message that I've heard throughout my entire life, that less fortunate people in developing countries need our generous donations (channelled through some fantastic aid and development programs) to help lift them out of their poverty - "a hand up, not a handout". For many years my thoughts never progressed beyond that, because the work that is done by these awesome aid and development agencies is truly inspirational, effective and worthwhile.
But it's not enough.
The single biggest shortcoming of this model is that it relies almost entirely on ongoing benevolence from richer countries, and the "average" citizen is so far removed from the realities of extreme poverty that they are very reluctant to be parted from their money - "after all, how much difference could my $20 really make??"
Whether we like it or not, money is what lifts people out of poverty, and therefore to have a truly successful long-term strategy, we need a "money machine" - business.
That might sound simplistic, and people will give me examples of how either (i) locally-owned businesses from developing countries are hugely profitable and yet don't seem to make a tangible improvement to the local economy, or (ii) NGO development organisations are involved in micro-enterprise and other similiar business initiatives and yet, once again, the country as a whole seems to be permanently bogged down in their poverty. But I believe there's a key missing element even in these situations.
It's not enough just to establish enterprise if the profits are pocketed by one wealthy businessman. An increase in employment is helpful, but not enough.
It's also not enough to just train people with better vocational skills, increased literacy, and greater business skills.
In my opinion, the key is to channel (a portion of) the generous donations from developed countries into establishing viable and competitive export businesses in these poverty-stricken regions, owned and operated by passionate "capitalist" business owners who love running their business - and then to have these owners reinvest from their profits into training, skills development, R&D, and other aspects of their local community.
A commercially-sound model of business which generates revenues from the richer societies to feed into the poorer ones, along with a true heart for the local society, education, training, and eradicating poverty is a sustainable model which creates an ever-increasing stream of earned income (rather than donations) AND betters the community in numerous ways.
It's my dream (with plans already starting to emerge) to establish a commercially viable business in a developing country (my personal passion is for the Philippines, hence I'd start there) that has as it's goals to:
(i) establish a strong export trade to developed countries
(ii) reinvest profits into training and employment opportunities, community programs, and growth of the enterprise
This conscious focus on prioritising the needs of the people above my own personal wealth is, in my opinion, the most important factor to rebuild a devastated economy and to present the poorest populations with really opportunity and hope for their futures.
