The End of Poverty?

This past Wednesday, 17 October 2007, was the internationally recognized day to "stand up" and "speak out" to remind the United Nations of its Millennium Development Goals, which include granting primary education to all children and eliminating poverty by the year 2015. This year, an estimated 38.7 million people around the world stood up and spoke out, a 65% increase from last year's total of 23.5 million.

It is encouraging to see such an increase in participants this year from last, for it says people do care about poverty and wish to see its demise. Does this mean it will end by 2015, as promised? I don't know. It's already 2007, and, while (depending on whom you ask) some progress has been made, the surface has barely been scratched. I, myself, helped try to spread awareness to the public, only to find very few seemingly interested people. Is poverty too disturbing to most individuals for them to want to think, let alone do something about it? Are we too concerned with preserving our luxury to be willing to sacrifice some of it in the name of those with less to have a little more? Do we really want to hear all about how we benefit from poverty? Worst of all, about how it can so easily befall each of us?

And what about this collective of heads of state who calls itself the United Nations? Is it all that interested in ending poverty and educating the masses after all? Would its Security Council be what it is without mass poverty and ignorance? Do its members really wish to see an empowered public? Or would they rather remain the premier players in this giant game of Risk, in which we are but mere plastic pieces on the board, devoid of thought and feeling? Would they rather leave things the way they are, with the wheels of the global economy spinning out of control, while they cash their chips before the machinery breaks down?

Let's not restrict ourselves to recognizing our global plight to every 17 October, but rather think about it each and every day, and keep the thought alive by discussing it with friends, with colleagues, with family. Let's not succumb to apathy, for that is exactly what the powers-that-be want - need, even - for their dominion to continue. Let's listen to the stories of the down-trodden, and act as their voice against the status quo. Let's cease being complacent, with our asses on our easy chairs and our feet in the air while we stare blankly into that void created by the television, because, no matter how comfortable we seem at this time, we're all in this together: so many of us are living from one pay cheque to the next, and can easily find ourselves without that flux of income to keep our heads above water; each one of us is a slave to this system of capital. Let's not wait around for the United Nations to drag its heels on the pledge signed by 189 of its members in 2000; the power is within all of us to bring forth positive change, but said power is useless if we don't use it together. Let's together unleash this awesome force of good to halt this wave of evil, one that has been allowed to govern us since time immemorial, in its tracks.

Let's have faith in ourselves and in each other to do what is right. Each of us is only here for a short period of time, so why not leave something for the world that nurtures us while we're here, so that it may continue to nurture well after we depart? We cannot take our possessions with us when we do so.