Mia's
drinking water right
Darfur drinking water left
They
cared, they came, they came to conquer: world poverty. Only
to learn that most governments and donating institutions had
reneged on their promise to help the planet’s desperately
needy.
Canada,
for example, had pledged seven cents out of every hundred dollars,
but contributed only half of its promise. What do we call a
promise unkept? A lie? It costs only $32 to keep one person
alive for a year. To that child who is no longer with us, a
promise unkept is a death sentence. To be marked in our calendars,
every single day there are 32,000 unnecessary deaths through
starvation, malnutrition and disease -- most of them children.
“We don’t
have the money,” the bottom-liners (Ministers of Finance,
CEOs) protest, flashing a Disneyland of numbers conjured up
by the modern day equivalent of the medieval magician -- the
chartered accountant.
Activist Jeffrey
Sachs begs to point out that the global economic
crisis refutes that mother of all excuses: when money is wanting
to subsidize greed (banks gone bad, a sclerotic auto industry),
trillions can be raised on a dime. Which means the billions
(not trillions) needed to alleviate poverty are there. But alas,
we live in a world where the willing and caring are in chronic
short supply, which is why Montreal’s
Millennium Summits, whose stated goal is to eliminate
world poverty by 2015, are so important.
Years
ago, summit founder Daniel
Germain had a dream, that he would dedicate
the rest of his life fighting for a more equitable distribution
of the planet’s wealth. Out of that dream and commitment,
The Montreal Millennium Summit was born, and has become a major
player in the uphill battle to eliminate world poverty. Thanks
to Daniel’s drive and determination, his project has been
endorsed by the world-esteemed Bishop Tutu, Roméo Dallaire
and Bill Clinton.
In his opening remarks
for the 2009 version of the Summit, Germain reminded us (especially
the narrow minded celebrity asperser), that without the major
participation of Mia
Farrow, Nick Clooney, Val Kilmer, and
Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York), who volunteer their celebrity
in order to redirect our misplaced awe to aid those who cannot
help themselves, the agency that energizes the summit would
be significantly less forceful. He also exhorted us not to be
cowed by the intimidating results obtained by exceptionally
gifted humanitarians such as Peter
Thum, who raises millions for safe drinking water,
and Dominique Corti, whose family turned a 30-bed dispensary
into one of the best medical centers in equatorial Africa (Uganda).
“If we all do what little we can, it will quickly add
up to something big, which can be the difference between life
and death for thousands of children.”
Never before in
the history of human affairs has the challenge to rise to the
occasion of ‘caring’ for those left behind been
so pressing -- a theme that will surely be on the agenda for
the next Summit.
What
distinguishes the present from all preceding ages is the disproportionate
power wielded by the unelected and disenfranchised. From terrorist
activity that has destabilized life and government in Iraq-Bagdad,
Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Israel, Mumbai, Pakistan, Kashmir, Madrid,
Nigeria, we now know that if we don’t concern ourselves
with the world’s wretched of the earth, they will become
our problem. The real clash of civilizations is not between
Islam and the West, but between the haves and have-nots, where
the latter have finally had enough, such that all the religion
and law in the world can no longer guarantee their orderly conduct
(their passivity). Globalization is a quantum equation that
describes the planet’s interconnectivity where the single
wag of any fibre optic tail moves every dog. Which in concrete
terms means there is a direct cause and effect that link endemic
poverty, despair and terrorism; and that we, the haves, are
directly implicated. 
Long
gone are the days when doing nothing meant nothing. With the
world’s rich and poor so intertwined, indifference is
now tantamount to not caring, which creates the bloated category
of the not-cared-for, who cannot and will not be simply wished
way.
Inserting themselves
into this epochal struggle were the 3,000 strong who attended
the 2009 Montreal Summit; they wanted to make a difference,
they wanted to bring hope and dignity to those short-changed
by the men in hats (ir)responsible for the distribution of the
world’s wealth. Thanks to the 3,000 who came because they
cared, six thousand children will live to see another year.
Best said by Daniel Germain: “These (anonymous) volunteers
sans noms, upon whom Millennium Summits depend for
their remarkable results, are the world’s best hope. To
which I add: May their numbers and influence grow as willing
and wide as the world.
