by Louise Sutherland
(series of articles: index)
Paul Matou is sitting outside his modest shack in the Ugandan countryside. He and his family have never heard of the worldwide campaign to cancel the debts of poor countries. That doesn’t matter. He can feel the difference. The local health centre has more been given more money for drugs and his children have been immunised for free. The local borehole has been repaired; it is now just a ten minute walk away, and it used to be a walk of two miles to fetch water which made the family ill. Since the new school has been built his children have become students. He would like them to become doctors. All of this since Uganda’s debt repayments were cut by half; its government is now spending more money on the health and education of its people. Paul and his family are just one example of how slowly – agonisingly slowly – the world is dealing with the poverty which more than half its population lives with.
All the evidence suggests the best way to deal with poverty is to promote good development across the globe. This is not just a task for governments and international bodies, it's also for ordinary people, individuals and local communities. How? I hear you ask... This series of articles will direct you to resources which explain global development, the kinds of policies governments can implement to achieve basic human rights and eliminate poverty and what you can do about it. In these articles I will explain how we all have a role in reducing poverty. We must not leave it to politicians and bitch about corruption. We have to lobby them to fight poverty, but we also have to take action ourselves to help the planets poorest people.
I will talk about the things we can all do irrespective of how much we earn, how much time we have or where we live. We can all volunteer, switch to Fairtrade, bank and invest in the right companies and donate to charity. Poverty is not just about putting food on the table. The dictionary describes poverty as ‘not having the minimum income level to get the necessities of life’. But for most of us, life is about more than mere necessities. The 1998 UN report explains "poverty can also mean the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to human development – to lead a long, healthy, creative life; to have a decent standard of living". That’s normal for us: we live in the fourth largest economy on the planet. The population of the UK are an extremely rich, privileged minority in a world of extreme poverty. Each day more than a billion people – that’s 1 in 5 of us – live on less money than we spend on bus fare. With our cars, gadgets, holidays and homes, we are prosperous beyond their wildest dreams. Many of us feel the inequality in the world is wrong. When we read that the 3 richest people in the world have more money than all of the 48 poorest countries put together, we feel that something is badly wrong.
However, some people feel poor countries should be allowed to develop in their own time and without interference from us. Why should we spend our taxes funding health services in Africa when there is so much to be done at home? Some people think the course of history cannot be altered, that it is a sad fact of life that the poor will always be poor. What all these people agree on though, is that the world is interdependent. We live in a joined up world and we benefit from goods, foods and services which we never had access to a few years ago. This means we also have the opportunity to use trade and our connections to make the world better for all of its citizens.
If we discover that workers in developing countries who produce goods for the global market are badly paid by first world standards, then it is our responsibility as consumers, to pressurise companies to pay fair wages and provide good working conditions. If companies simply pull out of developing countries, then the jobs and prospects of economic improvements go with them. It is a mistake to imagine that the international trading system is some force of nature we cannot control. If ordinary people feel that the system is working for the minority instead of the majority, then it is the voice and action of ordinary people which will change the system.
This article was inspired by a booklet I recently read by DIFD, called ‘The Rough Guide to a Better World and How You Can Make a Difference’. It’s available in post offices and libraries and I’d urge you to read it too, as it covers more than I will in these articles. If you want to learn more about development, politics and poverty, to understand how you are causing it, and to know what you can do to change things, subscribe to the free magazine called developments by signing up online at http://www.developments.org.uk/data/form1a.htm.
After reading the ‘The Rough Guide to a Better World and How You Can Make a Difference’ I longed to not work full time, maybe four days a week, so I’d have a full day for activism, awareness raising and doing the right thing. I did nothing at first because I felt that I would be able to do loads in the future, as soon as I had everything else sorted, life was more settled and could make a nice organised place in my life for it. Then I realised – that’s total bollocks. Just a crap excuse for staying comfortable, ignoring the seemingly insurmountable horrors and doing nothing at all.
The time and space which enables us to take action for a better world, for other peoples rights, the environment - is all around us, all the time. We don’t need one day a week to write campaign letters and go on marches. We just need to recognise and act on the small everyday opportunities. The guide talks about different areas of our lives which give us the opportunities to change things on a huge scale.
I’ve written this series of articles to describe what we can all do, in the hope of inspiring more people. I have made a commitment to act on the advice in the booklet, and to write articles for the Network laying out the advice in the booklet and articles describing what happens when you do these things! I will title each article from the booklet ‘DFID XXX’ and articles on whatever I’ve been trying as ‘Inspired to xxx’. I hope my attempts and adventures will inspire you all to similar action.
Blessings /|\
This is the introduction by Bob Geldof to ‘The Rough Guide to a Better World and How You Can Make a Difference’ produced by DIFD.
'We must not accept people dying nightly on our screens forever. That is an intolerable and unacceptable view of the future. Even if they are unseen and mute and unheeded we must remain alert to that other world, those other fellow human begins, those other mums and dads and children, we must pay close attention to those hidden worlds of decay, decline and death. They whisper to us through the unfair trade of the supermarket shelves and the exploited raw materials of our petrol stations, the newspaper stories, the piety of a political speech or the occasional feel good pop concert. We know they’re there. They’re too weak to raise their voices, but they are there. Pay heed.'
Here’s a couple of the phrases that inspire a smile in me and renew my fire…
‘If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.’
‘If an elephant is standing on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral – the mouse will not thank you for your neutrality.’
Series of 'Inspired By' Articles
Bardic Advocacy
Volunteering
Where is Your Money
Making Trade Fair
