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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

October 17, 2007 at 09:22
filed under rant

This is a subject that I consider very important and, on this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I wanted to share with you some ideas, some ‘food for thought’ if you will. Let’s start with some hard hitting numbers, according to World Watch:

• In 2000, one in five people in the developing world—1.1 billion total—did not have “reasonable access“ to safe drinking water.

This number might not include a large portion of the world’s population that needs to spend an incredible amount of energy everyday to have access to drinking water, like walk several kilometers every morning to fetch water for the day. Think of how your day would be different if you needed to start everyday with a 6km trek to go get water to drink, cook and cover basic sanitation needs. Our morning espresso would be much different now wouldn’t it?

• It is estimated that the annual needed investment to achieve the goal of clean drinking water for all is $10 billion.
• Consumers across the globe now spend an estimated $35 billion a year on bottled water.

This amount is spent by people that already have access to safe drinking water, yet people spend money to purchase bottled tap water. Indeed, both Dasani (Coca-Cola) and Aquafina (Pepsi) had to admit to simply using water straight from the tap, but I digress.

I know swapping figures such as this is not as simple as allocating budget line items towards one expenditure rather than another, yet we can, and need, to make educated choices. Here’s a disturbing parallel between a luxury that we take for granted and what the same funds could achieve. Still according to World Watch:

• Eliminating hunger and malnutrition would require an additional annual investment of $19 billion
• The annual expenditure in Europe and the United States on pet food is $17 billion

We all make discretionary spending decisions, and this example is not to single out pet owners vs. non-owners but rather show that every single decision we make is significant, and could be even more significant (of course this also include me).

So what? What is our generation and the younger generation doing? Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote a piece a week ago in which he said:

[...] the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed.

I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.

[...]

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

His column sparked a lot of responses in the ‘virtual’ world as he refers to it, and the blogosphere was not pleased. Is Mr. Friedman oblivious to the power of the Web 2.0, or is he touching upon something here? Digital convergence is all the buzz and we are spending more time isolated so we can connect/share virtually (as I blog this, I do recognize that I am guilty as charged), but what does this really mean?

I’d like to quote Mark Federman, Chief Strategist of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, as he discusses the meaning of Marshall McLuhan’s famous ‘The medium is the message’ and how noticing change is key:

McLuhan tells us that a “message” is, “the change of scale or pace or pattern” that a new invention or innovation “introduces into human affairs.” [...] it is not the content or use of the innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings with it.

This is most likely the central point that Mr. Friedman missed, but some of his argument still stands as this change will no less require more citizen activism, specifically to deal with the great problems of inequality and poverty our world is faced with.

Using technology doesn’t make you smarter or more capable of finding solutions, but it can lead you to re-think how our world works. Here’s a very interesting clip about the powers of the Web 2.0

On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, optimism is important, but we must also be ready to get involved: It is up to us to decided how we will re-think the world we live in.

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1. Daniel Julien

   on October 17, 2007 at 12:41

   Overwhelming. Such small daily things we can do that can have the largest of impact. I one hundred % agree with the fact that we need more involvement and optimism. Thanks for sharing this. Time to act!

   Daniel

2. Michele

   on October 29, 2007 at 13:21

   Great stuff, Emanuel!

   Thanks and keep it up. Love it.