THE ONE CAMPAIGN: You may or may not have noticed the new link at left for The ONE Campaign. If not, I'm calling attention to it now. The campaign is an effort to convince the American government to cancel the debt of nations in trouble and pledge more money to end poverty and stop the AIDS pandemic in countries like Africa. ONE is asking the US government to allocate an additional one percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food to the poorest countries.

ONE is made up of a coalition of faith-based and anti-poverty organizers, so there's no need to start crying liberal bedwetting. On board are Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, and World Vision, National Basketball Association, Rock the Vote and the Millennium Campaign.

Right now, the US government is making decisions about how much money to spend on humanitarian assistance next year and the UK is poised to lead the world's wealthiest nations at the G8 summit in Scotland next month. There was a distressing article on the BBC site today that said Dubya has pushed Africa off the agenda to pump more money into the war in Iraq. Although Dubya pledged more money to Africa to combat AIDS, little has been spent. Dubya said this week, the plan to give more money to Africa "doesn't fit our budgetary process." Sending more soldiers off to die and funneling more money to the quagmire of Iraq obviously does.

Every year Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the world, spends $14.5 billion dollars repaying debts to the world's richest countries and international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Many poor countries still spend more each year on debt than on health care or education. While Dubya and his band of merry warmakers continue to sling rhetoric about spreading democracy across the globe, they are letting people die and starve in the process. I suppose that's democracy without compassion.

The ONE Campaign doesn't want your money. They just want you to sign a petition of support at the website. Do it. NOW!

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is cool. I can't wait to see this Live 8 concert.

TJ
Anonymous said…
Collin, Thanks for the concise update on "ONE"!!
I'm sending this out to EVERYone...

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