Make Poverty History!!!

[Bangel]

Only (the) Africa(n Government) can help Africa. And (the) Africa(n Government) doesn't want to.

Summed up my entire opinion on the matter with those two sentences.

[Ken]

I agree with alot of things SpiraLethe said.

My grandparents work for the UN and they needed my parents for something out in Africa. So my parents also decided to take us (me and my sister) along because they didn't want to leave us home alone.

We didn't know what we were in for. The moment we got there it was ABSOLUTE heartbreak. I felt so useless. I saw so many starving children and crying moms because they couldn't feed their children. I also learned that the slums of Nairobi holds 400,000 people.

I can tell you the experience changed my life forever.

[Kitten Medli]

Only Africa can help Africa. And Africa doesnt want to.

That isn't true, Jim. I doubt people enjoy living in poverty. Its the "higher powers" that don't want to help.

Not meaning to start a debate or anything. But I believe if you say "Country A is going to give aid to Country B", you actually mean the government of Country A is going to give money to Country B.

Only (the) Africa(n Government) can help Africa. And (the) Africa(n Government) doesn't want to.

Huh.

I meant, its the African government that doesn't wanna do anything. If you missunderstood me.

[Sapphire Faerie]

You know, one of the things most people fail to realize is that the Make Poverty History/ONE organization is not just about feeding money into Africa. The minds behind this realize that that is not the way to solve the problems in Africa.

I have an LJ icon:



A lot of people don't quite get what the text means. It's actually from a song, but the message is the same as that of MPH/ONE. Charity to Africa will solve nothing. It helps, but it won't make the problem go away.
Justice is what's needed. The goal is to get these countries back on their feet so that they don't have to rely on charity. The goal is to try to eradicate some of that government corruption. In many countries, the money is not being given directly to the governments at all, but instead being fed through volunteers on the ground, bringing the food, medication, supplies, etc. directly to the people in need.

[SpiraLethe]

How are these organisations attempting to bring justice to the African people and relieve corruption? I'm not trying to be patronising. I'd really like to know.

[Sapphire Faerie]

This is where I point to DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), which is directly affiliated with MPH/ONE:

DATA advocates a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the crises of poverty and disease that plague the African continent. For humanitarian, economic and security reasons, DATA is asking for a real commitment from richer countries to:

Relieve unpayable debts — Many African countries are paying more in old debts to rich countries than they pay for health care or education for their own people! These countries have developed clear and budgeted plans for how they could fight poverty if only the resources were available and debt relief is one way to provide those resources. The rich countries that have already committed to forgiving African debt need to follow through and they also need to work with the World Bank and the IMF to forgive the debts owed to these international organizations.

Fight the AIDS crisis — Africa is home to 30 million living with HIV/AIDS; 6,500 die every day and there are already 11 million orphans. AIDS is a global emergency and the whole world needs to work together to fight it. It will cost more than $10 billion per year to fight this killer; so far, we're spending less than half that amount. Every year we wait to fully fight the epidemic, more people die and the overall cost of stopping AIDS gets bigger. Rich countries need to work with Africa to raise the money needed, to fight the stigma attached to living with AIDS, and to make sure the drugs that are needed to fight AIDS and other diseases are available to Africans.

Provide more development assistance — Development assistance is critical to helping countries pay for education, health care, clean water, roads and other development priorities. We've set a global goal of dedicating 0.7% of our nations' wealth on the poor people of the world — but most rich countries aren't even close to that goal. While increasing the quantity of development assistance, we also need to improve the quality of development to make sure that every dollar, euro, and yen we send is as effective as possible.

Make trade fair so that Africa can work to boost its own economic growth — Africa is currently limited in its ability to earn resources through trade because international trade rules limit Africans' ability to sell their products abroad and allow for U.S. and European goods to be 'dumped' into African markets at disproportionately low prices. The U.S. should open its market quota and duty free to all African exports and remove agricultural subsidies which hurt African farmers.

We're not asking for cookie-cutter solutions or band-aids. We're looking for the richer countries of the world to stand up and say enough is enough. Only by making a long-term commitment can the U.S. truly help Africa achieve the internationally agreed upon Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty in half.

DATA also stands for Democracy, Accountability and Transparency. DEBT cancellation, help in the fight against AIDS, and TRADE reform should be increased for those countries which are DEMOCRATIC, ACCOUNTABLE, and TRANSPARENT. Where those things happen, people can see how assistance money is being spent, and insist that it be spent well. And if assistance is being spent well, donors like us will be more likely to give more of it. Many African countries are working hard to make progress in these areas through the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), a plan for African leaders to help each other end conflict, fight poverty, and increase democracy and political freedom.

The way in which development assistance has been given in the past has often actually encouraged corruption and waste. That must end. Giving aid to countries with democratic, accountable, and transparent governments means that citizens have a voice in where assistance goes (democratic); that they can hold their government responsible for keeping its promises (accountable) and that they can see whether international assistance in fact goes where it is supposed to go (transparent). Done right, development assistance and debt cancellation can encourage more democracy and openness, by giving more people a voice in their own societies. This makes development assistance work twice as hard for Africa's poor.

[SpiraLethe]

I've already read that when I looked through the site. It's mostly just rhetoric. I want to know what they're actually doing and what's been done. This includes who they're working with and doing what, which governments are involved and on what level, etc. Although I do commend them for the last two paragraphs.

[Igg]

I would like to point out that Africa is a continent, not a country. Thank you.

[Asparagus Queen]

South Africa is a country, and so is Central African Republic, but otherwise, yeah, it's a continent.

I agree that the way to help Africa is not by throwing money at them (or food, or whatever), but by helping to set up ways to make the countries better. You see all these charities, foundations, etc going and 'helping' these people, but they feed them, give them a pair of jeans and some shoes, and leave. 3 months later, the shoes are worn out, the jeans are ripped, and the food's gone. Then what? They wait for another charity.

[Jamie]

I recently read a book called Hospital On The River, it's a biography about a family who run a small hospital in Africa that specialises in repairing the damage that frequently occurs when a young girl has a child.

Anyway, that book really opened my eyes up to the true problems in Africa. The book is based in Ethiopia (that's where this hospital is), it's also made me appreciate Africa alot more, the people moreso then the governments.

Anyway, I'm all for helping Africa and sponsoring children, but it will never be enough. They need to enforce a government, a working government working towards fixing the problems that only they can fix.

[Alex]

I have 3 bands lying around the house, and another two I gave to friends.

I wear one of them every day (the UK one, I don't like the black writing), as well as a pink Diva/National Breast Cancer Foundation

[Xil]

DATA advocates a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the crises of poverty and disease that plague the African continent. For humanitarian, economic and security reasons, DATA is asking for a real commitment from richer countries to:

Relieve unpayable debts — Many African countries are paying more in old debts to rich countries than they pay for health care or education for their own people! These countries have developed clear and budgeted plans for how they could fight poverty if only the resources were available and debt relief is one way to provide those resources. The rich countries that have already committed to forgiving African debt need to follow through and they also need to work with the World Bank and the IMF to forgive the debts owed to these international organizations.

Fight the AIDS crisis — Africa is home to 30 million living with HIV/AIDS; 6,500 die every day and there are already 11 million orphans. AIDS is a global emergency and the whole world needs to work together to fight it. It will cost more than $10 billion per year to fight this killer; so far, we're spending less than half that amount. Every year we wait to fully fight the epidemic, more people die and the overall cost of stopping AIDS gets bigger. Rich countries need to work with Africa to raise the money needed, to fight the stigma attached to living with AIDS, and to make sure the drugs that are needed to fight AIDS and other diseases are available to Africans.

Provide more development assistance — Development assistance is critical to helping countries pay for education, health care, clean water, roads and other development priorities. We've set a global goal of dedicating 0.7% of our nations' wealth on the poor people of the world — but most rich countries aren't even close to that goal. While increasing the quantity of development assistance, we also need to improve the quality of development to make sure that every dollar, euro, and yen we send is as effective as possible.

Make trade fair so that Africa can work to boost its own economic growth — Africa is currently limited in its ability to earn resources through trade because international trade rules limit Africans' ability to sell their products abroad and allow for U.S. and European goods to be 'dumped' into African markets at disproportionately low prices. The U.S. should open its market quota and duty free to all African exports and remove agricultural subsidies which hurt African farmers.

We're not asking for cookie-cutter solutions or band-aids. We're looking for the richer countries of the world to stand up and say enough is enough. Only by making a long-term commitment can the U.S. truly help Africa achieve the internationally agreed upon Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty in half.

I've always found most Charitable Organizations incredibly repetitive and very uninforming. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping people in need, but throwing money at a cause never got anything done, expect, maybe paying for the sandwiches at the meetings these people have. it's really just making people feel good about themselves by writing a bunch of inspiring lines: "We're looking for the richer countries of the world to stand up and say enough is enough."

There's also an incredibly constructed formula writing these types of things. They all start with a negative positive negative positive run of facts, with no real content. They've actually managed to say less by saying more.

DATA is an ambitious thing, however, it doesnt state the how. How do you fight the stigma against AIDS in a place where a good poriton of the people living with it are totally ignorant to the fact? There isn't a TV in every residency there, you can't just make up commercials were Bono is yelling at people that they have AIDS and that it's A-OK.

A lot of these countries and smaller communities require a great deal of reform before we throw any more money at them. The highest on social class/heirarchies absorb any cashflow we give them, and balancing trade wont suddenly make the poorer side of communities have places to sleep and food to put on the table.

[halfbakedbliss]

So you got the email from Bono, too, eh?

Actually mine came in the form of him displaying flashy ONE lights and religious symbols while talking about ONE at a U2 concert.

It was bizzare.

But we did have a fun time reading out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

[Light]

DATA advocates a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the crises of poverty and disease that plague the African continent. For humanitarian, economic and security reasons, DATA is asking for a real commitment from richer countries to:

Relieve unpayable debts — Many African countries are paying more in old debts to rich countries than they pay for health care or education for their own people! These countries have developed clear and budgeted plans for how they could fight poverty if only the resources were available and debt relief is one way to provide those resources. The rich countries that have already committed to forgiving African debt need to follow through and they also need to work with the World Bank and the IMF to forgive the debts owed to these international organizations.

Fight the AIDS crisis — Africa is home to 30 million living with HIV/AIDS; 6,500 die every day and there are already 11 million orphans. AIDS is a global emergency and the whole world needs to work together to fight it. It will cost more than $10 billion per year to fight this killer; so far, we're spending less than half that amount. Every year we wait to fully fight the epidemic, more people die and the overall cost of stopping AIDS gets bigger. Rich countries need to work with Africa to raise the money needed, to fight the stigma attached to living with AIDS, and to make sure the drugs that are needed to fight AIDS and other diseases are available to Africans.

Provide more development assistance — Development assistance is critical to helping countries pay for education, health care, clean water, roads and other development priorities. We've set a global goal of dedicating 0.7% of our nations' wealth on the poor people of the world — but most rich countries aren't even close to that goal. While increasing the quantity of development assistance, we also need to improve the quality of development to make sure that every dollar, euro, and yen we send is as effective as possible.

Make trade fair so that Africa can work to boost its own economic growth — Africa is currently limited in its ability to earn resources through trade because international trade rules limit Africans' ability to sell their products abroad and allow for U.S. and European goods to be 'dumped' into African markets at disproportionately low prices. The U.S. should open its market quota and duty free to all African exports and remove agricultural subsidies which hurt African farmers.

We're not asking for cookie-cutter solutions or band-aids. We're looking for the richer countries of the world to stand up and say enough is enough. Only by making a long-term commitment can the U.S. truly help Africa achieve the internationally agreed upon Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty in half.

I've always found most Charitable Organizations incredibly repetitive and very uninforming. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping people in need, but throwing money at a cause never got anything done, expect, maybe paying for the sandwiches at the meetings these people have. it's really just making people feel good about themselves by writing a bunch of inspiring lines: "We're looking for the richer countries of the world to stand up and say enough is enough."

There's also an incredibly constructed formula writing these types of things. They all start with a negative positive negative positive run of facts, with no real content. They've actually managed to say less by saying more.

DATA is an ambitious thing, however, it doesnt state the how. How do you fight the stigma against AIDS in a place where a good poriton of the people living with it are totally ignorant to the fact? There isn't a TV in every residency there, you can't just make up commercials were Bono is yelling at people that they have AIDS and that it's A-OK.

A lot of these countries and smaller communities require a great deal of reform before we throw any more money at them. The highest on social class/heirarchies absorb any cashflow we give them, and balancing trade wont suddenly make the poorer side of communities have places to sleep and food to put on the table.

Nothing gets done, when you give to African Governments. Even if you throw money at them, to a charitable organisation nothing will happen. There needs to be a huge reform in Africa, and im not talking about the war-bush-kinda style reform.

[Asthaloth]

Africa is corrupt, no two ways of saying it.
Stop beating around the bush people, it helps no-one.