Month: October 2010
Charity Doesn’t Solve Anything
Can we criticise Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (the Mexican billionaire listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man) for his perspective on what makes change happen:
The only way to fight poverty is with employment. Trillions of dollars have been given to charity in the last 50 years, and they don’t solve anything. … To give 50 percent, 40 percent, that does nothing. There is a saying that we should leave a better country to our children. But it’s more important to leave better children to our country.
His comment was in relation to the “Giving Pledge” promoted by Bill and Melinda Gates (that those with loads of money should give away half). Carlos has given a considerable amount already to the Gates Foundation. This was reported in the Wall Street Journal after Carlos’ comments in Sydney recently, and commented as a post on the blog Good by Patrick James.
I don’t think it is a simple as saying he is right or wrong, or that rich people should give more because they have more to give. Ethically, can we determine how someone should use their discretionary money any more than we should with each of our time (the one resource we all have in common).
Personally, I disagree with the proposition. We have confused the word ‘charity’ which is supposed to be a verb meaning to help others with its more contemporary use as a noun defining an organisational status. “A charity” doesn’t solve anything. People do. And how do people do this? Through charity. By being charitable, by showing love to others less fortunate than themselves. This is the only way to change the world.
Money is just a means to an end.
Get Real. Have cause marketing campaigns lost their way?
Pinkwashing. Can the pink ribbon be saved from corporate cause marketing, and actually mean something for women’s health?
This is what Mia Davis asks in her provocative article Next Year, Let’s Skip Breast Cancer Awareness Month on the blog Good.
Is it just me, or do others also think ‘awareness raising campaigns’ have lost their way as they have become all the more entwined with corporate brand and marketing. Reputation, image and market share seem to rule.
My mother has had breast cancer, so I have seen the effect it can have on a family. I have a sister as well, and am an uncle to her two young daughters. I do care about this cause.
My point is that the awareness raising missing the mark. Buying ‘pink ribbons and pink teddy-bears’ gives a chance for people to make a transaction so that they can say “I have done my bit”. Charity is sold out as a transaction. And how has that actually changed anything? Where has the money gone? Is this just another example of commodification of doing good?
A close friend whose wife has recently been diagnosed with the return of breast cancer was complaining to me about the emptiness of some cause-marketing campaigns. Where do survivors of breast cancer go to receive counselling or help?
Awareness raising can be so much more effective. How do we move forward from here?
Connect ideas, don’t protect them. Build bridges to a better future.
This morning at Sydney Coffee Mornings meeting at Single Origin, my mate Gregg was talking about seeing ideas as networks echoing a TED Talk. That this conversation was in a cafe was not a coincidence, but only exemplified what the talk was about. Watch Steve Johnson present this TED Talk here:
Steve talks about metaphor. Coffee houses providing the incubation place for an idea.
He cautions that a lot of ideas have a slow incubation period. The falacy of the ‘Eureka!’ moment. The long hunch, as he describes it. Steve asks:
How do we allow hunches to connect with other hunches?
Another metaphor I am exploring through the 10 City Bridge Run is that of a bridge. How might we design a bridge to incubate the ideas that make a difference to extreme poverty?
Soon I start running 10 sub-marathons each of 24 km in 10 cities across 10 countries inside of one month. Each distance represents the 24,000 children that die every day. The run itself is bridging cities, conversations and communities.
The real work of participation is collecting 24,000 photographs of human bridges to be used as a pictorial petition to be presented to the G20 leaders. This is an idea that is emerging and still needs some work to refine and spread. So how do we allow hunches to connect with other hunches?
Will you join us over the next few weeks before I commence running during an informal event: ’10 Cafes in 10 Days’? I thought we could start at Single Origin Roasters Cafe at 64 Reservoir St, Surry Hills on Wednesday 27 October (how is 8.30 am- 9.30 am?) and see where it goes from there. Coffee anyone?!
Women Are Heroes
The power of the photograph and film is evident here.
From this year’s TED Prize winner, JR.
Engaging, emotional, inspiring.
Watch it now.
The 10 City Bridge Run aims to influence child mortality through a creative process of inquiry. This is a human challenge- child mortality. Money and aid are important, as is institutional involvement. I believe that ultimately what the collective global citizenry do matters most.
Together, we can influencing the outcome of Millennium Development Goal 4 by building a bridge to the G20. The G20 has the political will to make global change happen very quickly, if it chooses to do so. But to do so requires effort and participation from us.
Help us to build the bridge. Thanks for the inspiration JR!
A 5th Birthday Party Should Not Be A Luxury
On Tuesday I heard two talks which supported the International Women’s Development Agency, or better known by its acronym IWDA.
Rosaria Martin da Cruz from HIAM Health in Timor Leste spoke at both events. She is an articulate woman who was able to paint a picture of life in Timor Leste, and how that was so different to what people might experience in Australia.
The first talk was a lunchtime gathering- it was small and intimate, and really showed the benefits and strengths to be found in partnerships.
The second event was an evening gathering which was well stage-managed and more a series of well connected sound bites presented from World Vision. I preferred the intimacy of the lunchtime discussion.
Some speakers at the evening gathering made some excellent points, and spoke from the heart. Questions around why are the most vulnerable forgotten. Questions asking us what we were going to do about it.
The global figures for child mortality were appropriately described as “a shocking violation of childrens’ rights” by Louise Baur, Professor and Deputy Associate Dean of Paediatrics and Child Health at The University of Sydney. “We all have a more responsibility to help”.
Michael Dibley, the Associate Professor in International Public Health at The University of Sydney argued that children are the living messages to be sent forth to the next generation. A really important point.
The Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir who is also the Chancellor of The University of Sydney spoke strongly “in her capacity not only as Chancellor, Governor, medical professional, but also mother and grandmother”. She argued that experiencing a fifth birthday party in Australia was not a luxury, but was so for too many children particularly in Africa.
Even looking at the child mortality figures between Timor Leste and Australia shows how unacceptable this huge gap really is: 97 deaths per 1,000 children under the age of five in Timor Lester compared with a ratio of less than 5 deaths per 1,000 children in Australia.
We need to build bridges to become better informed. These bridges will help to close this gap in small ways by increasing our awareness and our capacity to act. Money alone is not the answer.
The Governor went on to make some startling comparisons:
When you consider that over 6 million children die each year from pnuemonia and diarrhoea, diseases we readily have the prevention for, the cost of which is less than a postage stamp per child, how can we continue to make 5th birthday parties an occasion to be a luxury for only some to enjoy?
Consider that Harry Potter books have been translated into 67 languages, yet we still lack the ability to distribute oral hydration- are our priorities wrong? Do those people not count?!
Her summary? A blunt and disappointed observation: “Not good enough.”
Stop and listen to someone else’s story: Be the bridge
Get inspired!
Each one of us can do amazing things in the world. Take the time to listen to another today- build a bridge to understand them better.
We all have an enormous capacity for love. Void if not used before use by date (death).
Jessica Jackley co-founder of Kiva tells her personal story here at TED. It is an emotional appeal.
How can you be the bridge for another today?
What are people saying about the G20?
Looking ahead toward Seoul, what did people have to say about what took place in Toronto last June? Here are a few observations from the blog Sherpa from a range of NGO speaking on the broad topic of ‘development’:
- The Global Campaign for Education expressed disappointment that the G20 did not progress further on a financial transaction tax that could go someway to filling the gap in funding left by the G8.
- Save the Children called on the G20 to broaden their impact as a forum.
- Save the Children US said the G-20 isn’t moving quickly enough to offer the kind of global economic leadership that ensures balanced growth and stability by improving the resilience of the world’s poor. The agency saw some encouraging language on narrowing the development gap, but it took no major, new action at this summit beyond establishing a working group and and reaffirming the importance of food security.
- Oxfam says the G20 has drawn a blank on poverty.
- WWF warned that sustainable economic recovery needed more than brief platitudes from the G20 on green recovery than what it delivered in Toronto. The agency said that the world leaders were still painting the economy in black and white but it must inlude green.
- Actionaid UK said the G20 was bankrupt as the leaders lacked ideas and and any willingness to compromise. The organisation said the communique would be forgotten before the day was over.
- World Vision applauded and welcomed the cancellation of Haiti’s International Financial Institutions (IFI) debt and the creation of G20 Working Group on development. The organisation did express concern that the development agenda is taking a back seat to economic growth.
- Tearfund said the G20 was a missed opportunity to show leadership on climate justice and to set a path to get back on track for a global deal post 2012.
- Greenpeace said “important progress was made today in ending fossil fuels”.
- Make Poverty History expressed concern that the G20 dealing with budget deficits through cutting back on government services will end up hurting the poor.
- The ONE Campaign issues a statement at the end of the G20 Summit stating that the two working groups created in Toronto on development and on anti-corruption needed to focus on improving governance and mutual accountability.
- The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) said the G20 summit showed an unfortunate lack of political will to fight poverty by delaying key actions such as the Robin Hood Tax and investing in clean energy and ending fossil fuel subsidies. The group also said the G20 needs to include Africa as a regular member. The group welcomed the establishment of a Working Group on Development.
Black Africa
Hans Rosling argues that the time has come to stop thinking of Sub-Saharan Africa as one place. They are such diverse countries.
If we are going to change our perspective on extreme poverty, maybe we should first get better fidelity on where the problems actually are, rather than massing it all together: ’22 of the world’s poorest countries are found in sub-Sarahan Africa’.
I am as guilty as the next person to have looked through this generalised view.
No need to throw the baby out with the bath-water. I think sub-Saharan Africa still has its utility as describing a geographic region. I guess we should be careful that it does not become as catch-all for all that we here.
Let’s start looking for the good as well as the bad.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara.
It contrasts with North Africa, which is considered a part of the Arab world.
Ideas as Bridges
Melinda Gates provides an engaging perspective about what would define a better world in this TED Talk.
Great to see that the better half of one of the world’s richest men has her priority on things that really matter. Her belief: it is possible to globally eradicate polio.
How does she define happiness? Holding a healthy baby in her arms.
Look to the innovators. Here she uses Coca-Cola as a case study. This is an example of ideas as bridges. This is the potential of the 10 City Bridge Run. Connecting people, ideas and places. Join us!
Winning the war against child mortality
The Loveable and Avuncular Hans Rosling returns to give another outstanding TED Talk about how we are winning the war against child mortality.
Hans is a brilliant communicator and makes the complex simple. This 15 minute is worth watch to move beyond theory and understand how progress has been made.
Building Bridges 