Poverty 2003 File

2003-12-17    Pope John Paul II
"The war of the powerful against the weak has, today more than ever before, created profound divisions between rich and poor. ... if there is no hope for he poor, there will be no hope for anyone, not even for the so-called rich. ... A drastic moral change is needed. ... " 
"The Bishops of the third millennium are called to do what was done by so many saintly Bishops throughout history, up to our own time. Like Saint Basil, for example, who even built at the gates of Caesarea a large hospice for those in need, a true citadel of charity..."

The same Pope John Paul 11 in Brazil July 8, 1980, when he visited a slum that is "home" to  120,000 people:
"Do not say that it is 'the will of God' that you stay in a situation of poverty, sickness, bad housing"
(The Australian, July 9, 1980)

Date: 2003-11-21 (Pros and Condoms....don't let any previous mind-set stop you from reading the whole article....well worth a few minutes)  Why BBC Was Wrong About AIDS Prevention

SPUC Director Says Science Backs Up Church's Emphasis on Chastity

LONDON, NOV. 21, 2003 (Zenit.org).- A recent television program on AIDS prevention failed to note that scientific evidence indicates the Catholic Church is right when it advocates abstinence and marital fidelity, says a pro-life observer.

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said as much in an open letter to the director general of BBC in response to the network's program "Sex and the Holy City."

The program, which was screened to coincide with the recent 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II, claimed to investigate the Church's teachings on sexuality.

Smeaton shared with ZENIT the scientific and empirical evidence that contradicts the BBC's statements, which he thinks implied that the Pope's personal views on contraception and abortion are causing misery and death in the developing world.

Q: What inspired you to write this open letter to the BBC?

Smeaton: The BBC continues to command a great deal of influence and respect around the world, but it remains accountable to virtually no one. When it makes unsubstantiated and misleading allegations of this nature, the results are very damaging for all those who work to protect human life.

SPUC is not a religious organization, but the Panorama program attacked the Catholic Church's teachings on abortion and human sexuality that we share. We felt duty-bound as a Society to expose its one-sided and inaccurate coverage of this subject.

Q: What were your main points of contention with the BBC program?

Smeaton: From beginning to end, the program presupposed that the Church's prohibition of abortion and birth control was the major cause of poverty and suffering in the developing world. This view was never once challenged in the course of the program.

In the part of the program that dealt with Nicaragua, cheap pro-abortion tactics were used unashamedly, such as the use of unreferenced figures for maternal death through illegal abortion and the portrayal of pregnant child rape-victims as the norm.

In the section on Manila, outdated Malthusian arguments were used to present contraception as the magical answer to poverty and homelessness. In the part about Kenya, the program went so far as to suggest that the Church was condemning people to death from AIDS by "peddling rumor and superstition."

We are not saying that the issues do not warrant scrutiny. Our major complaint is that the BBC made no attempt at presenting a balanced, honest and accurate report.

Q: What are the problems with using condoms as the primary solution to stopping AIDS?

Smeaton: The major problem is that they are not safe. This is not even a contentious point. The condom manufacturers themselves point this out. The issue of viral leakage is certainly open to dispute but, even simply taking into account the danger of a condom's rupturing or slipping off, the risk of HIV transmission is very real.

Condom use may reduce the risk of transmission, but to spread the message that condom use prevents AIDS is a dangerous lie. It is no good saying that the risk is "only 15%," or "only 1 in 10" when we are talking about human lives.

We have to ask ourselves whether the decision-makers and birth control advocates would be quite so cavalier if we were talking about a terminal condition that was transmitted non-sexually. For example, would health care professionals advise a chain smoker at serious risk of lung cancer to smoke cigarettes with better filters rather than giving up smoking altogether?

Worse, would they advise him to give his wife and children masks to reduce the amount of smoke they breathed in so that he could smoke freely around the house rather than telling him to act responsibly and not expose them to any risk at all?

The second major problem is that condoms encourage irresponsible behavior because people believe themselves to be better protected than they actually are. A paper entitled "Condoms and Seat Belts: The Parallels and the Lessons," which was published in a UK medical journal called The Lancet, noted that "a vigorous condom promotion policy could increase rather than decrease unprotected sexual exposure if it has the unintended effect of encouraging a greater overall level of sexual activity."

The figures bear this out. Botswana has the highest distribution of condoms, but 39% of the population is infected with AIDS. However, when the archbishop of Nairobi made the same point in a reputable medical journal, he was accused of talking "scientific nonsense."

Q: Are there independent scientific studies that back up objections to condoms?

Smeaton: Yes there are. First, to reaffirm my previous point, there is not a single scientific study I have come across that promotes condoms as 100% effective.

All reputable studies admit a failure rate caused by a variety of factors. Besides the ones already mentioned, latex is a natural substance that can degrade if stored in unsuitable conditions, if exposed to extremes of temperature or if stored for an extended length of time.

Condoms are also used incorrectly in many cases. Studies often refer to "ideal" or "consistent and proper" use compared with "typical" use, where the failure rate and associated risks are higher.

To give a couple of examples, the U.S. National Institute of Health study on condoms that was cited in the Panorama program gives a failure rate of between 1.6% and 3.6%. It also quotes an estimate from National Surveys of Family Growth that suggested that 14% of couples experienced an unintended pregnancy during the first year of "typical" condom use.

With any failure rate connected with pregnancy, one has to bear in mind that a woman can only become pregnant for between five and seven days of her cycle whereas a person can be infected with HIV at any time. Also, while a conception involves the creation of a new life regardless of how the couple considers the child, HIV infection can only ever be a tragedy.

Q: Could you explain why programs based on promoting abstinence and marital fidelity may be preferable to massive distributions of condoms?

Smeaton: Programs based on abstinence and marital fidelity are always preferable to condom distribution in the fight against AIDS -- and it is not just the Church that tells us this. The World Health Organization and the condom companies say so, too.

Now, condom companies are not exactly supporters of the "theology of the body," nor are they guardians of Christian marriage. However, even the makers of Durex condoms say quite clearly that "for complete protection from HIV and other [sexually transmitted infections], the only totally effective measure is sexual abstinence or limiting sexual intercourse to mutually faithful, uninfected partners."

The logic of abstinence and marital fidelity programs is beautifully simple and straightforward. If a person sleeps around and uses a condom, they run the risk, however reduced, of contracting HIV; yet no one has ever died as a direct result of virginity.

It is the same if a man and a woman are faithful to one another in marriage, having abstained beforehand. The Church's teaching on human sexuality is not the idealistic dream that the Panorama program claimed. It is the common-sense system by which billions of people have lived over generations.

Q: What is the success rate of AIDS prevention or reduction in areas that have abstinence and marital fidelity programs compared with areas where condoms are distributed?

Smeaton: Uganda is perhaps the biggest success story in the fight against AIDS and much of its achievement is because of changes in sexual behavior, particularly emphasis on abstinence and fidelity.

Condoms have been promoted as a last resort, but a report by USAID on Uganda found that condoms were not a major factor in the decrease in HIV transmission. In fact, the decline in transmission rates began before the widespread promotion of condoms.

Critics of abstinence claim that people are not strong enough to resist, but this is unsubstantiated propaganda. In one district of Uganda, it was noted that fewer than 5% of 13- to 16-year-olds were sexually active in 2001 compared with 60% in 1994, a significant change in sexual behavior achieved in just seven years.

Unlike some of its neighboring countries, Uganda has had a decline in HIV transmission for well over a decade and 98% of people with no education are aware of AIDS -- one of the highest awareness rates in the world.

Q: What are the best ways of changing public attitudes and the conventional wisdom about using condoms to fight AIDS?

Smeaton: We need to circulate honest, accurate information. The facts speak for themselves. Governments and aid agencies need to put aside their anti-family agendas and put their energies into programs that actually make a difference.

The public needs to be made aware that abstinence and monogamy are positive and beneficial choices for individuals and for society. No one should be condemned to die because of Western resistance to responsible sexual behavior based on a model of marital fidelity.

LONDON - 19 November 2003 (whole message inspiring, especially 2nd half))

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor Archbishop of Westminster has just given the following opening address this morning at the Conference on Economic Injustice, organised by the Vincentian Millenium Partnership and Zacchaeus 2000 Trust.

"May I first say thank you for inviting me to be with you at the start of your conference today. I consider it a privilege to be among you, and I am pleased that you are among us, the diocese of Westminster. Looking at the extraordinary diversity of organisations represented here today, it feels a bit like a gathering of the clans. I sense something of a warrior spirit in the room. I suspect you mean it when you say 'Fighting economic injustice'. I am reminded of the Duke of Wellington ­ surveying the battlefield at Waterloo and particularly the serried ranks of the Guards regiments he remarked 'They may not frighten the enemy, but by God they frighten me!!'

"I would like to pay a small tribute to the organisers of your seminar, notably the Vincentian Millennium Partnership and the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, with the support of Caritas - social action. It is hugely encouraging to see organizations such as these working together to fight injustice. The Vincentians I know well of course. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the world, as well as a range of religious orders, have worked with and for the poor, for well over two hundred years ­ all inspired by the example of St Vincent de Paul. On the 9th of November Sister Rosalie Rendu, who became a Daughter of Charity in 1802, was beatified.

"Not everyone here today will be inspired by a specifically Christian commitment. You are all fired by the values of the Gospel.

"Some say that faith is caught not taught. We could argue about that. I suspect though that a passionate commitment to campaigning for justice is certainly caught, rather than taught.

"People catch this bug because one day they meet someone, they witness something, or they experience something ­directly or through someone else ­ which turns a nagging conscience into a commitment to affect change, to stop feeling helpless, and to do something ­ however small.

"You are the kind of people who create the conditions by which this spark is caught, and passed on. It is you that someone bumped into, your article they read, or your passion which persuaded them go to a place where they experienced something that moved them deeply enough to begin the journey into justice, with all its demands.

"Recently I had the opportunity to work with someone who was described to me as having "the gift of enabling people to be courageous". What a marvellous gift of the Spirit. One of the great things about courage is that it inspires and it spreads. It is like a mustard seed. One small act of courage, of resistance, of outspoken advocacy and before you know it there is a ripple, a murmur, sometimes even a spontaneous Mexican wave. And so, not overnight but in time, one act of courage or stubbornness becomes many acts; one person's passion becomes many people's commitment and slowly things that we may never have believed possible begin to happen. The story of the early Church is a case in point ­ how a few witnesses to the truth of the resurrection prevailed, against overwhelming odds and in the face of appalling persecution, to keep the faith alive.

"I do not know precisely why Zacchaeus was chosen by some of you as emblematic of the commitment to justice to which we aspire, and which you are here today to inspire in others. But his story seems to me to be apt.

"Poor Zacchaeus. He cuts rather a comical figure ­ small even by the standards of the time ­ which I imagine means he was probably not quite five foot ­ a tax collector, so hardly the most popular man in town, and unpleasantly rich. So despite his height he would have been rather conspicuous in the middle of a crowd of ordinary tax paying Jews. But somewhere along the way he had caught somehow from somebody the spark which compelled him to find a way to see Jesus.

"Now tree climbing is not quite what would have been expected of a senior man from the Inland Revenue, so Zacchaeus surely gets marks for bucking the stereotype. Then to his amazement he finds himself not just noticed, but the centre of everyone's attention ­ which isn't always the most comfortable place to find yourself. Jesus announces he is going to stay at his house. The crowd are appalled and make it clear that this is not a popular decision.

"But Zacchaeus, Luke tells us, "stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount'.

"It seems to me that Zacchaeus is a figure to inspire us for a number of reasons:

"First because he is the wrong man in the wrong place - he knew it and he didn't care. Nor should we.

"Second because he went to extraordinary, innovative, and, for some, unseemly lengths to be seen and heard

"Third because Jesus loved him and responded instantly to his courage and generosity

"Fourth because he gave more than was strictly necessary, but in return he received more than he could ever have expected.

"And finally, because despite all the odds I am convinced that Zacchaeus' determination inspired others to be more courageous in pursuing their own vision or demands.

"We live in an age when the temptation to stay at home is greater than ever. Why bother climbing trees and getting lost in a crowd when you can stay at home and watch it all on TV. We live in an age of vicarious living. You don't need to do it, or say it, you can simply watch others doing it, or saying it for you on TV and radio. Like the couple a friend of mine overheard in the National Gallery. "Come and look at this marvellous painting". "Oh darling (says he - not even turning round) you just take a photo and I'll look at it back home".

"Nearly two million marched against the war. Thousands lobbied Parliament for Trade Justice in the summer. Millions world-wide campaigned for debt relief as part of the Jubilee 2000 campaign. I don't think governments were that keen to listen, but in the end the governments of the G8 had to because the Mexican wavers just would not resume their seats politely when invited to. Campaigning is a fundamental part of democracy.

"So however uncomfortable it feels to stick your neck out, if you believe that justice demands that you do, and in particular if you know that you can speak for those who have no voice, or who are too timid to raise it, then you must speak out, and speak out boldly.

"Sometimes getting yourself heard is difficult - but it is amazing the things people will do to overcome the problem. I think of the incredibly well networked fund-raising initiatives of the Passage raising money for the homeless with their Night Under the Stars. Or the innovative way in which Telco purchased a few shares in HSBC in order to allow one of the bank's contract cleaners Abdul Durrant the necessary platform to address his concerns directly to the bank Chairman Sir John Bond, and his shareholders. Or the way that Caritas has brought very different organizations together to facilitate their speaking with a single powerful voice at the national level.

"Effective campaigning requires imagination as well as courage. But if we are campaigning in the name of justice, justice demands that we treat everyone with respect. Bank chairmen and shareholders have consciences too.

"It is impossible not to be impressed by the example of some of the leading figures behind this conference ­ I will spare their blushes by naming them. You give of your time, energy, commitment, intelligence and enthusiasm with great generosity. I am not an economist, and I know that there are arguments to be had about for example the level of the minimum wage, about what level of income it takes to reasonably support a family in London, and so on. My personal belief is that those who you seek to influence are probably less impressed by your facts and figures than by your passion, your self-belief, your determination, your unrelenting zeal, and your generosity of spirit.

"I began by saying that I believe that a commitment to justice is caught not taught. Some ­ including some of our politicians - catch it very early. Within our churches, and within all the faith communities, in this country there is a strong commitment to equality between peoples, regardless of birth or race or creed or colour. I believe that our Christian Churches can be proud of their commitment to social justice. I am certainly proud that Catholic social teaching helps to inspire thousands of Catholics to campaign for economic and social justice. We are very proud of the work of Caritas - social action, and its many constituent organisations, here at home and of CAFOD, working with partners overseas to fight poverty and injustice.

"We still have a great deal to learn, and a long way to go. We need to ask questions of ourselves ­ do we do enough, for example, to educate and encourage our young people to be alive to the injustices in our social and economic structures? And we need to question to what extent our culture actively conspires with the dominant free-market ethos of our time to encourage passive consumerism, rather than an active citizenship. There is a real danger that the couch-potato of today will become the disenfranchised, debt-ridden consumer of tomorrow.

"Our politicians know that, and they must be concerned. There are signs that the leaders of industry are beginning to understand that the free market cannot ride roughshod over fundamental principles of justice and equality. And that matters of principle and conscience must play a part in the workings of our economy and its relations with other economies and peoples across the world. Globalisation is not benefiting everyone ­ far from it.

" What we cannot, and should not accept, is that our own culture contribute to the maintenance or spread of injustice. conomic injustice disfigures society. We must fight to reclaim those aspects of our culture ­ and economic justice for all is one - which have been suborned, or marginalized - by greed, by apathy or by indifference.

"Thank you for what you are doing to make just such a change realisable."

2003-10-20     A Canadian Boy Who Slakes Africa's Thirst

Ryan Hreljac and His Well Foundation

ROME, OCT. 20, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Twelve-year-old Ryan Hreljac is one of the people who work hardest against Africa's lack of water.

Last Thursday, that feat helped lead to his receiving Communion from the hands of John Paul II himself, at the 25th anniversary Mass of the Pope's pontificate.

Ryan's story began in 1997. One day the 6-year-old from Kemptville, Ontario, asked his parents, Mark and Susan, to give him $70 for poor people in Africa.

"They don't have clean water to drink," the little boy explained. "They drink bad water from swamps and streams and get sick and die. We heard about them in school today. My teacher said it would cost $70 to dig them a well. So can I have it?"

Ryan's parents were proud of their son's generosity, yet they could not picture people digging wells in Africa for a Canadian first-grader.

As usual, Ryan kneeled at his bed that night and prayed: "Please, God, bless Mom and Dad and my two brothers. And let there be clean water for everybody in Africa."

Mark and Susan encouraged Ryan to earn the money by doing extra chores, in addition to setting the table, feeding the dog and making his own bed. For many weeks the boy washed the windows, swept the garage, helped the neighbors with their yard work, picked up branches after ice storms, collected pine cones for his grandmother to use in her craft projects.

Each night his prayers ended with the then familiar "And please help me get clean water for the poor people in Africa."

Four months later, Susan and Ryan went to WaterCan's office, an Ottawa-based organization that digs wells in Africa. Ryan presented his savings to the organization's director, Nicole Bosley, who thanked him and told him that $70 only buys a hand pump. To drill a well actually cost $2,000.

Ryan was not fazed by this news. "That's OK," he said. "I'll just do more chores."

Ryan did more chores throughout the spring, the summer and the fall, earning only a few dollars a week. A friend of Susan, Brenda, published a story about Ryan's project in the local paper, the Kemptville Advance.

Some funds trickled in from sympathetic readers. Later, the Ottawa Citizen ran a story about "Ryan's Well." Then a TV station did a feature on the now 7-year-old boy. Checks flooded until Ryan approached the $1,000 mark. Then the Canadian International Development Agency, which works with WaterCan, matched Ryan's funds two to one.

Ryan and his mother were invited to a special WaterCan meeting, where Ryan and Gizaw Shibru, the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR) director for Uganda, picked the location for the well, Angolo Primary School.

Shibru explained the well would be dug by hand, because even a small drill costs $25,000. "Maybe I can start raising money for a drill so you can build more wells," the little boy said.

Ryan immediately got back to fund raising. His younger brother Keegan helped out by licking and sealing envelopes while Jordan, his older brother, prepared the audiovisual equipment for Ryan's presentations.

After his homework, Ryan went out to speak at various service clubs. The more he spoke, the more donations came in. Ryan's second-grade class put a donation can in their room and started a pen-pal campaign with the Angolo Primary students. Ryan's pen pal was Jimmy Akana, an 8-year-old orphan.

In January 1999, the Hreljacs received word that Ryan's well was helping a great many thirsty villagers. Ryan prayed that night for something more: "God, please look after my friends Jimmy and Gizaw, and let me see my well some day." Ryan's parents explained to their son that they could start saving for a trip to Uganda but he might be 12 years old before they had saved enough.

On New Year's Day 2000, Beverly and Bruce Paynter, the Hreljacs' next-door neighbors, gave the Hreljacs all their frequent-flier miles, more than enough for three people to fly as far as London, England. With those miles and some generous support from others, Mark, Susan and Ryan flew to Africa in July.

With Gizaw Shibru they arrived at Angolo in a pickup truck, where hundreds of people along the road chanted, "Rayan! Rayan! Rayan!"

Scores of children in blue and white uniforms lined the road and clapped in unison as Ryan walked the last yards toward the well, which was adorned with flowers, and had this inscription at its base: Ryan's Well, Funded by Ryan H.

At that moment, Ryan and Jimmy met for the first time. They grasped the well handle and pumped forth a cool stream. They cupped their hands to catch the water and drank the water both boys dreamt about for a long time.

After the trip, Canadian Olympic gold-medalist wrestler Daniel Igali wrote Ryan asking him to help build wells in Nigeria, Daniel's birthplace, where he was building a school. Ryan and Igali spoke together in schools and appeared on the popular morning TV show "Canada AM." Later, they went to Nigeria to see the fruits of their labor.

Ryan has participated in many Canadian and international conferences, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development -- the Johannesburg Summit that took place in August-September 2002, and the World Water Forum and the Children's World Water Forum held in Japan in 2003, where, at the request of UNICEF, Ryan delivered presentations and sat on several panels, including the Asian Development Bank's Water and Poverty Closing Plenary Session.

He has appeared twice on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and a number of TV shows. His successful Ryan's Well documentary has been featured at the Wine Valley Film Festival-Movies in California and at the first Boston International Film Festival.

In April 2001, the little boy founded the Ryan's Well Foundation and to date, thanks to matching funds from groups like CPAR, Ryan's been responsible for raising almost $1 million and building over 70 wells in Africa.

Yet, as his mother says, "Ryan doesn't think he's special at all. He says that not everyone is called to drill wells, but everyone is called to make some difference in the world around, by helping a sibling, for instance, in his homework."

Getting others to help is "sort of like a dandelion," says Ryan. "When the wind blows, the seeds go everywhere. I'm trying to let people know they need to help out, too."

The Herljacs do not only help out scores of people they never meet. Once they found out that Jimmy Akana, Ryan's old pen pal, was an orphan and escaped miraculously from becoming a child-soldier for the Lord's Resistance Army, they worked against all odds to finally get the permission from the Canadian immigration service to adopt the Ugandan boy. Jimmy today enjoys a family of three brothers in Kemptville, Ontario.

Susan and Ryan recently spoke at the Municipal Square in Cremona, Italy, and at several schools in north Italy. They went to Rome and received Communion from the Pope on the silver anniversary of his pontificate. It was a grace they never dreamed about.

God's grace and loving hearts can make dreams -- and things bigger than dreams -- real. "God puts us on earth, but he doesn't make us perfect on purpose," Ryan said once in a television interview. "If God made us perfect, we wouldn't need to make the world a better place."

For more information on Ryan's Well Foundation see: (www.ryanswell.ca) or write: ryan@ryanswell.ca.

One billion now live in slums
By Nick Wadhams in New York
October 7, 2003

ABOUT a sixth of the world's population – nearly a billion people – live in slums, and that number could double by 2030, a United Nations report warns.

This urban disaster is tipped to unfold unless developed nations reverse course and start giving the issue serious attention.

The UN Human Settlements Program's report is the first to assess slums and examine how widespread they are. Its main concern is the developing nations in Asia and Africa because the migration from rural areas to cities in Europe and the Americas has largely played out.

The report's main finding is stark: Almost half the world's urban population lives in slums. Asia has the largest number of slum dwellers, with 554 million, while sub-Saharan Africa has the largest percentage of its urban population living in slums – about 71 per cent.

"In some developing country cities, slums are so pervasive that it is the rich who have to segregate themselves behind small gated enclaves," the report said.

The report describes slums as poor areas that lack basic services or access to clean water, where housing is poorly built and overcrowded. Developed nations are not immune: According to the report, 54 million people who live in cities in richer nations live in slum-like conditions.

The report says that the worldwide number of slum dwellers increased by 36 per cent in the 1990s to 923 million people. At its current pace, the number could double to two billion by 2030.

The 310-page document, titled The Challenge of Slums, traces the economic factors that influence the growth of slums, lays out responses to alleviate them and discusses how slums differ from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Nairobi, Kenya, to Bangkok.

"We have all known for a long time that all is not as it should be," said UN Under Secretary-General Anna Tibaijuka.

"Slums are not really worthy of the affluence of the times in which we live."

UN officials said that is a clear sign that the world is not meeting a goal it set in 2000 to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, and said even that goal is far too narrow in scope. The promise was laid out in a declaration adopted by 189 countries at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

"The problem is of great magnitude and countries and the international community basically need to do much more than improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers," said Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza, chief policy analyst for UN-Habitat.

Developed countries such as the US paid lip service to reducing poverty and the spread of slums, but haven't backed up their promises with cash, said Jeffrey Sachs, an adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Courier-Mail

2003-09-17  Latest Caritas "Ozspirit" Bulletin (no. 59) is on Poverty. Excellent

Sunday September 14, 2003  Worlds apart  -  Poverty takes centre-stage in Cancun
The Observer

The world's poorest nations seldom get the chance to frighten the super-rich. But at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun they have done just that. An awesome alliance between Brazil, China and India, representing half the world's population, said it would be better to have no new trade deal than a bad deal.

The significance of this new force may not be felt until after Cancun. But if these three nations were to forge closer links, the United States and Europe would not be able to ignore them, nor their emergence at the head of the 'G23' - the ad hoc alliance of poor countries which argues that the world trading regime is organised for the sole benefit of America and Europe.

They have a strong case. Over the six days of the Cancun meeting, 30,000 people died of hunger and the world trade system must take some blame. While rich countries protect their industries and farmers with subsidies, weak nations are obliged to open their markets in the name of 'free trade'. Last year, for example, the US passed a law giving its farmers $180bn over ten years.

Europe is little better, despite boasts that it is reforming (for far from altruistic reasons) the Common Agricultural Policy. With little but this promise of change in ten years' time, the EU is asking countries such as Brazil and India to show a willingness to compromise. This is disingenuous. The subsidies in question reward, for example, the Duke of Westminster in Britain and Ted Turner in the US, while putting poor farmers out of business. Such double standards shame us. Nor are they in our interests. Terrorism and lawlessness thrive where poverty and despair are met with injustice.

We hope that in the final hours of Cancun, Europe and the US recognise that growth in the developing world is a goal worth fighting, and paying, for.

One fifth of the world's peoples uses four fifths of the world's resources

Below   US$1.00 per day people:  (2001)

Urgently needed: more HOSPICES for people dying of AIDS in Africa. Tens of thousands of AIDS patients are dying at home with no-one to look after them, wash their clothes, tend to their boils, provide anti-pain medicines.
(BBC World Service Radio:  "Tell it as it is" 08-12-2000)

The  Face of  Poverty:  "More than half the people in the world live on less than US$2.00 per day"  (World Bank report, September 2000)

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead
and a place to sleep.....You are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish
some place.....You are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you can read this message.....You are more blessed than
over one billion people in the world who cannot read at all.