Millennium Development Goals unmet says L.A. Times
--------------------
September 5 2008 via latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com
The world's wealthy nations have failed to live up to a pledge to help reduce global poverty and disease.The complete article from the opinion section can be viewed at:
At the turn of the century, 22 wealthy nations, including the United States, vowed to dramatically increase their foreign aid commitments in order to meet 15 goals aimed at reducing poverty and disease in the developing world. The vow to achieve those Millennium Development Goals is reaffirmed every year by leaders of the Group of 8 nations -- yet they are making remarkably little effort to keep it. Not only is development assistance failing to rise as quickly as promised, it has actually been falling in real dollars for the last two years, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-aid5-2008sep05,0,797815.story. A supporting story can be found in their online Science files section, on other links it's the Health section. I find that categorization a bit strange, seems more like world news to me. Clicking on the Sphere Related Content link above this post demonstrates that most of the news is from focused blogs and sites.
Here are more from other major news sources.
Three years ago, the world was ready to mount a new attack on poverty - The... from the Boston Globe at Boston.com.
Donors’ Aid to Poor Nations Declines, U.N. Reports - NYTimes.com from The New York Times.
The point is not that this is not known, but that a major newspapers are saying it, but is that enough? It would have been better if they had directed people to more information on the meeting they spoke about (though some of the online article is hyperlinked), and if they said it more than every seven years. It seems that this newspapers are taking a "politically-correct" institutional stand, but they, and I would argue, nobody else is really doing an effective job of reaching the average person. Let me give my excuse up front, I have only been doing this a month part-time. It seems that the largest planetary collective undertaken to define our future is only being dealt with by government bureaucrats and left-wing progressives, no offense, I am a bit of both.
I realize that I am responsible for my own ignorance. Trouble is that as with most people, I did not realize that I was ignorant. It took somebody from across the globe to educate me on this. I also did not realize, until fairly recently, that I have tools not only to help eradicate not only my own ignorance but that of others as well. This blog is the consequence.
