Here is an interview that David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World did with Spotlight on Poverty on the current budget and its effect on poor people here and abroad. To watch the interview click here.
This is an important issue; the proposed budget cuts are targeting those who are most vulnerable.
Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts
May 2011
The most alarming provisions of H.R. 1, the House spending bill discussed in this issue’s front-page story, affect some of the poorest people in the world. These provisions would make drastic cuts to international humanitarian and development assistance programs, such as emergency food aid, health (including HIV treatment), child survival, clean water, and sustainable agriculture.
Food aid and the McGovern-Dole program, which provides school lunches to children from poor families, would face the largest cuts: 46 percent. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be stripped from each of several other accounts, including Development Assistance, PEPFAR, Global Health and Child Survival, and the Millennium Challenge Account.
via Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts – Bread for the World: Have Faith. End Hunger..
See also this pdf file from Bread for the World: The US Budget: Myths and Realities.
As I was visiting hospitals and health huts in Senegal, I was also receiving e-mailed updates on House GOP budget cuts. The Global Fund, down 40 percent. Child survival programs, which include anti-malaria efforts, down 10 percent. AIDS relief, down 8 percent. Development assistance, down 30 percent.These reductions were intended to be symbolic, but what do they symbolize? Fiscal responsibility? Hardly. No one can reasonably claim that the budget crisis exists because America spends too much on bed nets and AIDS drugs. … Claiming courage or credit for irrelevant cuts in foreign assistance is a net subtraction from public seriousness on the deficit. So, do these cuts symbolize the Republican rejection of fuzzy-headed liberalism? Actually, the main initiatives on malaria and AIDS were created under Republican leadership.
Click below you will probably be surprised
Bread for the World Applauds Administration’s Commitment to Reforming Foreign Policy
Today the U.S. State Department released the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), “Leading through Civilian Power.” Aimed at setting a sweeping reform agenda for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the QDDR takes a comprehensive look at the role of U.S. foreign aid and global development initiatives in a world with increased needs, threats, and opportuniti
More than 1.4 billion people live in poverty so extreme that they can barely survive, and around 25,000 people die from hunger each day whilst a new billionaire is created every second day. The call for a global safety net has never been so urgent – and compels the international community to transform economic priorities and guarantee the universal securing of basic human needs.
via Poverty & Inequality.
Roger Thurow – Outrage and Inspire – “Historic Moment”
HISTORIC MOMENT
Bread for the World’s new Hunger Report raises the stakes right from its very first sentence:
“2011 is a time of opportunity to achieve lasting progress against global hunger and malnutrition.”
Then it raises them further:
“Feed the Future, a bold new U.S. initiative, may be the best opportunity to come along in decades for the United States to contribute to lasting progress against hunger and malnutrition.”
The message implied in these two sentences: We’ve arrived at an historic moment, let’s not squander it.
via Roger Thurow – Outrage and Inspire – “Historic Moment” – Global Food for Thought.
The ONE Campaign will be sending a team of bloggers to the G20 Summit. This team will be composed of 50 bloggers, 20 will be from G20 countries, 15 from the developing world and 10 will be focused onpoverty reduction.
For more info see:
The trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo at the International Criminal Court has begun. This is a very important trial as Lubanga has been accused of using child soldiers and crimes against humanity in the DRC. Below is a press release from Global Solutions.
International Criminal Court Begins its 1st Trial of an Accused War Criminal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2009
Washington, DC – Citizens for Global Solutions congratulates the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the beginning of its first trial of an accused war criminal. The International Criminal Tribunal is the world’s first permanent court for prosecuting individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The case of The Prosecutor vs. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo brings to trial a militia commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo accused of recruiting and conscripting child soldiers. Lubanga is one of four suspects currently being held by the court. A second trial is likely to begin this year against Congolese rebel leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. To date, the ICC has issued twelve arrest warrants for individuals accused of committing offenses during brutal conflicts in the Central African Republic, Darfur, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The Lubanga trial is momentous. It is very first time in the history of humanity that a permanent international court has brought to trial one of the world’s most heinous criminals,” said Don Kraus,, CEO of Global Solutions. Kraus believes that the U.S. should now deepen its cooperation with the Court, so that U.S. officials can supply evidence and logistical support to investigations and trials currently underway in Sudan, Uganda, and the Congo.
President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute setting up the court, but the Bush administration “un-signed” the agreement in 2002. Citizens for Global Solutions calls on the Obama administration to re-sign the treaty, and to take a seat as an observer at the Court’s governing body, the Assembly of State Parties. “We also call for responsible U.S. participation in the ICC’s 2010 Review Conference, where representatives will discuss whether to expand the Court’s jurisdiction to cover carefully-defined international acts of aggression,” said Kraus.
For more information, contact Diane Hodges at 202-330-4109.
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Notes to Editors:
Citizens for Global Solutions is a non-partisan membership organization that envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no one nation can solve alone.
418 7th Street SE, Washington, DC 20003-2796
Phone: (202) 546-3950 Fax: (202) 546-3749
Global Solutions has a petition to sign to urge the Obama administration to have the U.S. sit as an observer at the next Assembly of State Parties, the ICC’s governing body, taking place in New York City February 9 – 13, and that after that, to have the U.S. show support by re-signing the ICC treaty, the Rome Statute. Click here to sign the petition.
For more information on the ICC and the importance of the US taking part please go here.
The folks at Bread for the World and other humanitarian agencies are calling for an overhaul of US Foreign assistance and policy.
Bread for the World Hunger Report 2009
Hunger Report Companion Study Guide
Bread for the World: Hunger Report: Reforming Aid: Key Points
Global development and global poverty reduction must be elevated as specific goals in U.S. foreign policy, distinguished from political, military and security goals, with distinct and secure funding.
Poverty reduction should be the primary focus of U.S. development assistance, with substantially more poverty-focused funding provided to meet commitments related to the Millennium Development Goals.Development assistance should be provided in partnership with recipient countries to meet their long-term development goals.
Civilian leadership in development assistance must be maintained and strengthened, with the Department of Defense limited to its operational strengths in logistics and stabilization.
An effective, streamlined agency is required to direct all U.S. development assistance, consolidating the plethora of development assistance programs currently spread across 12 cabinet departments and numerous agencies.
Other U.S. policies (e.g. trade, investment, migration) should be aligned with development assistance goals and objectives to maximize the impact of U.S. development programs.
U.S. development assistance should be more closely coordinated with other international donors to reduce the burdens on recipient governments as well as the costly duplication of programs.
Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network
MFAN is a reform coalition composed of international development and foreign policy practitioners, policy advocates and experts, concerned citizens and private sector organizations.
MFAN’s goal is to help build a safer, more prosperous world by strengthening the United States’ ability to alleviate extreme poverty, create opportunities for growth, and secure human dignity in developing countries.
New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century
New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century calls on the next American president, Congress, policymakers and the American people to overhaul how the U.S. helps poor people in developing countries. Among the recommended steps: a new national foreign assistance strategy and a new Foreign Assistance Act to replace the outdated framework that President Kennedy signed nearly 50 years ago. CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet is a co-chair of the authoring group, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network.
The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President
Commitment to Development Index
The Commitment to Development Index 2007 Report
Each year since 2003, the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) has ranked 21 rich countries on their dedication (or not!) to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poor countries. The CDI moves beyond simple comparisons of aid funding and in so doing embodies the mission of CGD, which addresses all government policies that affect poorer countries.
U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century: Q&A with Steve Radelet
What’s Behind the Recent Declines in U.S. Foreign Assistance?
Why Global Development Matters for the U.S
Healthy Foreign Policy: Bringing Coherence to the Global Health Agenda
Power and Roads for Africa: What the United States Can Do (White House and the World Policy Brief)
An interesting article in Asia Times.
A Chinese ‘Marshall Plan’ or business?
A Chinese ‘Marshall Plan’ or business?
By Wenran JiangThe commitment by China last year of US$9 billion for investment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has made Beijing one of the most influential players in the Congolese economy almost overnight.
Since achieving independence five decades ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been ravaged by a dictatorship, war and political strife. Although large in territory and rich in mineral and other precious raw materials, the DRC is a failed state that has been seemingly incapable of maintaining any semblance of stability.
Obama, Africa, and Peace is a position paper by the Enough Project.
Reframing the Overall Approach to U.S. Relations with Africa
The Obama administration has an opportunity to fundamentally remake U.S. relations with Africa during its tenure, and a cornerstone of that effort needs to be a much greater emphasis on the most cost-effective element of our foreign policy tools: peacemaking. An investment in ending some of the world’s deadliest, most destructive, and costliest wars would yield great results in those countries and the positive repercussions from such engagement would rebound across the continent.
As the first president of the United States with immediate African roots, President Obama not only has an important reservoir of goodwill on the continent, he also has the ability to move beyond the tendentious “North-South” debate between developed and less developed countries that has made more transformational policies difficult to attain. Efforts by the dying generation of Africa’s strong men who believe they should rule for life, such as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, to portray President Obama as a former colonial master will have little resonance in Africa or elsewhere. President Obama will represent a fresh start, but the problems facing Africa and how best to address them will be no less acute.
A Business website Fast Company has ab in-depth article on China in Africa:
Special Report: China Invades Africa
The sub-Sahara is now the scene of one of the most bare-knuckled resource grabs the world has ever seen.
While America is preoccupied with the war in Iraq (cost: half a trillion dollars and counting), and while think-tank economists continue to spit out papers debating whether vital resources are running out at all, China’s leadership isn’t taking any chances. In just a few years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become the most aggressive investor-nation in Africa. This commercial invasion is without question the most important development in the sub-Sahara since the end of the Cold War — an epic, almost primal propulsion that is redrawing the global economic map. One former U.S. assistant secretary of state has called it a “tsunami.” Some are even calling the region “ChinAfrica.”
Human Rights First has a powerful new video that in my opinion is a must see for all US citizens. It shows how torture on TV is influencing our military personnel. It is leading to false notions that torture is acceptable and effective.
Here is a quote from the video:
“Some would argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong… While we are warriors we are also human beings.” General David H. Petraeus US Army, Commander Multi-national forces Iraq, 10 May 2007
The video is available at Human Rights First and on Youtube. (Warning the scenes of torture from TV shows presented are quite graphic.)
See also this other video were a number of retired admirals and generals express their condemnation of the use of torture.
Torture is wrong, it is always wrong, it is never justified. If we condone torture in even one instance we have lost our humanity. I fear we have lost the concept that there are absolutes in this world and that there are things that are wrong.
I also strongly believe that a truth commission should be established to investigate the United States use of torture and to hold accountable all those responsible for using torture which is a crime against humanity. This is the only way we can expunge our collective guilt for that which has happened in our name.
Please forgive the play on words in the title because this is a very serious matter.
I really apprecciate the brief article at Stop the War in North Kivu: A Personal Reflection.
He says:
I am convinced that the thunderous silence of Western media regarding horror in African conflicts entails an enormous, and unavoidable, ethic question. If five million people die in a given place, we as human beings have the obligation to know that this has happened. It is a moral obligation. We must know, the same way that we all know that millions of Jewish men, women and children were exterminated in Germany in the Second World War. However, we don´t know that more than five million Congolese have died as a result of the war since 1998.
I think this really brings into question our priorities as a society and our values, and it doubly reflects on a true crisis of values in the Christian Church. Many of these people that are suffering so much are not only our fellow human beings, bearers of the image of God, but also our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our sisters are being brutally raped, where is the outcry?
I think a lot of the blame here in the US has to do with the US centrism in both schools and in the media. Geography is not even taught any more in the schools. My son is in college and just had his first geographycourse ever, and that was an elective. It also has a lot to do with our sound-bite news philosophy; only news that can be easily explained in one or two minutes, preferably with a lot of pictures and, of course, controversy is what comes into our homes. CNN even dropped it’s “Your World Today” on the US CNN channel for an additional our of political coverage that is just a repeat of the rest of it’s coverage all day. And even when CNN did show “Your World Today” about 20 minutes at the bottom of the our where still devoted to US news.
One of the main reasons I am doing this blog is to help raise awareness and also to help me find the news that is not covered in the national media.
Not only is international news coverage poor, Africa news coverage is even slimmer. Please see these incisive maps at Stealth Conflicts.
My prayer is that the Church can at least see and respond more to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Africa. (That is not to discredit the great work being done by many Christian humanitarian workers and NGO’s)
On Tuesday next, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be conducting the confirmation hearings for Senator Hilary Clinton to be Secretary of State. The One Campaign is urging its members to contact their Senators who are on the committe and urge them to ask questions related to global poverty and health issues. This is a good opportunity to ask her how she will respond to the conflict in the DR Congo as well.
If these are one of your Senators:
Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts)
Sen. Chris Dodd (Connecticut)
Sen. Russ Feingold (Wisconsin)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (California)
Sen. Bill Nelson (Florida)
Sen. Robert Menendez (New Jersey)
Sen. Benjamin Cardin (Maryland)
Sen. Robert Casey (Pennsylvania)
Sen. Jim Webb (Virginia)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Sen. Richard Lugar (Indiana)
Sen. Bob Corker (Tennessee)
Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Sen. Johnny Isakson (Georgia)
Go to the One page and learn how to contact them. Call Now Please.
I also followed up my call to Senator Casey’s office with an email from his contact page.
S. 3058: The Conflict Coltan and Cassiterite Act of 2008 was not passed in the last session of Congress. The 110th Congress ended at the end of 2008. Accordingly all bills not passed in the previous session are cleared from the books. This bill needs to be reintroduced for consideration in this session.
Please contact your own Senators Brownback and Durbin and urge then to reintroduce this bill and your own Senators to sign on as co-sponsors.
Oxfam America has a webpage devoted to the crisis and a page to send a message to President Bush and Congress to urge an immediate ceasefire.
Also please read ARE WE NOT HUMAN?
What is the international community waiting for, to see even more dismembered people, and families erased before they act? Time is ticking by and the numbers of dead and injured are increasing… what are they waiting for?
What is happening is against humanity, are we not human
The Obama transition website has an open invitation to submit questions and vote on questions that have already been submitted. This is an opportunity to help bring the DR Congo into the administrations focus. Go here and search for questions on the Congo or submit your own.
So far the main foreign policy questions have to do with Israel and Palestine.
These are some articles and resources from Global Witness on the situation in the DRC.
Resource plunder still driving eastern Congo conflict
As the humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) escalates, Global Witness is calling for international peace efforts to urgently address the role the natural resource trade is playing in the conflict.
“The high level international attention to the latest events is welcome,” said Patrick Alley, Director of Global Witness. “But short-term diplomatic initiatives will not produce lasting peace unless the underlying causes of the conflict are addressed.
The economic benefits of fighting a war in this region remain one of the central motives of the warring parties.” Fighting between the rebel group Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP), led by Laurent Nkunda, and the national Congolese army, the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC), has escalated sharply in the last few days, as CNDP troops have advanced closer to the eastern city of Goma. The civilian population has borne the brunt of the violence, as it has done throughout more than ten years of war. The latest fighting has caused mass displacement in North Kivu province. Both the CNDP and the FARDC have carried out serious human rights abuses against unarmed civilians.
Democratic Republic of Congo related documents
Global Witness is asking companies trading in minerals from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure that any minerals they buy neither finance armed groups or military units, nor contribute to human rights abuses at any point along the supply chain. If such guarantees cannot be provided, companies should refuse to buy the minerals. Global Witness is also calling on home governments to hold to account companies registered in their country who knowingly trade in minerals benefiting the warring parties in eastern DRC or who fail to carry out careful due diligence as to the origin of their supplies.
Plea from Local Organizations in North Kivu, DR Congo, to International Leaders
Briefing for UN Arria meeting on the situation in eastern DR Congo
Governments should take strong action in response to the UN Group of Experts’ findings on natural resources as a key source of funding for Congolese armed groups, Global Witness said today.
In its final report published on 12 December 2008, the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) documents how several of the main armed groups involved in recent fighting in eastern DRC rely on the mineral trade to finance their activities.
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