HAVE you ever suffered from Third World fatigue?' I know I have.
It goes something like this. Disaster strikes in some far off country. War. Famine. Flood. An appeal goes out - help these people!
Then another disaster strikes, and another. Nothing seems to change.
The problems of the world seem overwhelming.
There is talk of corruption - money doesn't reach to where it is needed. Aid isn't the answer, say some, because recipients become dependent.
Campaigners begin to seem naïve and anyway a gift of a pound is so tiny, so insignificant that it cannot make a difference.
Oh dear. There is nothing I can do.
Sometimes, however, a glance at the big picture is needed in order to shake off this despair.
Because most of the world's problems are not just linked, they come from the same place. Poverty.
In the year 2000 most of the world's leaders, including our own, agreed on eight goals to help build a better, fairer world in the 21st century.
These interdependent goals are called the Millennium Development Goals, and include getting rid of extreme poverty, fighting child mortality and disease, promoting education, gender equality and maternal health and ensuring sustainable development. Take away one of those goals and the others begin to look doubtful, shaky, problematic.
Taken together, these goals offer real hope.
That last paragraph sounds good, doesn't it? But we all know that words don't feed families. Gestures don't fight disease.
So whose responsibility is it to turn such soft' notions into hard, concrete reality? Is it up to our government?
Is it up to charities and aid organisations? Is it up to us?
The Millennium Development Goals have already made some impact. Targets were set, some money delivered and now more children are being educated, more women are being empowered, more farmers are diversifying their crops, and more babies are being protected against diseases like malaria and diarrhoea. Yet the central target is to halve extreme poverty by the year 2015. We have barely begun.
At the G8 summit in Germany last week, the leaders of the world's richest countries again discussed issues such as climate change, trade and the debt that bedevils the developing world.
Have they forgotten the promises they made in 2000 and again in 2005? Maybe not, for more money was pledged to tackle disease.
However, they must answer to their electorate. That's us. So will we insist that they fulfil those pledges?
Will we demand nothing less than real and lasting change? Or will we roll our eyes and turn our backs and say what do we know of the world's problems and how to solve them?
Think big. Write to your MP. Think small also. Drop a coin in that Oxfam box. Think positive. We can still change our world.
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