Poverty Eradication Should Be The Theme Of The 21st Century: Dr. Fai
Washington, D.C. June 14, 2012. The Government of Brazil in corroboration with the United Nations is organizing “Sustainable Development Dialogue” between June 16th to 19th, 2012, prior to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. The Rio+20 conference will be held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between June 20th to 22nd, 2012. Over 17,000 participants, including Heads of the State, Heads of the Government and 799 NGO’s are participating in the conference. According to the organizers, the Conference will focus on two themes: (a) a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and (b) the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai said, “I think that the issue of poverty eradication should be the theme of the 21st. century. Never before have so many suffered amidst liberty and luxury for the few. The wealth of single individuals exceeds the wealth of many nations. In highly developed countries, the number of persons living past 80 years is soaring. In deprived and convulsed countries, the average longevity is but half that age. While citizens of some African countries are starving, the rich countries are beset with obesity. Discrepancies of these types are morally disturbing. The United Nations is ideally suited to ending these shocking inequalities because it hosts all the nations of the world and endows each with identical voting power in the General Assembly. The poorest and the weakest are equal to the richest and the strongest.”
“Therefore, Dr. Fai added, the most urgent approach should be the elimination of poverty and the securing for every man, woman, and child a right to flourishing health, a clean environment, comfortable housing, and nutritious food. The goal is not a choice but a moral obligation.”
Fai warned that there is no moral excuse for regimes in poor nations to forfeit the rich self-help opportunities for economic growth. As Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan teach, economic prosperity turns more on human capital and the rule of law than on the flukes of natural resources. Think of some oil rich nations mired in misery and destitution.
“It is characteristic that national or international organizations employ quantitative benchmarks to measure success in meeting enumerated objectives. For instance, a longstanding objective has been for each nation to contribute a specified percentage of its gross domestic product for humanitarian or foreign aid. Companion quantitative benchmarks have been set for literacy, vaccinations, annual income, longevity, smoking, etc,” Dr. Fai emphasized.
Fai explained, “There is nothing inherently mischievous about these development yardsticks. But they should never distract from our recognition that the highest in our objective consists of non-quantifiable characteristics. These would include acts of charity, humility, courage, benevolence, magnanimity, self-restraint, and non-vindictiveness. It would seem to me to turn logic and morality on their heads to award higher social development acclaim to a nation whose citizens were universally economically prosperous, literate, healthy, long-lived, non-polluting, but also mean-spirited, selfish, and egotistical than to a nation whose citizens were impoverished, plagued by disease, but were generous in time, effusive in hospitality, austere in habits, and selfless for the community.”
