Puget Sound Millennium Goals Project

Fair Trade, Fair Finance, Fight Global Poverty
By Rick Hodsdon, Board Chair, Oikocredit Support NW
The Rubric of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral
Oct. 1, 2008, Vol. 66, No. 10

There is never a good time to be poor, but the worst time has got to be when the economy is on the skids. With world-wide financial markets reeling from the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the US economy in recession, these are tough times indeed for many Americans. But the times are even worse for the one-third of the world's population, more than 2 billion people, who currently survive on less than $2.00/day in countries with little or no social safety net to provide assistance when crops fail or commodity prices collapse.

Happily, we can do something to improve life for disadvantaged people around the world, by purchasing products certified as Fair Trade goods. Fair Trade items put more money in the pockets of their producers than free trade (or "open market") merchandise, which all too often are simply goods produced and sold at the lowest possible cost without regard for the welfare of the people actually producing the commodity.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 13, 2008
by Dick Nelson

"Canadians shouldn't feel comfortable now that a British consulting firm has cooked up a ranking that places their nation as the least vulnerable among 168 nations to the impacts of climate change ("Why Canada is the best haven from effects of global warming," Wednesday's P-I). Or for that matter, neither should Americans and the denizens of other rich nations at the top of the list.
One of the realities of global climate change is that no country will be immune from the spillover effects: population displacement and mass migration. That fact was made clear by a U.N. Human Development Program report...
This warning was echoed in a recent statement by Thomas Fingar, deputy director of U.S. national intelligence, to a joint meeting of House committees on global warming and intelligence."

To read complete letter go to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/370472_ltrs13.html

Sources:

Article on ranking: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/370009_canada09.html

UN Development Program Report: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_20072008_summary_english.pdf

Fingar statement: http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/jun/warming_intelligence.pdf

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 17, 2008
by Mary Njoroge

In 2000, the countries of the world agreed to a goal to provide universal access to education by 2015. Kenya and other countries are doing what they can to build better schools and retain more teachers, but they cannot do it alone. Congress is considering legislation that would authorize enough funding to meet the U.S. commitment to this, and other international goals. The Education for All Act would authorize $1 billion in basic education this year, scaling up to $3 billion in 2012.

To read the complete article go to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/359324_africa17.html

Seattle Times, February 26, 2008
by Dick Nelson

It's hard to understand why conservatives would attack Rep. Adam Smith's Global Poverty Act ["Smith: Poverty act critics' real target is Obama," Local News, Feb. 21, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004193014_poverty21.html].

That bill, co-sponsored by 84 U.S. House members - including Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton; Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island; Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens; Jim McDermott, D-Seattle; and Dave Reichert, R-Auburn - simply requires that U.S. foreign-aid policy and programs be aligned with the Millennium Development Goals our nation approved in 2000 with 190 other nations in a commitment to improve life for the world's poorest people.

To read the complete article go to: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004200570_tuelets26.html

Seattle Post Intelligencer, October 21, 2007
by Dick Blakney, Robert V. Taylor and Alice Woldt

Consumers around the world view the Puget Sound region as a dynamic center of global innovation. They know us through our computer software, commerical airplanes, and coffee, as well as many other products and services.

We are seen as a growing center of excellence for the delivery of global health care and disease prevention with the work of several non-governmental and education organizations and private-public partnerships. Most recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped launch the University of Washington's Department of Global Health and an institute to evaluate international health programs.

We have a unique critical mass of resources, organizations and individuals in our region that could come together in a focused, collaborative effort to support the MDGs. This would add humanitarian aid and development assistance to the repertoire of our significant global interests and exports. But more importantly, it would help move global poverty reduction to a much more visible level in the nation's list of priorities.

To read the complete article go to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/336158_focus21.html