Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: July 2005

Curious logic?

The man who had been arrested for speeding was asked to step out of the car. 'Why the speed?', asked the traffic policeman. 'Oh, officer, that's simple - my brakes don't work so I was hurrying home before I had an accident!' Strange answer maybe - but one has to admit there is a certain twisted logic to it! You might like to apply a similar logic to this editorial. If you read it very quickly, then fewer African children will die in the time it takes you to read it. If, on the other hand, you read it slowly - more children will die, but the overall impact on you might be greater. With one child in Africa dying every three seconds from poverty-related causes, the statistics are brutal whether you read them slowly or fast.

This month sees the highest profile yet for the campaign organised by MakePovertyHistory. This coalition of organisations - religious, political, humanitarian and artistic, is urging everyone who will listen to raise voices and awareness about the plight of the world's poorest people.

The coalition's point is not just that something should be done (a point often made in the past), but that something can be done. This is, they believe, an epochal moment - a time to act. Their target is not so much the great British public - whose compassion was so magnificently displayed in the response to the South East Asian tsunami, but the real power brokers in the world. Although everyone can play their part by writing to politicians and buying fairly traded goods, it is the heads of state and the leaders of the World Bank who will ultimately make the decisions. The world leaders meeting in Gleneagles for the G8 summit will be asked (noisily) to embrace:

• trade justice;
• more and better aid;
• 100% debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries.

Between them, these constitute a very big 'ask', but on the continent of Africa humanity faces a gargantuan need. Now is the time, not for grand gestures or compassionate words, but for courageous political decisions. There was a time when such a decision had to be made by all those involved in the slave trade. Those who thought the world economy could not possibly weather the storm caused by abolition were proved wonderfully wrong.

Let's not hurry the world along before we have an accident by ignoring the effects of poverty. Let's stop the car and flag down the G8 juggernaut as it rumbles by. This is an opportunity to act in the interests of the world's most needy people, and by doing so to make Planet Earth a more human place. 'Inasmuch as you do it for them' said Jesus, 'you do it for me'.