A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE TO POVERTY (Part 59). This blog is a continuation of the review of The End of Poverty: How We Can Make it Happen in Our Life Time, by Jeffrey Sachs, published in 2005
The shadow of September 11
How quickly that optimism was shattered. There were small things that dented the optimism – the US trauma of a tied national election, the end of the stock market boom, and a spate of high-profile corporate scandals – but these look insignificant now in the shadow of September 11. Much changed that day, partly because of the unwise ways in which the US government reacted. More than ever, we need to return to the purpose and hope of the MDGs.
September 11 was the start of World War III
One of the leading journalists in the United States, Thomas Friedman, immediately declared that September 11 was the start of World War III. The ease with which pundits talked about World War III stunned me deeply. They were playing with fire, or much worse, with the destruction of our world in a new conflagration. Were they not aware, I asked myself, of the way World War I had destroyed globalization a century before? In that case, too, the pundits had been only too happy to see soldiers march off to war, sure that that tidy affair would be wrapped up in a month. The demons unleashed by that war, however, stalked the planet until the end of the 20th century, having their hand in the Great Depression, World War II, the Bolshevik revolution, and much more.
10,000 Africans die needlessly and tragically every single day
Terrorism is not the only threat that the world faces. It would be a huge mistake to direct all our energies, efforts, resources, and lives to the fight against terrorism while leaving vast and even greater challenges aside. 10,000 Africans die needlessly and tragically every single day – and have died every single day since September 11 – of AIDS, TB, and malaria. We need to keep September 11 in perspective, especially because the 10,000 daily deaths are preventable.
Address the deeper roots of terrorism
The appropriate response to September 11 was therefore two tracks, not one. Civilized nations needed surely to take up the challenge to cripple the networks of terrorism that carried out the attacks. The financial controls and direct military actions against Al-Qaeda were a necessary response, but hardly sufficient. In addition, we needed to address the deeper roots of terrorism in societies that are not part of global prosperity, that are marginalized in the world economy, that are bereft of hope, and that are misused and abused by the rich world, as have been the oil states of the Middle East. The rich world, starting with the United States, needed to commit its efforts even more to economic development than to military strategies.
Building a consensus around a shared vision
Analytical deliberation – the process of finding a cooperative approach to complex problems by building a consensus around a shared vision and understanding of the challenges – lies at the core of the UN Millennium Project. No sooner had I begun the UN assignment than I received another call from New York, this time from Columbia University. Columbia President George Rupp and colleagues had heard about the UN work and were interested in exploring whether I might simultaneously take on the leadership of a major institute devoted to the challenge of sustainable development, Columbia’s Earth Institute. Upon meeting with Rupp, I learned more about Columbia’s bold and innovative initiative linking many major scientific departments at the university to take on the interconnected challenges of climate, environmental management, conservation, public health, and economic development.