• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Achieve universal primary education
  • Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Reduce child mortality
  • Improve maternal health
  • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  • Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Develop a global partnership for development

Friday, August 1, 2008

Another reason that I find FOX News so annoying!

It was innocent enough. I was reviewing the articles on my newsreel (on the right column of this blog), and came across one entitled, "Change We Can Believe In." Sounded good! I clicked on the link and came across an article written by Colonel Oliver North. (If you must, you can read it here.) Yes, I know, I should have stopped there, but curiosity got the best of me. So, I read on. Turns out, North's only intention was to criticize Barach Obama for his sponsorship of the Global Poverty Act of 2007. It appears that Colonel North is not concerned about fighting issues such as global extreme poverty - at least not if it means that the U.S. should fulfill its commitment (made, I might add, during President Bush's tenure), to support the Millennium Development Goals.

The United Nations has asked each developed country to commit 0.7% of its GDP to fund the MDGs. North calls this a tax requested by the "globalists" at the UN. He complains, "The concept of the IRS collecting taxes for the UN might not sit well with American taxpayers when gas prices are soaring, the economy is shaky and the Office of Management and Budget is forecasting a record $482 billion budget deficit for next year." Personally, I'd like to give the people of America a little more credit than that. I believe that most of us really do care that approximately one billion people live on the equivalent of less than one dollar a day. I may be nothing but a liberal idealist, but I believe that we really do want to make the world a better place - not just for those of us who live in this great land, but for the people of all countries. Isn't that part of the responsibility and privilege that goes with living in the most prosperous nation the world has ever know?

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