g6b Peoples Summit

The Conversation

The conversation at the bar went something like this: there were three of us, me, my good friend and a guy I didn’t know (who knew my friend). The subject moved onto world policy: whether the credit-crunch had ever really existed, or whether the machinations of it were something that became real through the mutterings in bank queues, the talking that encircled the world in a daze of negative energy.

Then the guy I didn’t know said, “We don’t need to worry about Africa, even if they never got any more money then they’d be fine, they could just keep running around in grass skirts”. This upset me immediately, although I didn’t say anything. At first I was struck at his audacity, then I was struck at the thought of Africa only being populated by beautiful black girls in grass skirts and, obviously, what that might look like. Then I was struck by a final, sickening thought, and the smile fell hard from my face: he wasn’t joking. And I shouldn’t be. He really did believe that those people were of irrelevance globally speaking–this disgusted me; he had spoken as though Africa were a planet disconnected to the rest of the world, as though it didn’t matter a bit if those people lived or died.

It got me thinking: really, how do you solve such a problem? Because to be honest this guy, although I fully disagreed with what he had said, did also have a point: by constantly giving a country money and watching some of it—depending on what and who you believe—go down the drain as it’s siphoned off by those with guns, you’re doing bad things. But by doing nothing at all the potential for good things is not even a possibility.

I suppose the point is this: us over here with our two cars on every drive and working water and jobs and stuff. And even if we do try to work with companies like Enigin PLC, we will never fully understand the people over there. But the answer is not in turning away. Even at the risk of that money going to the wrong means we have to try and help if possible. People are people, are they not? No matter where they are.

Haiti: Hope from out of the Hell

It is exactly one month since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti. There are no more survivors to be dug out but a huge relief effort remains in full force. Disasters such as the one in Haiti are a tragedy that makes the whole world weep but out of the destruction can rise new hope, a new humanity, just as the buildings of Port au Prince will one day soon rise again.

The world was becoming an increasingly insular place. With the recession biting hard in both the United States and Europe the overwhelming sentiment from many has been ’charity begins at home’. International charities have seen a steady fall in donations over the past three years and yet the needs of the developing nations have not gone away. I have heard many people, pre-Haiti, say ’why should I give to the third world when people in this country need help?’ To those people I try to reason that we are all one humanity and we should not let artificial borders act as a barrier to our compassion. I also try to teach these people that many of the problems experienced in the global South are the results of centuries of abuse from the capitalist culture of the ’First World’. Recently this has seemed like banging my head against a brick wall but the horror of Haiti seems to have awoken the nations from their compassion fatigue.

The dreadful scenes that have filled our media seem to have had a galvanising effect on the general conscience. Of course, the celebrities have been getting the media coverage, with pop concerts and charity singles making huge sums of money very quickly. This is worthy and even vital in its own way, but I am more impressed by the way that ordinary people, you and I, have taken action to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Internet forums and social networking sites are inundated with people organising small local events such as charity concerts, raffles and disco’s. Whilst each on their own may raise a relatively small amount when added together they will make a significant contribution. Charities such as Oxfam in the UK are banding together to raise money and the public have given with unprecedented generosity.

There is an old African saying that goes: ’drop by drop fills the bucket’. Well the compassion that is flowing drop by drop into Haiti may fill the global bucket with a rediscovered love and understanding: that to me is the flickering light amidst the dreadful storm, the hope that has come from the Haitian hell.

Which brings me to my next point, there is this company enigin PLC who helps big businesses to reduce the carbon footprint that they are currently leaving on the environment. Although I believe that this is a great thing to strive for, and that the world really does need more businesses like this, is it something that people should have to pay for?