November 14, 2008 at 4:33 pm

As much as I appreciate and respect Sir Bob geldof for all that he has done over the last twenty-four years to advocate for the world’s poorest, especially in Africa, I have a sad feeling that his words may fall on deaf ears at this summit.

The world economic crisis, which has been brought on by the same “developed” countries as will be at this summit this weekend, is simply too grave for these nations to think about much more than their own economic bottom line….and the world’s poor are on the sideline of their vision, in the picture but not central to what they are thinking and/or planning at this moment.

What will motivate the G20 nations to wake up and truly start addressing the issues of AIDS & extreme poverty again? Is it a handshake with Sir Bob and/or a photo op with Bono?

Hardly….these nations’ leaders have already done that.

What WILL make these G20 leaders start addressing the needs of the world’s poor is ONE thing: OUR MOBILIZATION AS A UNITED, UNIFIED INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT!

We saw the beginnings of that movement in 2005 with the Live 8 concerts and the Make Poverty History organizations around the world.

But most of those MPH organizations have either collapsed and/or have become ineffectual and that leaves a major gap in our ability to persuade these leaders to do more than smile and say nice words to our spokespeople.

Until we can better and more effectively organize ourselves around the world on behalf of the world’s poorest people, we will have to rely on tactics such as this heartfelt and headstrong letter from Sir Bob.

It remains to be seen if it will have any effect on the pocketbooks of the G20 nations.

We all need to go back to community organizing again. As we have just seen in the latest Presidential race – it works!!

ONE HEART, ONE HOPE, ONE VOICE, ONE LOVE – debbie
http://www.mpwn-uganda.org

November 14, 2008 at 8:37 pm

Debbie,

I couldn’t agree with you more. Of course, props to Sir Bob for speaking out as always when the rest of the world sits by and promotes Western policy as usual while the bottom billion continue to suffer from the scourge of poverty and preventable disease. But there is a growing need for our movement to focus more on GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY ORGANIZING.

It’s important to acknowledge the distinction between mere MOBILIZING and ORGANIZING and I think the time has come for ONE to answer the call of their most dedicated members and start taking up the ORGANIZING approach more often.

It’s also essential that ONE partners, both locally and globally, continue to emphasis collaboration on our common goals instead of each organization just going about their our efforts separately.

After all ONE was founded on that idea of all of the organizations focusing their efforts together to reach the Millennium Development Goals. The clock is ticking. This is our chance. The MDGs have set the framework but we need to ORGANIZE GLOBALLY through the Global Campaign Against Poverty with grassroots organizations from both the developed and the developing world coming together and working side by side as ONE.

We can do it. It will simply take a little will power. And that we have.

Yes We Can!

Matt Vaughan
WKU Americans for Informed Democracy
http://www.wkuaid.org

November 14, 2008 at 11:04 pm

Debbie K. -

I have something for you to think about. While indeed this message will likely fall on deaf ears, the world’s largest economies cannot and should not focus on anything but themselves and recovery. After that, should they choose to focus on something else, then so be it. One.org, if it were an intelligent entity, would keep it’s focus on the poor while encouraging the worlds troubled economies to right themselves. One.org’s supporters should do likewise. Why do I say these things you ask? Simply this: A thief cannot take what an owner doesn’t have. The more an owner has, the more the thief may take….

Matt Vaughan –

When you say “…the rest of the world sits by and promotes Western policy as usual…” I’d like a little bit of clarification from you on what exactly you feel:

1)Western policy is and what exactly is “usual” about it.

2)Who around the world is promoting the policy in question #1.

Thank you for your time Matt. I’ll visit the link you supplied and check that out later.

November 15, 2008 at 6:01 am

Excellent post, Matt! I know that there are many more of us at the grassroots level of ONE who feel just as you & I do but not everyONE is always willing to step forward and say what needs to be said to MOVE OUR MOVEMENT FORWARD on behalf of the world’s poorest people.

The distinction that you make about MOBILIZING & ORGANIZING is true – we simply are NOT putting into our local ONE groups the sort of concerted efforts it takes to keep our momentum going.

And if we are going to keep seeing success on behalf of the world’s poor, we had better do better than 2.5-3 million people signed up to ONE.

What ever happened to B0N0′S VISION of being as large as the NRA and having FIVE MILLION members asap?

I don’t know where our “national leadership” is planning to go but it needs to take us with them if they’re intending on being successful on behalf of the people that we all care about in Africa and elsewhere.

What is surprising to me was that a lot of ONE people in the national office and elsewhere were Obama supporters during the election yet they are not using his basic model of community grassroots organizing as a model of success for ONE.

I don’t get it.

Anyway, let me say that I speak up as ONE of the original ONE supporters and volunteers from the beginning of our organization in May 2004 and I will always continue to be.

Anybody who interprets a faithful supporter’s questioning of TACTICS as criticism of an organization simply doesn’t get it.

Those of us who TRULY CARE about the future success of ONE are the ones who do not run & hide when the difficult things need to be said. We are the ones who are willing to STAND UP and say the things that need to be said to jolt our movement to the next level of activism to end AIDS and extreme poverty.

In the last five years, I have brought over to our movement nearly 5,000 people at my local level by organizing for ONE at churches, schools/universities and community events – all at my own expense for paying for booth fees, transportation costs and reproduction of ONE materials.

I am a working poor person in this country and I often go into debt by my local ONE activities. But I don’t complain because I know how important our movement is to millions of people who do not have even as much as the little that I have.

I am not one of the “favorites” of ONE volunteers at the national office – the only time that you’ll see me recognized by ONE is when I post here. (smile)

But since I am not here to be a “favorite” or to be recognized, I will continue to work with ONE to further our common goals.

But unless we make a MAJOR, CONCERTED PUSH to better organize & mobilize our membership and to bring many more into our ranks, the handshakes that Sir Bob makes and the phot ops that B0N0 takes will unfortunately NOT be enough to move us forward -

and the people who will suffer and die will be exactly the people that we say that we care about.

All the Best to Matt’s efforts – he is ONE of the shining examples of what it means to be a ONE volunteer.

I REMAIN….ALWAYS FOREVER, ONE – debbie

January 19, 2009 at 8:55 pm

I appreciate Bono speaking out on behalf of the worlds poor and sick. Don’t forget that the number one question asked Obama was “Will you legalize marijuana?”. Think about the benefits that medical cannabis can have on the millions of suffering Africans. I am very disturbed when I hear that UN Police are using international aid money to persecute cannabis growers in Africa and destroy such an important beneficial crop. Bono has enormous influence on UN leaders, and some of the world’s most powerful people. Please don’t think for a moment that by removing cannabis the UN is in any way helping the poor people of Africa or any other continent. This is a grave injustice, and I’m sure the sick and dying Africans effected by such laws would agree. The cannabis plant can help to provide food, clothing, shelter, safe medicine, and eco-friendly fuel. If the One Campaign really wants to help the poor, we should let them grow hemp, and if we must get involved, help them succeed in taking advantage of the many benefits of the hemp industry.
I hope Bono keeps up the good work, and helps to stop the bad work.
Thanx. www.nycamp.org