The best news headlines for 2005
By Mangai BalasegaramIT’S hard to launch into New Year enthusiasm in the wake of the worst natural disaster to hit Asia this century. It’s not just me. It’s the world. The new year rolled in on a sombre note, with official festivities cancelled in some areas.
What was extraordinary was the giving. It was everywhere. Friends e-mailed appeals. Germany’s foreign minister called for part of the spending on New Year fireworks to be diverted towards aid efforts. One American friend hosting a New Year’s party requested invitees donate to a tsunami aid collection, saying, “Let’s start the year by giving”. In some countries, donations from the public exceed that from their governments. Quite a start for 2005. Let’s hope that continues.
That brings me to what I originally planned to write here: a 2005 wish list for the world. What would make this year memorable? What would be the headlines I’d want to wake up and read? Tackling poverty and disease and working for peace and the environment top my list. Before you sigh in cynicism at the chance of that, read on.?
Ending extreme poverty: No other issue rouses me like poverty. Globally, about one in six people don’t even have safe water to drink. And nearly the same number doesn’t have enough to eat. Now consider that in 1995, US$92bil (RM349.6bil) was spent on junk food and US$800bil (RM3,040bil) on defence, according to the United Nations (UN).
Ending extreme poverty is possible. It would cost just 0.7% of gross national product in development aid from rich countries. Debt hampers poor countries developing or spending on education and health – for every US$2 (RM7.60) received in aid, US$3 (RM11.40) is spent on debts. Writing off the debts of the poorest 20 countries would cost US$5.5bil (RM20.9bil) – about 4% of the net wealth of the 10 richest billionaires.
This year, we may be closer than ever to ending poverty. The UN and Britain will release visionary reports on poverty and in July, a G8 summit will focus on poverty. British premier Tony Blair has promised a breakthrough.
Making peace, not war: We’re living in peaceful times right now. Really. Fewer people are dying due to war than at any time since the 1920s. Recall this region a few decades ago. Remember the horrific napalm bombing in Vietnam or the killing fields of Cambodia? Or take Africa. Five years ago, a fifth of Africans lived in war-torn areas. Today, peace reigns on most of the continent – even in Sierra Leone, where rebels once customarily hacked off children’s limbs.
In Uganda, the government has just announced a truce with the Lords Resistance Army, the rebel group that for 20 years abducted children and forced them to fight or (for girls) become sex slaves.
One remaining conflict-ridden country is Sudan. It has basically been at war with itself for almost 50 years, apart from an 11-year period. Non-Muslims in the south are pitted against the Muslim/Arab government in the north that imposed Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence) rule. In the last two years in Darfur, 70,000 people have been killed and nearly two million displaced. The state-backed Janjaweed Arab militia has been accused of systematic ethnic cleansing, mass rape and looting.
But as I write now, the government and southern rebels are close to signing a peace treaty. Darfur may still require more to resolve it, but the end may be near for Africa’s longest-running civil war.
I’m hoping for more sincere steps towards peace. Things are looking interesting in the Middle-East. As Palestinians begin a fresh era under a new leader, Israeli troops are set to withdraw from the Gaza Strip later this year. Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, the first ever, may herald political change. Iraq’s elections don’t promise to resolve the mess there but could, perhaps, kindle a sense of ownership badly needed.
Battling infectious killers: In poor countries, infectious diseases kill six in 10 people; but in rich nations, they kill only one in 10. Disease has a relationship with poverty. Tuberculosis (TB) is one “disease of poverty”. It is absolutely appalling for people to still die of TB, given that an inexpensive cure was invented 50 years ago. Such suffering and death does not have to happen. Global goals have been set to address these diseases and this year is a crunch year. I’m hoping countries go the distance to reach them.
Cooling the planet: Global warming is really happening. The 1990s was the warmest decade in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 1,000 years. Yet the world is still addicted to fossil fuels, like a drunk insisting on driving. The US government refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which mandates cuts in the carbon emissions that cause global warming. China, meanwhile, is getting hungrier for oil (it supports Sudan for want of its oil). I’m hoping for breakthroughs in research on alternative energy, such as solar and wind power. The future of our planet depends on it.
The tsunami has shown us, after all, that a mere rattle of the Earth is enough to cause death and destruction across continents.
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