March 18, 2002
Miscellaneous Subjects #135: Eclecticism At Its Best
Hello everyone
Once again I think the title says it all!
Enjoy ;-)
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
"In our ways, spiritual consciousness is the highest form of politics. We must live in harmony with the natural world and recognize that excessive exploitation can only lead to our own destruction. We cannot trade the welfare of our future generations for profit...
We are instructed to carry love for one another, and to show great respect for all beings of the earth. ...Our energy is the combined will of all people with the spirit of the natural world, to be of one body, one heart, and one mind."
- Leon Shenandoah, Fire Keeper of the Central Fire for the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Conference
Taken from the briefing booklet describing the research programm carried on recently by the Foundation for Global Awakening and entitled "What Brings us together" which co-founder Alex Kochkin recommended to my/your attention at http://www.inourownwords.org/exec_sum.html (And so do I!) after reading the latest Turning Tide of History compilation.
Here is some more info on this from http://www.inourownwords.org/overview.html
PROGRAM OVERVIEW: The underlying goal of In Our Own Words is to document and communicate new perspectives on our society that transcend current social, cultural, and political divisions in order to help bring about a more compassionate and positive world. First conceived in 1993, the IOOW study is based on interviews conducted in 2000 with over 1,600 householders who were selected to statistically represent current American society. Each participant answered more than 210 questions covering a broad range of topics -- politics, eadership, business, ethics, and spirituality. CLIP (VERY INTERESTING! GIVE IT A LOOK)
YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO EXPLORE THESE OTHER "FOUNDATION FOR GLOBAL AWAKENING" WEBSITES:
http://www.ffga.org
http://www.inourownwords.org
http://www.dreampad.org
http://www.decadeoftheheart.org
CONTENTS
1. Mirror Site Suggestion
2. Words of thanks
3. Dr. Strangelove Administration is Driving Us Toward Nuclear Confrontation!
4. An empowering image
5. Help end hunger and poverty
6. Feedback from Australia
7. MARINE MEDITATION 2002
8. Thousands at Defense Dept. on 'Shopping Spree'
9. "Stupid White Men" Shoots to #1 on New York Times Bestseller List
10. Let Love Ring!
11. 60 millions face death if West fails to provide aid
12. An agenda for aid - Money is needed as well as words
See also:
"Review of Australia's laws on Asylum Seekers"
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ralas/
West plans simulated anthrax attack (15 March 2002)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=274657
Western nations are to simulate an anthrax attack to gauge how governments and the emergency services would cope with a biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist incident. CLIP An American expert claimed last night the anthrax attacks on the US might have been the result of CIA "field trial" that went disastrously wrong or was abused by an expert. Barbara Rosenberg, the director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological Weapons Programme, raised the possibility on the BBC programme Newsnight, by saying: "The result might have been a project gone awry".
THE WAR ON DISSENT WIDENS
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12612
A powerful group of neo-conservative war hawks is launching a bold new public relations campaign attacking anyone who disagrees with Bush's war on terrorism.
Enron's Shadow Government
http://www.thedailyenron.com/documents/20020312063231-70155.pdf
Enron's alliances, connections and entanglements with the Bush Administration run wide and deep. A new report from The Daily Enron (http://www.thedailyenron.com/), a site by journalist Stephen Pizzo dedicated solely to unraveling the scandal, has a new report detailing just how wide and how deep. Never in modern times has a single private entity been as successful as Enron in penetrating and ultimately compromising U.S. political and regulatory institutions. In its short sixteen-year life span Enron and its operatives burrowed their way deeply into energy and securities regulatory agencies, Congress and finally the Oval Office. Is a Special Counsel necessary?
MORE ENRON-GATE NEWS AT http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=30
A PALESTINIAN VIEW: This time is different
http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/pal2.html
We have to understand why the Americans want to hit Iraq, which is to redraw the map in the Middle East and get rid of all who oppose American policy in the area.
Check also If the US attacks Iraq at http://www.bitterlemons.org/
Saudis to take hard line with Cheney against war on Iraq (March 15, 2002)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,667729,00.html
Saudi Arabia is to deliver an uncompromising message to the US vice-president Dick Cheney that it opposes attacking Iraq and will not cooperate in military efforts to remove Saddam Hussein. The Saudi move - which represents a huge groundswell of Arab opinion against a looming war with Iraq - will be a blow for Mr Cheney, who is touring the Middle East to drum up support for an extended "war on terrorism". CLIP
1.
From: "Harmony Kieding" <worldhome@thesociety.net>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002
Subject: Mirror Site Suggestion
Hi Jean,
If ever you need a mirror site (or an additional one) please count me in:
"Anyone hosting truth-telling websites can consider setting up "mirror sites" on the computers of friends in at least four countries. Each replica site is capable of being activated within minutes if their North American site is "taken down" by government pressure on servers, or a "hack" attack. If necessary, limited Internet access can be delivered by commercially available Single-Sideband radio. Check the ocean-cruising (sailing) sites for more info."
I don't know what exactly goes into the making of a mirror site, but I imagine I could catch on pretty quickly. Frankly I think having a number of them makes sense in this political climate. For example, I notice that the site which exposed the Bin Laden tape as false was taken down pretty quickly.
The more of us that are willing to back and protect each other's truth-telling the better...
Regards,
Harmony
AND MY REPLY WAS:
Thanks Harmony for your kind offer. This would certainly be useful but it would entail such a large time commitment from me if I was to set it up myself that I simply cannot do it.
There are nearly 700 separate webpages, each 12 pages long, on the site. If you were to go download each page's html coding from the site (which you can do through getting the Source codes of each page through your Netscape browser) and then upload it on a new separate site (that you'd have to pay for it as it would be useless to try to host such a large site on a Free Web Hosting gimmick that can be pulled off like that!) it could easily take 10 hours of work or more to do this!
To me it would seem easier that I send a copy on a CD of the whole site to some key people who are committed to re-establish it entirely as a new mirror site in the eventuality that it is taken down and that I'm no longer able to re-create it. But even then it would seem a waste of time to me because after a couple weeks, each compilation begins to become obsolete and is almost completely irrelevant after a year, so much so that hardly anyone will ever read them again.
The key is not to have x amount of great material somewhere on the web amidst zillions of other webpages. The KEY is to have this material actually read by as many people as possible EVERYDAY as it is published, people who would then ACT upon this info in all manners and fashions, as they see fit. There are on average a few thousand people (2250+ on my list plus those who receive forwards of these compilations) who get them and a certain percentage who can find time to read it all.
If each ERN subscriber was to become active on a regular basis in trying to interest other people to subscribe to the ERN list, that would be much more useful in my humble opinion.
Thanks for your suggestion anyway ;-)
Jean
P.S. In case you'd want to encourage those on your e-list to spread the word about this service I provide, here is something you can use along with your own personal words of encouragement:
The Earth Rainbow Network, founded in February 1997, has an extensive e-list of more than 2,250 people in approximately 50 countries sharing information, visions and feedbacks on a broad range of subjects as a way to expand and deepen global awareness and the sense of forming a global spiritual community gradually empowering itself to contribute in shaping the future of this world. To be added on this list at no cost to you, write to globalvisionary@cybernaute.com and simply include "Add me to the ERN list" in the subject field of your email. To have an idea of what you'll receive, you may also check the Earth Rainbow Network website at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000 and read some of the material posted to this list and archived near the bottom of this webpage. You can also subscribe through the website.
2.
From: "Julius Swagemakers" <swagemakers@worldonline.fr>
Subject: Words of thanks
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002
Dear Jean,
Thank you for the 'very positive' courrier you're sending to us. We highly appreciate the contents of your letters because it gives us hope that we're heading for a better world. Besides we noticed that we changed our minds about a lot of items; we knew that we were badly informed by our media, but at least now we know more about what really is going on. We are able to talk about it with more assurance, and we realise that many people are concerned with this different view of reality. Time is ready for deep going changes, it is about time, "why are we waiting"! Heaven knows why. Thank you again.
Love and light, greetings from the south of France, we sometimes feel rather isolated, but we manage.
Julius and Lisa Swagemakers
3.
From: "Ariel Ky" <drumbeatdeva@hotmail.com>
Subject: Dr. Strangelove Administration is Driving Us Toward Nuclear Confrontation!
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002
Jean,
You may have already seen this article from the LA Times, but in case you haven't, I am forwarding it for your review to do with as you may. I just want to preface it with the dream that I had that first week when Bush assumed office and started bombing Tehran until global outcry made him stop. In the dream Bush was preparing a press statement about how many nuclear weapons the U.S. was ready to use. The crowd of advisers cleared away and it was just Bush standing on a beach alone, about to make his announcement. Before he opened his mouth to speak, I went up to him and gently put my finger on his lips, and said, "No. Not one. No nuclear weapons." He was flustered into silence.
---
Note from Jean: I already networked this last week in the "The Writings are on the Wall" comnpilation. If you have not read this yet here is the URL access to this info
U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030902bombs.story
More on this at:
US 'has nuclear hit list' (9 March, 2002)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1864000/1864173.stm
(...) Anti-nuclear campaigners pointed out that the reported instruction to build new tactical nuclear weapons indicated that the administration of George W Bush was more willing to lift the old taboo on using nuclear weapons except as a last resort. "This is very, very dangerous talk," said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World. "Dr Strangelove is clearly still alive in the Pentagon," he commented, referring to a 1964 feature film about a nightmare nuclear conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. Our correspondent recalls that the US made a veiled threat to Iraq during the Gulf War that it could respond with nuclear weapons to an attack by Baghdad using chemical or biological weapons.
ON THIS TOPIC I ALSO RECEIVED THIS COMMENT FROM FROM: "Leigh"
"What does it take to shake us out of apathy? Here's a report from the BBC that shows us just how far our power is being abused by those who we abdicate our responsibility to."
See also at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20020309/ts_nm/bush_nuclear_dc_2
4.
From: "Detre, Sasha" <Sasha.Detre@communication.gc.ca>
Subject: An empowering image
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002
Last night as I was meditating, this image came to me:
A human being of light with the right arm extending to the heavens and the left arm extending to earth, with a zig-zag pattern of light (like lightning) directed upwards and downwards from each hand.
The symbolism: we are each powerful connectors and transformers of energy. If each of us plays our role in the grand mosaic, not judging the process, stating and living the truth from our own perspectives, respecting the truth of others, there can be attunement, connection and heaven on earth.
Have a wonderful day. Cheers!
Sasha Detre
5.
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002
From: Mona LaVine <monajl@earthlink.net>
Subject: Help end hunger and poverty
Calling all letter-writers:
Last Tuesday night, March 12, Undersecretary of the UN, Kofi Annan and James Wolfensohn, World Bank prez, were interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show, an American TV talk show.
They made some very interesting suggestions to help end poverty - globally.
I think this was an important show, because they mentioned an upcoming meeting of the ministers from countries worldwide, the "International Conference on Financing for Development" in Monterrey, Mexico, 22 March 2002 which will examine the severity of the global poverty problem and look at possible solutions.
On the C.R. Show it was mentioned that w. Bush is attending along with Annan and Wolfensohn, and I assume many other heads of states will be there too.
You can hear these two interviews on this website: http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/crose.shtml
I would like to suggest that each and everyone of us write to the head of our own state (presidents, prime ministers, etc) encouraging them to drop the debt as one of the solutions to poverty and anything else you would like to write about.
Also, write to your congressmen and urge them to contact Bush with your request.
If you can listen to the program you will find it very interesting and you will get some ideas from it.
Here are some of the topics covered in the show with C. Rose interviewing Wolfensohn: Remedying global income disparity. Global income disparities: career, aspirations, U.S.'s role. U.S. sentiment toward emerging market aid, other vehicles. What difference can a private sector make? Attitude towards U.S. generosity; global leadership. Lessons learned at World Bank; preview of Monterey meetings. The U.S.'s economic leadership and the private sector's role in combating poverty.
The first 10 minutes of the interview with Kofi Annan deals with the middle east crisis, then goes on to the issue of poverty including:
How do you create (a sense of) urgency and priority? Impact of global poverty on U.S., international businesses Strategy involved in tackling the problem of global poverty
Please pass this on to others.
Mona
A new spirit of Hope is entering the planet
Learn more at http://share-international.org
6.
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002
From: Richard Giles <ricgiles@powerup.com.au>
Subject: HELLO JEAN
Hi Jean, thank you once again for the constant stream of information you send out to us all. A beacon of Light in the dark.
I watch and read carefully all the material that comes in and the readers reaction to it all. I think that one thing that is standing out now is citizens of the USA, those that are reading between the lines are very disillusioned. Very, very disillusioned.
This may sound a little smug or funny but its not meant to be. There are many people across the planet who are not disillusioned. They never had the luxury to be thrown into disillusionment as they didn't have the illusions to start with.
In Australia many of us are watching these events unfolding, especially in the USA and say to ourselves - all of this has already been within the US system and its all been hidden. We can often see it clearly from outside. You must find it much harder to see so clearly from within that media and PR machine you all call the United States of America.
You have not been the champions of freedom in the world. You certainly, as a nation thought you were. But it just hasn't been like that out in the rest of the world. Much of the time you are identified as oppressors and big noters trampling around the planet with insensitive feet, treading on cultures as you go. Dispensing CocaCola solutions to world problems. I have travelled widely in the world since 1972 and lived in several countries for months at a time. These include Europe, North Africa and Asia. It's just not America out there. A lot of citizens of the USA are now beginning to realise this.
I think this is very good because many of you can join the rest of the world now in understanding the planet from another point of view. For example, public opinion surveys in Arab countries just completed show over 70 % of people do not believe the American version of events concerning September 11.
Many of us looked at the images of the WTC centre and while having experienced shock and horror at what happened, really were not surprised. It HAD TO COME ONE DAY. The records of your real history out there in the world had to come home to roost sooner or later.
Sure a lot has been done that's good and helpful to many, but there is all the other stuff. Bombs, massacres, big business, coke, drugs, chemicals, oil, religions, soapies, dumbing down the culture of the planet, the destruction of cultural diversity. I believe now the the USA military budget is the equivalent of the total GNP of up to ten small countries...... That's pretty amazing.
One Cruise missile could have built up to ten schools in northern Afghanistan. How many Cruise missiles will be launched at IRAN or IRAQ when it begins to happen....?
My best wishes,
Richard Giles
Mapleton, QLD AUST
7.
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002
From: Lotus Silverfeather <lotus@light-elixirs.com>
David J Adams
PO Box 111
Old Noarlunga
South Australia 5168
Email : djadams@chariot.net.au
MARINE MEDITATION 2002
Greetings Beloved Ones
"The DIVINE PLAN of the Individual, the Collective Consciousness and the Earth Plan itself was brought to fruition in 2001 ... brought to a stage where the era of Separation no longer dominates your Dimension ! NOW, it is time for the DIVINE PLAN of UNITY and ONENESS to begin! THE BREATH OF THE CREATOR has once again swept across thePlanet, implanting a new vibration of COLOR and SOUND.... the COLOR of GOLD ... and the SOUND of UNITY ! Open your hearts, dear ones , embrace this new vibrational frequency, radiate this new vibrational frequency with every breath you take.
When the Earth was first created it was bound together with SOUND... the SOUND of the JOY within the HEART of the CREATOR. Beings from a distance galaxy called the HARMONICS journeyed to this place, this new Earth, this new Paradise, to hold this sound within the earth on behalf of the Creator. They connected and communicated with those who came later to add their light and lustre to this place....but they too became disconnected from their source, and from those they had come to assist, by the energies of Separation. Now the HARMONICS have Awakened , and are once again ready and eager to communicate the JOY of the CREATOR through the SOUND of the Earth. The ancient 'SONG LINES'.. spoken of by the Australian Aboriginals in their Dreamtime legends , are once again alive and pulsing .... If only you are Prepared to listen!!
Beloveds, it is a new time, a time of UNITY and JOY ... SOUND your own unique SOUND Listen to the SOUND of the EARTH and the PLANETS ... help to bind together once again The BREATH of the CREATOR ... CO-CREATE your NEW EARTH !!!
We humbly give you as your Focus for the Marine Meditation in 2002 the new SOUND of JOY With the new GOLD LIGHT FREQUENCY within your HEART... SOUND FORTH YOUR JOY
Blessings be with each and every one of you. Germain, Hilarion and Djwahl Khul"
I am honoured to bring you this special message from our Spirit Friends, and to invite you to Participate once again in the Marine Meditations this year on
WEDNESDAY 20th MARCH, 2002 and
SUNDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER, 2002
at 8pm wherever you are in the World.
SOUND FORTH YOUR JOY, AND FLOOD THE WORLD WITH OCEANS OF LOVE, AND LOVE OF THE OCEANS.
Blessings of LOVE in the ONE HEART
David J Adams
8.
From: "Donald Stacey" <dstacey@attbi.com>
Subject: Thousands at Defense Dept. on 'Shopping Spree'
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002
Isn't it clear that we have lost control over our government? Our elected representatives in Washington pass laws that they have not read that take away our freedoms. They violate the constitution regularly. They are parties to crimes. They can't account for over $3 trillion of our taxdollars entrusted to them. They lie openly.
AND WE CAN NOT HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE !
Don Stacey
---
Thousands at Defense Dept. on 'Shopping Spree'
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000018836mar14.story
WASHINGTON -- More than 700 military officers are among 46,000 Defense Department employees who have walked away from $62 million in debt against their government-issued credit cards, and one civilian employee who charged thousands in personal expenses has been promoted to the office that oversees Army finances. CLIP
9.
Sent by From: MonaSpree@aol.com
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002
From: Michael Moore <mike@michaelmoore.com>
"Stupid White Men" Shoots to #1 on New York Times Bestseller List, Bush/Cheney Prepare to Weep and Leave
3/14/02
Dear friends,
Tonight, while standing in downtown Flint outside the commuter college I dropped out of because I couldn't find a parking space one day, I learned that my book, "Stupid White Men...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation" is now the #1 book in the country on the New York Times Bestseller List.
I want to thank all of you who bought the book and made this happen. I am truly grateful and I want you to know how much I appreciate you.
The book went into its FOURTEENTH printing today, and has now sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
The #1 ranking will appear in the Sunday March 23rd edition of the Book Review section of the New York Times.
I just wanted to get this brief note out to you so you could share in the good news.
The publisher is rushing the book to press in Great Britain where it is already on the bestseller list without any books being available for sale. You can find it in the stores within the next 10 days.
More dates to be added to the book tour, especially in Canada...
Thanks again, everyone.
>From Flint,
Michael Moore
Author
Filmmaker
College parking lot dropout
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
10.
Let Love Ring!
Purpose of Event
1. To have millions of people focusing on love for a 24 hour period in order to replace fear with love.
2. To have bells ring around the world for 24 hours.
3. To empower caring people with an avenue to make a difference in our world.
4. To inaugurate a new era of peace, unity, and cooperation on planet earth by accepting and celebrating our diversity and sharing our love.
5. To invite and include children as key leaders in events everywhere.
A coloring book of children’s artwork is being produced to give to the children of New York City and Washington, D.C. on 9/11/02. Plans are to also create one for children in the Middle East.
Mission Statement
To “Let Love Ring!” through service, music, and the arts—to each other, the earth, and all upon it.”
A grass-roots project, the 9/11/02 event began with a group of concerned women in Nashville, Tennessee and has captured the hearts and minds of persons around the world. People of all faiths and backgrounds are participating.
As a result, the not-for-profit organization, “Let Love Ring!” was formed. Contributions exceeding costs of this event will go into ongoing projects with the same mission.
“Let Love Ring!” is devoted to the following purposes:
- To raise awareness of the power of love and increase participation in its flow.
- To create an opportunity for citizens worldwide to offer a service of love and thereby promote worldwide peace.
- To aid children in coming forward as equal partners in world leadership.
More details at http://www.letlovering.com
Send mail to: ”Let Love Ring!” 1808 West End Ave., Suite 1411 Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: Arzella Kay-Wheeler (615) 366-6994
Email: admin@letlovering.com
11.
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,666348,00.html
60 millions face death if West fails to provide aid
Fears that UN summit will provide only rhetoric
March 13, 2002
The Guardian
Nearly 60 million children in the developing world, the equivalent of the population of the UK, will die needlessly over the next 15 years unless rich countries start to deliver on their promises to increase international aid spending, development campaigners warn today.
Amid mounting fears that next week's UN summit, in Monterrey, Mexico, on boosting aid to the poorest countries will deliver empty rhetoric rather than cash, Oxfam said ambitious international goals set for tackling poverty by 2015 would be missed by a huge margin.
The aid agency said that the world's richest countries needed to provide an extra $100bn (£70bn) a year - three times the current level of assistance - to ensure that the targets of halving world poverty, putting every child into school and reducing infant mortality by two thirds are met.
Aid campaigners are disappointed that the chancellor, Gordon Brown, who last autumn called for a doubling of aid spending, has decided not to go to Monterrey after it be came clear that opposition from the US and leading EU nations had made the conference a non-event.
Although the government had reversed the 20 year declining trend in Britain's aid spending, Oxfam said its record "falls far short of the standards required for a country seeking to provide leadership".
Oxfam said rich countries' failure to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid will result in millions of child deaths. Using UN data on child mortality, the agency predicts that, on current trends, by 2015 10m children a year will be dying before their fifth birthday, compared with a target of 4.2m.
"These figures show that more empty words on aid in Monterrey will cost children's lives," said Kevin Watkins, policy adviser at Oxfam.
The extra spending needed to meet the UN target would add $11bn to the US budget - a quarter of the sum president George Bush has pledged to add to the Pentagon's budget in the aftermath of September 11, according to the agency. The EU could reach the target by allocating an extra $35bn to aid - the amount it spends annually subsidising farmers through the common agriculture policy.
"The current political background gives little cause for optimism," the agency warned. "Several major donors - including Italy, France, Germany and Japan - have been cutting aid. Others, notably the US, are allowing aid programmes to stagnate at exceptionally low levels."
Although President Bush is expected to attend the summit, the US has, in effect, neutered any chance of the summit delivering radical pledges on aid, by insisting that all mentions of the UN target be removed from the draft declaration.
Hopes that the EU might embarrass Washington by agreeing substantial increases of its own have also foundered. Oxfam is calling for a four point programme under which developed nations would agree to meet the 0.7% target within five years, developing countries would clear plans to ensure money was well spent, donors would ensure that the $10bn global fund to fight Aids and malaria was properly financed and that no child would be kept out of school for lack of money.
Related articles 13.03.2002: 60m face death if West fails to provide aid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,666332,00.html
13.03.2002: Brown pledges rise in overseas aid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,666283,00.html
13.03.2002: Leader: An agenda for aid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,666319,00.html
12.
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,666319,00.html
An agenda for aid - Money is needed as well as words
March 13, 2002
The Guardian
Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain is prepared to spend "significantly" more of its wealth on helping poorer countries is a welcome affirmation of the chancellor's devotion to overseas development. Especially as he has committed the Treasury, in parsimonious times, to an increase not only in cash terms but as a percentage of national income, so that it rises in line with growing national prosperity. Cynics could say that Mr Brown has plenty of room to be generous because Britain's current aid contribution of 0.31% of gross domestic product (GDP) is less than France's and considerably less than half of the UN's long-term target of 0.7% of GDP. That may be true, but we do not live in an ideal world. We live in one where the biggest economy, the United States, is planning a $48bn increase in defence spending, yet gives a paltry 0.1% of GDP in aid. The US is entering a protectionist phase that could have devastating effects on poor countries that rely on income from commodities and farming, products most vulnerable to tariffs. It would have been better if Mr Brown could have persuaded the US to fulfil its humanitarian as well as military duties, but the US is in no mood to compromise. It has shrugged off its responsibilities under the UN's Millennium Declaration to - among other things - halve the number of the world's poor living in poverty by 2015 and to achieve universal primary education. Over 20% of the world's population still earns under $1 a day and about half gets less than $2 a day, according to the UN.
One of the threadbare excuses used by the US to justify this month's steel tariffs was that Europe and Japan were not expanding fast enough to help the US out of its current slowdown. The US must accept that there is no better way of kick-starting global recovery than reflating the economies of the developing world. This would create jobs and economic activity where they are most needed and generate demand for western, and American, goods. If the running sore of world poverty is to be cured there must be simultaneous action on a number of fronts, including debt relief, increased capital flows, lower tariffs, better education, reduced infant mortality and improved conflict resolution. Some past approaches to aid only served to line the pockets of ministers or was wasted in other ways. The aid agencies and western governments have done much to improve things by targeting aid to the people and institutions, like schools, that would benefit, rather than channelling it through dubious intermediaries.
If governments are reluctant to raise existing taxes to fund aid, then they could at least look favourably on special levies like a tax on foreign exchange transactions devised by Professor James Tobin, the Nobel laureate, who died this week. Some of the proceeds of a Tobin tax of about 0.5% on short-term currency transactions could be used to help developing countries. A standard objection to the tax is that it would have to be imposed by all countries simultaneously to stop cash draining to the weakest offshore link. But a recent German government study suggests that it may be possible for a single big entity - like the European Union (plus Switzerland) - to operate such a tax because the concentration of business in one centre, aided by time zones, may prevent transactions migrating to tax havens. This may or may not be possible in the long term. In the short term there is no alternative to leading by example. Gordon Brown is doing just that. He should now move from words to deeds by publishing an annual programme for increased UK aid.
