Not that many days ago — but a week, even in teaching, can be a long time (and it's now been nearly two) — we held our annual conference for our final year pupils (which I posted about, in advance, here). The impact was great: Julian Filochowski delivered a speech of highly impressive power: analytical, detailed, impassioned. 800 million of the world's people are hungry. One fifth of mankind has no access to safe, clean water. Half of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day and 1.2 billion live on less than a $1 a day. Every hour of every day, 1200 children die in the Third World — the equivalent of 3 Indian Ocean Tsunami disasters each and every month — and the cause of the great majorty of these deaths is poverty, which is preventable. 'Someone born in Zambia today has less chance of reaching their 30th birthday than someone born in Britain in 1840.' 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS (and today, new figures suggest the total has topped 40 million for the first time): over 90% are in the 3rd world, but 90% of the billions spent each year on medical care and social support, on HIV medical research, on prevention and education is spent in the North. (Further reading: the UN Human Development Report, 2005.)
At the heart of the problem lies globalisation, that economic, political, social, cultural and technological interdependence that connects the world but with rigged rules, a system that 'seems to offer unity but lacks justice' because it is in fact a unity of those who have technology and the power to purchase (eg, WTO rules that don't promote the human development of all but favour the rich and powerful at the cost of the poor) — global pillage, not global village. The UN's Millennium Development Goals (September, 2000; signed at the largest gathering of Heads of State ever assembled) has set various target dates by which its goals are to be achieved. This December's Trade and Development Symposium will be crucial in deciding whether or not poverty and hunger can be eradicated as envisioned.
Julian's statistics would have been stupefying without his sustaining argument and clear forcefulness of direction. His talk tied in very well with the handbook we had adopted for the day, Jessica Williams' 50 Facts That Should Change the World. Indeed, she cites Julian's calculation that every cow in the EU is subsidised by $2.50 a day, more than what 75% of Africans have to live on. Not surprising that to many in Latin America the language in which our concern comes wrapped ('Third World', 'Developing Countries') seems anodyne. They speak of 'a crucified people'. (Earlier this month, I stupidly missed Gustavo Gutiérrez's Oxford talk, which Tim had organised.)
It's easier to summarise Julian's talk than James Mawdsley's: both were outstanding and moving, but James' critique of North Korea was itself rooted not just in his experience of travelling there but also in a philosophical critique of totalitarianism. The latter is not so easy to "sample", but I particularly enjoyed his analysis of the denial of transcendence, or, perhaps better, its relocation in the cult of the dictator. Also memorable was his closely argued insistence that we are all diminished if we shrug our shoulders and allow others to live their lives under a regime that denies them their humanity.
He made scant reference to his time in Burma, but the impact of his integrity and courage were marked and his glancing references to his periods of imprisonment were all the more striking for the restraint he exercised in talking about them. Many queued afterwards to buy a copy of The Heart Must Break.
It was a good day and a good thing to have done. I'd be surprised if it hasn't made several think about how they want to live their lives.
