I just read an interesting article about Bono addressing the World Economic Forum alongside Gore.
While I appreciate all the work Bono does in regards to poverty, he strikes me as somewhat of a self-serving phony who cares more about his own wealth and fame than actually solving problem of global poverty. But I have not studied the man enough, so I say that speculatively.
Nonetheless, he said something with which I agree and want to quote:
“The planet is in a precarious place right now and extreme poverty affects a billion people who are living on less than a dollar a day, scrambling for their life. We have a great life in the West. If we want it to continue we have to feel our interconnectedness with the people who are living on less than a dollar a day.” ~Bono
To me, it seems especially important now to recognize the interconnectedness of the people of this world considering the current rockiness of the U.S. economy. The rest of the world fears a global economic crisis if the U.S. economy falters. Because the whole world economically depends on the United States, the United States has no room to falter.
In other words, by economically dominating the world, the United States has it made it so that when its own economy falters nobody will have the economic strength to subsidize the United States. Since the rest of the world depends on the United States, the United States has nobody on which it can depend.
If the United States economy goes into a massive recession and it throws the average U.S. resident into poverty, then I think the West will realize how much better off it would have been if it had eliminated poverty and created a world that does not tolerate poverty.
It’s great to be the strongest in a lot of ways, but who will protect you when you lose your strength if you never helped others gain strength?
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
We as a world need to understand our interconnectedness, and we need to build a better world for all by solving problems such as world hunger, poverty, and global warming.
What do you think about poverty, the global community, and the current economic problems in the United States? Post your comments and responses in this thread at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.