Call to action heard at PSU

By Deborah Moon Seldner

Speaking at a Genocide Awareness Week workshop, a leading advocate to stop the genocide in Darfur said she has seen the mobilization of outraged people make dramatic changes in her lifetime.
The Civil Rights movement, the freeing of Soviet Jewry, the decrease of sweat shop clothing and the rise of free trade coffee all owe their success to people speaking out, said Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service, which supports grassroots programs around the world. Messinger presented two workshops March 15 at Portland State University as part of Portland's first Genocide Awareness Week March 12-18, with diverse programs at numerous venues culminating in a peace and memorial vigil at the Oregon Holocaust Memorial.
"Governments are more comfortable without demonstrations," she said. "Elected officials respond to a growing volume of complaints."
In the modern world with the network of global connections, most of which people can easily ignore, according to Messinger, we are all citizens of the world and as such we need to consider our obligations to our fellow citizens.
Messinger noted that anyone who drives a car, uses energy or drinks coffee, tea or hot chocolate is in an international relationship and is part of a network of global connections.
When a tsunami killed nearly a quarter of a million people in Asia in December 2004, the world's media covered the tragedy on newspaper front pages and network news shows for 21 days straight, said Messinger.
"When we watched the people (on the news broadcasts), we recognized intuitively these were people we needed to care about and we got the idea they were in some way our responsibility," said Messinger, noting that the massive charity response is testament to that fact.
Messinger said Americans need to consider whether other people in the world are also our responsibility.
"What about the people who pick those beans for your coffee?" she asked. "What about the Ugandan farmers who are dying of AIDS and leaving orphans before they are able to pass along the agricultural skills to grow crops in those extreme conditions? What about today's and tomorrow's victims of the ongoing genocide in Darfur? Are these individuals our responsibility? Is there anything we can do for them? Do we have an affirmative obligation to get involved?"
For Messinger, the answer is clearly yes. She said that for her, the real question is, "Do we have any power to steer this (global change) in one direction or another?"
Messinger said that people do have the ability to affect change. In addition to advocacy on behalf of those in need, Messinger said people can do something as simple as ordering free trade coffee or buying only clothing not produced in sweat shops. Making a donation to or volunteering for an organization that does global work you support is another way to change the world.
While accepting responsibility for others is a humanitarian thing to do, it also has a practical side, said Messinger.
"Your good life is premised on a very big gap," she said. "A world that is this unequal is not a world that will find peace ? and will not be a world where we see the end of terrorism soon."
She urged people to support the UN Millenium Development Goals that call for halving extreme poverty by 2015. Though the United States signed the resolution, the government has yet to supply funding to help meet those goals.
In that same vein, she recommended people read "The End of Poverty," by Jeffrey Sachs, which presents a coherent plan for eliminating extreme poverty worldwide by the year 2025. Financing the plan would require the U.S. to increase its non-military foreign aid from .18 percent to .7 percent of its budget. Messinger called it amazing that spending less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget could have such a major impact worldwide.
Through her work with AJWS, Messinger is well aware of how far U.S. dollars go in Third World countries. She said AJWS's average grant to grassroots organizations is about $20,000. She said giving a group in a developing country that amount of money is equivalent to giving a similar organization in Portland $350,000.
Messinger also noted that when going to help the rest of the world it is important to do so in ways that are culturally sensitive. She said there are many very well-meaning faith groups building orphanages in African nations facing a high death rate from AIDS.
Yet Messinger said the people in those countries value community and extended family and would prefer help keeping children in their villages.
She said one community told her they would like help setting aside plots of land that could be farmed specifically to feed those who have taken in grandchildren or other orphans.
"The best way to help them, is to help them help themselves," concluded Messinger.