Fwd: strong speech about hunger

Friends,

This comes from Hope Coulter, the director of the Arkansas Hunger Coaltion, and a longtime friend of community gardens.

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
Clinton Community Garden

Subj: strong speech about hunger
Date: 9/26/03 11:35:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: arhunger@COMCAST.NET
Reply-to: ARKANSAS_FOOD_SECURITY_NETWORK@LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
To: ARKANSAS_FOOD_SECURITY_NETWORK@LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
Sent from the Internet



Did any of you hear the speech that Brazilian president Luis da Silva made to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday?  He spoke right before President Bush.  He had a lot to say about hunger.  Here are some excerpts:

 

The eradication of hunger in the world is a moral and political imperative. And we all know that it is possible. What is truly required is political will. . . . Nothing is more absurd or intolerable than the pervasiveness of hunger in the XXI century, the golden age of science and technology.

Hunger is an emergency and should be dealt with as such.

The eradication of hunger is a civilizational challenge which requires that we seek a shortcut to the future.
Will we act to eliminate hunger or will we forsake our credibility through omission?

. . . We have no right to say to the famished that have waited for so long: wait for another century.

The true path to peace is to fight hunger and extreme poverty without truce, in a campaign of solidarity that unites the planet rather than by deepening the divisions and the hatred that inflames people and sows terror.

Despite the failure of systems that favor the generation of wealth without reducing extreme poverty, many people still persist in their short-sightedness and greed.

. . . That is why I launched the "Zero Hunger" program in Brazil. It seeks to eradicate hunger and its root causes in the shortest possible time. It does so by promoting a major solidarity drive and a wide­ranging program bringing together government, civil society and the private sector. The results of combined emergency and structural measures are already benefiting four million individuals who were previously denied the basic right to a daily meal. The goal of the "Zero Hunger" Program is that, by the end of my term in office, no Brazilian will go hungry.

President da Silva also proposed a UN Global Fund to Fight Hunger and a UN World World Committee to Fight Hunger, which “would be made up of Heads of State or Government from all continents with the purpose of unifying and operationalizing proposals.”  Yesterday he backed up his words by making a personal donation of $50,000 to the UN to be used for fighting hunger and poverty.

  You can read the full speech at http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/58/statements/braeng030923.htm.

It seems to me that this all-important speech and its accompanying actions have gotten very little publicity, so spread it around!  We need more of this kind of leadership, here and all over the world.

 

Hope Coulter, Executive Director

Arkansas Hunger Coalition

 

P.S.  Thanks to my mom, who heard this speech in NPR’s special coverage and tipped me off to it!

 




--- Begin Message ---
  • Subject: strong speech about hunger
  • From: Hope Coulter a*@COMCAST.NET
  • Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 10:34:47 -0500
  • Comments: cc: Hope Norman
  • Importance: Normal

Did any of you hear the speech that Brazilian president Luis da Silva made to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday?  He spoke right before President Bush.  He had a lot to say about hunger.  Here are some excerpts:

 

The eradication of hunger in the world is a moral and political imperative. And we all know that it is possible. What is truly required is political will. . . . Nothing is more absurd or intolerable than the pervasiveness of hunger in the XXI century, the golden age of science and technology.

Hunger is an emergency and should be dealt with as such.

The eradication of hunger is a civilizational challenge which requires that we seek a shortcut to the future.
Will we act to eliminate hunger or will we forsake our credibility through omission?

. . . We have no right to say to the famished that have waited for so long: wait for another century.

The true path to peace is to fight hunger and extreme poverty without truce, in a campaign of solidarity that unites the planet rather than by deepening the divisions and the hatred that inflames people and sows terror.

Despite the failure of systems that favor the generation of wealth without reducing extreme poverty, many people still persist in their short-sightedness and greed.

. . . That is why I launched the "Zero Hunger" program in Brazil. It seeks to eradicate hunger and its root causes in the shortest possible time. It does so by promoting a major solidarity drive and a wide­ranging program bringing together government, civil society and the private sector. The results of combined emergency and structural measures are already benefiting four million individuals who were previously denied the basic right to a daily meal. The goal of the "Zero Hunger" Program is that, by the end of my term in office, no Brazilian will go hungry.

President da Silva also proposed a UN Global Fund to Fight Hunger and a UN World World Committee to Fight Hunger, which “would be made up of Heads of State or Government from all continents with the purpose of unifying and operationalizing proposals.”  Yesterday he backed up his words by making a personal donation of $50,000 to the UN to be used for fighting hunger and poverty.

 You can read the full speech at http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/58/statements/braeng030923.htm.

It seems to me that this all-important speech and its accompanying actions have gotten very little publicity, so spread it around!  We need more of this kind of leadership, here and all over the world.

 

Hope Coulter, Executive Director

Arkansas Hunger Coalition

 

P.S.  Thanks to my mom, who heard this speech in NPR’s special coverage and tipped me off to it!

 

--- End Message ---
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index