THE EIGHT GOALS from the G8 summit
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
As Africa enters the twenty first century, it is faced with basic problems of survival that should have been overcome after almost half a century of political independence. At independence, almost every African country declared war against three enemies: poverty, ignorance and disease. Today it is poorer than 40 years ago. The majority of people has no access to modern knowledge and can neither read nor write. Diseases that had been eradicated from the face of the earth after the advancement of science in are on the increase as if we are not part and parcel of the modern world. New diseases like HIV/AIDS have found a home in Africa, capitalizing on our ignorance and exploiting our poverty at a time when the demands of our economy most need them. To add insult to injury, we have—presiding over us—governments that are rarely in a hurry to implement policies to help eradicate poverty, provide knowledge and give people universal access to healthy living. Healthy living does not simply mean keeping away from diseases, but eating well, proper shelter, clothing, and being secure from the ravages of nature and the evil intentions of wicked people. That place to feel at home is what has been eluding our governments, leaders and political entrepreneurs as if it was not the mission of independence. To retain political power the African ruling classes specialized in political repression and the settling of political disagreements in violent and destructive ways. All this has adversely affected possibilities and opportunities for development in Africa. Wars, displaced persons, people imprisoned without trials, coups d’état, lack of respect for the sanctity of human life: all these have been the enemies of progress in Africa. In designing poverty programmes, it is wise to respect the vision of poverty articulated by poor people themselves. This is my point of emphasis and my broad parameter of this discussion. I take strong conviction from the view that there is no philosophical disagree.ment with the statement that one needs to understand African poverty in order to solve it. No wonder the eight goals above from the G8 will remain a pipe dream. Commemorating the World AIDS Day and all those who succumbed to the disease.
