Re: VOW in a single country 4 - or a World Vision?

["Schulte-baeuminghaus" <schulte.baeuminghaus@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul and John,

I think the ideas put forward by Paul and partly at least endorsed by John
are admirable.
It would be terrific if Paul could get the support of retired groups - and
others. That would be a huge step forward, especially if they were to come
from parts of the world we have only begun to hear from - Africa and Asia in
particular but also Latin America.
On the idea of a single country effort in order to impress others, I am less
convinced.
I do not think it would be easier to help one country than it would be to
direct our efforts more universally.
Vision is one major feature that might carry us through. That vision needs,
I think, to be comprehensive.
We need to show too that the program we have in mind is good for all of us.
It provides an economic stimulus for the United States, for example, and it
also is directed to helping the homeless, the poverty-stricken, the people
without medical insurance, all the exposed population - numbering tens of
millions, I suppose - in the United States itself.
Finally, it would take us a very long time to take on one country and show
the rest of the world we had succeeded in lifting it out of the depths of
poverty. By then, chaos and catastrophe, wars and terrorism, Armageddon and
the rest might have overwhelmed us.
My view is that we should always remember that time is short.
This is especially so if the indicators of a deep world recession prove to
be true.
I know people talk about recovery in the United States, high productivity
and high growth rates. It all looks good on paper and we can hope and pray
that it will turn out to be right in practice.
But I wouldn't take any bets on it.
Those statistics, for example, are difficult to sell.
Do any of the really informed people - including Alan Greenspan, to go no
further - really put any faith in them?
The next six months could well be the most dramatic that any of us have
lived through - in economic terms but also in terms of world political and
social stability..
VOW is intended to meet the short-term - if it is short - the short-term
recession as well as the chronic condition of want.
The two things go together.
It is more appealing to all of us to resolve or try to resolve the chronic
affliction if, by so doing, we can resolve - in whole or in major part - the
shorter term affliction too.
We need to be ready - or as ready as we can be - to act to moderate whatever
problems confront us in the immediate - repeat, immediate - future.



James
http://VictoryOverWant.org



----- Original Message -----
From: "John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Victory Over Want" <VOW@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: VOW in a single country 4


>         Dear Paul,
>
>         I agree with all you write below.
>
>         It brings to mind "Habitat for Humanity".  HFH is
>         an attempt to start out in the real world and DO
>         as much as one can to eliminate homelessness.
>
>         The program you suggest would be many times
>         more difficult, I believe, than HFH.
>
>         I would prefer that we avoid the real world and
>         concentrate instead on the world of ideas and
>         beliefs.  Start with a website and email forum.
>         Move on to a book and a movie.
>
>         My preference would also be monumentally
>         difficult.  To try to influence opinion with
>         text is supremely hard. The internet has brought
>         us glut of previously unimagined proportions.
>         To get through it would take a genius with
>         superior ideas and talent.
>
>         I agree that what we want is to prove that
>         freedom, money and expertese can, in theory,
>         be included in a mixed economy determined
>         to cooperate and compete in a balanced way
>         to bootstrap nations and peoples out of
>         poverty and into the sunshine we find in
>         places like Iceland and Denmark. Or at least
>         that seems to me to be what you want to do
>         by moving from talk to a concrete program
>         for VOW.
>
>         I guess what I want to do is to prove that my
>         obsession with debtless, taxless money is
>         common sensical.
>
>         What VOW wants to do is take the best from
>         the old world of rich nations and their good
>         intentions and the new world of resisters to
>         globalization, mix them together, and get a
>         Marshall Plan going to rescue the places not
>         yet reached by the old Marshall Plan.
>
>         We have the interesting examples of people with
>         lots of money like Ted Turner and George Soros
>         who also have utopian dreams. They have turned
>         money into concrete achievement. I salute them
>         for it.
>
>         We have other examples of writers like Fukuyama
>         and Kaplan and books like "Empire". They have
>         turned text into shared insights that infuse the
>         world of utopian dreams with hope. (I'm sure
>         there are better examples others remember.)
>
>         We have HFH and thousands of concrete programs
>         that do real good in the real world every day.
>
>         I apprediate your insistence on wanting to move
>         VOW toward the objectives you have in mind.
>
>         I believe we need more of this sort of critique.
>
>         You may remember the anti-globalization
>         conference recently concluded in Puerto Allegre.
>         It had thousands of types like us. They were
>         acting on the stage of the real world -- not on
>         the internet like we are.
>
>         Their size was daunting. I believe they had 40,000
>         people looking for the same answers we are.
>         (Maybe it was smaller?)
>
>         This is the best I can offer at the moment. Don't
>         stop until what we are doing makes a great deal
>         of sense to you.
>
>         With love to all of us,
>         John
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Paul Riesz <priesz@xxxxxx>
> To: Gelles John <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: VOW <VOW@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 5:41 AM
> Subject: VOW in a single country 4
>
>
> Dear John:
>
> Here are the reas6ns for my insisting that a VOW campaign should start
> with an attempt to alleviate poverty in a single country:
>
> We are a very small group of well meaning individuals, whose chances of
> being able to address and eliminate poverty all over the world
> SIMULTANEOUSLY or to collect ALL the needed financial means are NIL.
>
> But this situation might change, if we our efforts in a single country
> were sufficiently successful to PROVE that we can help it to help itself
> and that we have found ways to use AVAILABLE FOREIGN AID FUNDS more
> effectively than other organizations. In that case we would immediately
> gain credibility for a program to apply similar measures on a much wider
> scale and when trying to find allies among other, more numerous and
> powerful groups.
>
> To supply convincing evidence to that effect would be an enormously
> difficult task, but it certainly would be worth while to try.
>
> For a start we would have to look for similarly minded individuals with
> expertise in the fields of development strategies or in negotiating with
> investors or with international institutions and then invite them to
> join us in an effort for planning and later carrying out a small program
> in a single poor country; representative of conditions in the 3rd world.
>
> Great numbers of such individuals can certainly be found in many
> countries, but to look for them one by one would be very difficult and
> would take too long. Fortunately there exist organizations of retired
> professionals, many of whom who might have the required expertise
> harbor; something that was already mentioned in our discussions. I
> happen to know a former -but still well connected- representative of one
> such organization and if I had a mandate from VOW, I could try to
> persuade him to send out a circular to his fellow retirees, requesting
> them to contact him or me, if they are interested to participate in a
> VOW campaign.
>
> Should we succeed - by whatever means - in recruiting a sufficient
> number of such volunteers, we could then start planning out first
> concrete program.
>
> Here are some ideas on how such an trial program could be carried out:
>
> At first we should consider what concrete measures might be within our
> means. I would suggest the following steps:
>
> * Searching for and selecting a country with widespread poverty and
> little past progress in improving their situation, but possessing a
> minimum of natural and human resources, capable of being developed.
>
> * Selecting the most promising resources for producing goods for export
> and/or domestic consumption, with the highest possible % of integrated
> value.
>
> * Searching for ways to increase the productivity of both workers and
> entrepreneurs, thus facilitating a slow but permanent rise of wages and
> profits.
>
> * Considering which 1st world countries and/or investors might be
> interested in participating and what type of foreign investment would be
> most useful.
>
> * Searching for ways to use AVAILABLE foreign aid funds more effectively
> and to significantly reduce possible corruption.
>
> Then it would be necessary for a small group of our representatives to
> travel to the selected country, in order to find out what they might be
> willing and able to contribute to the program and to negotiate
> conditions for out activities as consultants and supervisors.
>
> I could try to work out further details, but feel that this first draft
> ought to be sufficient for analyzing the chances for success of such a
> scheme and the advisability of adopting one.
>
> I am looking forward to your comments.
>
> Cordial greetings             Paul
>