Would you give up two bowls of rice and vegetables to help treat a sick family member? An easy “yes” probably escaped your mouth. What if those two bowls of rice are all you can afford in the span of a day?
You can navigate away from this page and choose never to contemplate this question ever again, but a number of our fellow human beings face this sort of dilemma on a daily basis. In fact, Hugh Evans, an inspiring 26-year-old Australian, would maintain there are 1.4 billion reasons to contemplate this problem, even if you don’t have to – because 1.4 billion humans live in extreme poverty, and they don’t have a choice.
A crowd of Centennial College students, organization members and community citizens gathered in the Danforth Music Hall at 11 am on September 11, 2009 to witness the North American premiere of The Global Poverty Project’s 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation. Chris Adams, Executive Producer of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Syrianna, opened up the floor to Hugh Evans, a young Australian man who entertained and educated an audience over the course of two hours, captivating them with his sense of humour, passion and energy. We’re talking about a man as normal as you and I, with the same needs that you and I have, but he was cool, friendly, knew his facts, was passionate about his subject – and yes, he has an Australian accent. Evans wasn’t on the stage to fool anyone – he came to bring the truth to light, to educate us and to inspire us not only to believe in our own power to help, but to believe in the project’s goal: to eradicate extreme poverty in our lifetime.
The presentation was not what I expected; I anticipated a Monday afternoon commercial seeking donations for poor children living in other parts of the globe, the kind that either motivates you to jump on the remote to change the channel or is so honestly depressing that it almost moves your body to tears. This is not what we witnessed in the music hall – the hope in the room was so palpable you could reach out and touch it. The presentation was not an attempt to reach into your pocket, but an endeavor to reach into your head and heart.
Hugh Evans is well-educated in the reality of the situation. He knows that extreme poverty is a big deal and that it is extremely real; you may forget about this an hour from now when you log onto Facebook or prepare a snack to eat, but the problem will be just as real then as it is now. Hugh is aware that the issue is not a simple one, but rather a complex one with many faces that require serious moral contemplation. But not only is there hope that we can eradicate poverty in our lifetime – it’s already happening.
It’s Affordable to End Poverty in Our Lifetime – So Why Don’t We?
We’ve already managed to reduce the number living in extreme poverty over the course of the past decade or so. South Korea, which was once an aid-receiving country, is now an aid-giving country. Does anyone else feel happy to hear this? In one clip featuring Jeff Sachs, he wisely relates that these are “Not just ideas, but achievable” ones. “It’s affordable to end poverty,” Hugh Evans says, and his presentation rightly demonstrates it.
You may not be able to understand this without viewing the presentation yourself, but read it here now – we can not only afford to eradicate extreme poverty in our lifetime, we not only believe we can, but initiatives are in motion that are doing it right now. As Evans pointed out, we have more money now than we did before, and fewer people are living in extreme poverty. That’s more money for fewer people – we don’t need a math degree to know how good that is! But that’s not to say that the problem we are facing is one that will be easily overcome. Some countries haven’t been as fortunate as South Korea; for some, the problem has gotten worse. Again, 1.4 Billion Reasons does not oversimplify what is a complex moral dilemma humans have faced for centuries – the project involves careful research, a dose of reality and a refreshing bout of hope and action to do something about it.
- The Global Poverty Project (Credit to Source)
After struggling step after mucky step through the swamp of cynicism and dark facts, it’s refreshing to find someone who not only believes that we can eradicate extreme cases of poverty, but wonderfully inspiring to meet someone who can show you with real statistics and tangible stories that believe it or not, it’s true that we can. In fact, it’s not about belief anymore. Towards the presentation’s conclusion, where Hugh Evans suggested that as individuals we can do something about poverty, he quoted William Wilberforce, who said, “You can choose to look the other way, but never again can you say you did not know.”
Hugh Evans argued you cannot say poverty “is the natural way of things” because “we know what it takes” – we’ve already been improving the situation. Evans opened his heart to the audience and told us, “I believe from the bottom of my heart” that we can eradicate extreme poverty. Now I do too.
By: Marisa Baratta
Blog Writer 2009-2010, Change Tomorrow’s World
