Ending World Poverty is a noble, but lofty goal. How realistic is this really when we think of all the dictators and communist countries that purposely keep their people oppressed. Senator Obama has sponsored Senate bill 2433 which states the following:

“A bill to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.”

Let’s look at this carefully “A bill to require the President…”. What this is saying is that no matter who is elected President in 2008, they will be required to develop and implement a strategy to meet the Millineum Development Goals. In a way it is taking control away from the electorate. We can elect someone who does not want to commit this much additional money to foreign aid, but he or she will have to because they are required. What exactly is the UN Millinium Development Goals? For one it will force the US to commit 0.7 GNP to poverty stricken nations that we have no political or economic interests in. The reality is we can throw an estimated 850 billion at this World Poverty issue and still not truly eradicate poverty. Take Viet Nam, do we actually think the communists will distribute any aid they are given?

The bill states that especially land-locked countries and Africa are to receive aid. Why don’t we just redraw the borders so there aren’t any landlocked countries? Sounds crazy doesn’t it, but that would be one solution.

From the Millenium Development Goal:

“We will support the consolidation of democracy in Africa and assist Africans
in their struggle for lasting peace, poverty eradication and sustainable
development, thereby bringing Africa into the mainstream of the world
economy.” (section IV, 27)

“To take special measures to address the challenges of poverty eradication and
sustainable development in Africa, including debt cancellation, improved
market access, enhanced Official Development Assistance and increased flows
of Foreign Direct Investment, as well as transfers of technology.

We recognize the special needs and problems of the landlocked developing
countries, and urge both bilateral and multilateral donors to increase financial
and technical assistance to this group of countries to meet their special
development needs and to help them overcome the impediments of geography
by improving their transit transport systems.” ( Section III, 18 )

In addition to stopping poverty we will save the planet:

“We resolve therefore to adopt in all our environmental actions a new ethic of
conservation and stewardship and, as first steps, we resolve:

To make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol,
preferably by the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development in 2002, and to embark on the required
reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.”

The following goal is in direct opposition of the Muslim religion:

“To combat all forms of violence against women and to implement the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women.“11

How has America done so far with meeting the Millineum Goals? (Implementing the Millineum Declaration):

“Five countries – Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain and the
United Kingdom — have newly pledged to improve their ODA to reach the UN target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI), at which point they would join Denmark,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The US, while at a much lower level in terms of percentage of GNI, nevertheless remains the world’s largest donor and has increased outlays substantially, including under the terms of its new Millennium Challenge Account.”

In summary, we still are the world’s largest donor, but it isn’t enough. Will any amount of money be enough?