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CURRENT
ISSUE: October 23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
A call to end extreme poverty
Poverty is
not a natural disaster. “It’s a man-made decision, fostered
by greed,” Anuradha Mittal, a food policy analyst, told 300 people
gathered at St. Mary’s Senior Center on Oct. 17 for the Oakland
observance of International Day for the Eradication of Extreme Poverty.
Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, was the keynote speaker.
The annual international observance, a United Nations project, was first
celebrated in 1987 by thousands of participants at the Human Rights Plaza
in Paris, France.
Since its creation, Oct. 17 has become a day for those living in deprivation
to speak out for all people to consider how they can contribute to its
banishment through political activism at the city, state and federal levels.
The UN goal for this world-wide well being is 2015.
“Some people think this is a grandiose idea, but it’s not,”
said Carol Johnson, executive director of St. Mary’s. “We
are the first generation to realize that eradicating poverty is an accomplishable
goal.”
Mittal underscored Johnson’s assertion, in spite of statistics which
seem to prove otherwise.
“Ten years ago, at an international meeting in Rome, world leaders,
faced with the specter of 815 million people suffering from food insecurity,
vowed to reduce that number by half by the year 2015.
Ten years later, however, the Food and Agricultural Organization reported
that food insecurity has increased from 815 million to 850 million. What
happened? Did we forget how to grow food?” she asked.
Mittal placed the problem on the desks of policy makers who seem to be
more attached to waging war than eliminating poverty in all of its manifestations.
“We’ve spent $370 billion fighting a war which has killed
650,000 Iraqis, 3,000 U.S. soldiers and has wounded 20,000. Meanwhile,
there is no freedom. Iraq is burning and the poor in the U.S. are burning,”
she said.
“If there were a change of political hearts and policy, that same
$370 billion could feed everyone in the U.S. and every child, could have
access to health care and Head Start programs.”
She told the group that the Oct. 17 U.N. observance “is a commitment
for all 365 days of the year. It means knocking at the doors of Congress
and the Senate.”
A 12-foot puppet of Mahatma Ghandi accompanies about 300 marchers on a walk along San Pablo Avenue to Oakland City Hall and the Federal Building to urge officials to do more to eradicate poverty, hunger and homelessness.
Standing in front of a 12-foot puppet of Martin Luther King, Jr., William Smith, a seventh grade student at St. Martin de Porres School in Oakland, addresses the crowd gathered on the steps of Oakland City Hall.
GREG TARCZYNSKI PHOTOS
The
Oakland event featured a host of speakers who told what it is like to
be homeless, hungry, and without medical care.
Michael, a Vietnam veteran, said he once spent a frigid night sleeping
under a cardboard box over a steam vent on a New York sidewalk. If he
hadn’t broken down, “swallowed my arrogance,” and asked
a friend for housing help, Michael says he would be dead by now.
Letting the story sink in, Michael shifted his gaze to a group of elementary
school students seated in the front row. Unless the political spectrum
changes, “in your lifetime, one of your classmates is gonna become
homeless,” he predicted.
“You’re making a big step being here,” he saluted them.
The youngsters came from St. Martin De Porres, St. Lawrence O’Toole,
and Park Day schools in Oakland.
Sometimes, food insecurity and hunger can be hidden. It often includes
people whom society assumes are doing okay.
Margaret Molina, a social justice advocate on St. Mary’s staff,
spoke of the difficult time she had when she and her husband first separated,
“leaving me with four kids. There were days when I had to feed my
family by recycling cans. At mealtime, I would tell them, ‘You eat.
I just ate.’ It was a lie. I didn’t eat.”
The lack of affordable medical care is another issue that needs the attention
of policy makers, said a woman who recounted her recent experience of
visiting a local hospital with an elderly friend. By the time her friend
had gone to four different departments for lab tests, exams and medication,
she had made co-payments she could ill-afford on her meager income. The
ailing woman’s philosophical observation that day was, “They
give you too little to live and too much to die on.”
The speaker called for a show of “righteous anger towards injustice
wherever we see it.”
Testimonies were interspersed with a spirited sing-along led by Berkeley
composer Betsy Rose and San Francisco Latino activist and musician Francisco
Herrera.
Rose and Herrera continued their singing in St. Mary’s courtyard
as the crowd circled for an interfaith prayer and commissioning ceremony.
The brief ritual was a preparation for a march to City Hall and to the
State and Federal Building to speak with lawmakers.
As a Native American, a rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Buddhist and a Hindu
invoked prayers reminding the group that it is connected to the same Divine
Being and the same earth, two 12-foot puppets depicting Martin Luther
King and his mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, hovered above. St. Mary’s seniors,
coached by a group of local artists, built the awesome, colorful figures.
And in the spirit of Gandhi, who in his lifetime always followed the children
and other participants during political marches, the two puppets brought
up the rear of the procession as it made its way down San Pablo Avenue,
silent witnesses to the never-ending call for social justice.
Catholic groups co-sponsoring the local event included the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Holy Names
Sisters, Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, Presentation Sisters, Oakford
Dominican Sisters, Religious of the Sacred Heart, St. Vincent de Paul
Society of Alameda County and of St. Jarlath Parish, Corpus Christi School,
St. Martin de Porres Regional School, and the YLI Laurentian Institute.
