Who has to pay for...?

We’ve been witnessing the global problems faced by humanity. We’ve also been witnessing the symptoms of such problems and quite often we fail to get to the root of the matter or don’t want to discuss it at all.

Let me list the problems we are facing: climate change, global warming, pollution, food crisis, oil crisis, financial crisis, wars, poverty, ignorance, HIV, malaria and TB. Who is causing these problems and who will pay for them?

Recently, I’ve been listening to speeches full of promises by politicians from all over the world. In their alluring speeches, they were trying to cover the fact they intend to axe different social benefits (health, education, financial support to elderly). It seems to me that the needy will be the ones to pay for all the problems.

My message is: let us be honest in finding a solution, admit when we’re wrong, win over the hearts of the needy and join the humanitarian cause.

PACKAGE and Water moral value

 There are many reasons behind the world’s severe water shortage nowadays, among them climate change, pollution, human abuse (swimming pools, soft drinks) etc.  We need a way out not only to save our planet, but to make it habitable for generations to come.

Water is the most valuable commodity and humanity cannot afford to live without it. We must create a new value, called “Water moral value”- the ethics of using water resources. The sacredness of water needs to be engrained from childhood onward, both by religious and social leaders.

The masses need to be converted into becoming Water moral value advocates. We need to have PACKAGE on our side:

• People’s belief; 
• Academia; 
• CSOs; 
• K - capital, therefore business and economy; 
• Astronauts, as the damage on Earth can be felt in the Universe; We need people who are visionaries, who can take much more than a bird's eye view.
• Governments; 
• Environmentalists. 

The PACKAGE components are most likely stakeholders to shape the Water moral value for generations to come.

The WOT Syndrome, the DIP Factor and the MDG goals

The UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for 2015 are: end poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, global partnership. I believe they are basic God given rights to everyone. Ten years after the declaration of MDG, the world is still searching for an answer as to why we are failing to achieve them.

Are we willing to achieve these goals or are we just willing to discuss them? Believers should deliver their belief in action. If governments and institutions believe in MDG, we should have seen the fruits of success by now. Why aren’t they achieved?

Part of the answer to this question is, in my opinion, the current focus on the security mentality which in recent years has exhausted our financial, logistical and intellectual resources. This could undermine the achievement of MDG by 2015. This is why we are still suffering at the cause of the DIP Factor (Disease, Ignorance, Poverty) and the WOT Syndrome (War On Terror).

It is time to set aside political indecisiveness and, instead, concentrate our efforts on saving the planet.

Stop the bleeding...

Migration can happen in times of conflict, famine, economic struggles, natural disasters etc. What of the fate of the Internally Displaced Persons, people lost inside their own countries? In flood-ravaged Pakistan, around 20 million people were affected and most of them were left homeless, losing their livelihoods and hope to restart a normal life in the near future.

The floods could potentially be an effect of climate change, having started 20 years back. Who should be paying for climate change? How can the humanity escape its effects?

The philosophical problem in international conferences is that speakers do not stop the cause of bleeding, but instead pump more blood into the sick patient. Talking about fining high CO2 emission countries and reducing carbon consumption doesn’t stop one single bit of smoke from polluting the air. It’s time that high CO2 emission countries stayed true to their word and reduced their consumption, creating a greener environment and altering the course of climate change.

Faith and value/ Unity and diversion

In this day and age, we should develop a new value and language common to all humanitarian organisations: both faith-based and non-faith based. However, very recently I have heard words which I believed forgotten in this day and age and in the humanitarian context. Those words are converting, proselytising, etc.

In my own view, the vulnerable people need to be protected and helped, from a neutral point of view. Faith and politics need to be separated from humanitarian work. Humanitarianism is not about what we need to do. On the contrary, it’s about what people need. It’s not about our right as NGOs, but about people’s right to the service their community needs most.

Let us call all of us value-based organisations, and share a common ground for helping the ones who we work for: our beneficiaries.

Faith and value

Faith holds a special place in the hearts of many and to judge somebody on their faith alone has proven to be a wrong practice. Value, however, is an excellent criterion, as different faiths can share the same values. This is what brings me today to discuss the relationship between faith and value in humanitarian work.

I believe segregation on the basis of faith within the humanitarian field is wrong, as it could lead to misunderstanding the infrastructure of the social fabric of our global family. Instead of sliding down the slope of alienation and division, we need to correct our path and divert our humanitarian movement to a more inclusive and integrative approach.

We must change faith into value because by translating our values into a community product, we can better serve the beneficiaries: the greater community. Let us show the goodness from our faiths and nourish the needs of the community at the grass-root level!

On visas, lists and the FATWIT technology...

It seems a lot of dignitaries, scholars and community workers are denied access into certain countries, even when in possession of a visa. They are not allowed to speak in public assemblies, even if previously granted the permission. They are told they’re not welcome, and when they dare question the reasoning behind this decision, the only pertinent answer they get is that they are on “The List”. I wonder what such list is this? Is it a shopping list, like my wife has? I gather not. However, lists and visas can’t stop people from communicating.

Visas are out of date, as now we live in the era of Social Media itself. Anyone who can connect to the internet can touch the lives of others, without as much as visiting. The development of FATWIT (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, emails) has cancelled the need for a visa, in order to reach an audience of millions.

Technology knows no borders, and can be used to influence the mindset of thousands of people. Therefore we ask: why the need for visas, when Social Media can amplify humanitarian calls?

We must realise that the sooner the barriers are demolished, both online and offline, the quicker dialogue can begin between all interested parties and aid can be offered in a fast and efficient manner.