Letter
of the New Year 2004, #13 Issue:
Dear
Friends,
Hello...
We
have reached our 13th edition of the Light Millennium
with our New Year - 2004 issue.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support and
participation...

With
Sir Arthur C. Clarke in Colombo on December 20, 2002.
Every
birthday of Sir
Arthur C. Clarke,
the legendary writer and scientist, who is about
to turn 86 on December 16, is celebrated in Sri
Lanka's capital Colombo as if it is a national holiday.
Sir Clarke, who was born in 1917, in Blenheim, London,
has been living in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo (formerly
Ceylon) since 1956.
We,
too, celebrate Sir Clarke's 86th birthday and his
new age with our 13th issue: May you live many thousands
of years Dear Sir Clarke! Happy birthday!
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We
dedicated this issue to the question
HOW
TO DECREASE GLOBAL HUNGER?
This is also our resolution, hope and expectation for the new
year of 2004. We cannot remain ignorant of the conditions
of the majority of the world... I personally believe that
each penny spent for a military purpose in one way or
another hurts each of us in our daily lives, whether we
are aware of it or not!!!
John
Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World summed
it up well in his critique of the $48 billion increase
in the US military budget in 2003:
"While
the rest of the world is cutting military spending, the
United States is adding billions to its military budget.
President
Bush told the nation yesterday that the U.S. military
budget for fiscal 2003 will be $379 billion, an increase
of $48 billion over fiscal year 2002.
"The
U.S. increase of $48 billion is larger than the annual
military budget of any other country in the world,"
said John Isaacs, president of Council for a Livable World.
"At
a time when the U.S. should be most concerned with homeland
defense and a highly mobile force to combat terrorism
abroad, the budget is going to continue to fund billions of dollars in
aircraft, submarines, ships and
other weapons designed to fight the Soviet Union,"
Isaacs continued.
"Adding
$48 billion to the Pentagon budget is like providing an
overweight person with dozens of fat-filled deserts;
rather than forcing the Pentagon
to diet to be more trim and focus on transformation,
the military will try
to buy more of everything," he concluded.
Military
Budget
$ 379 billion (2003) - United States
$48 billion - increase from Fiscal 2002 to 2003
(Source
- Council for A Livable World's web site: http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/milspend/ushighestbudget.html)
For
the other countries Military Budget, please visit:
http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/milspend/ushighestbudget.html
*
* *
Military
investments and spending are the basic cause of GLOBAL
HUNGER & POVERTY, preventing investments instead for
people's basic needs. For this reason, most of the world population
has been living from day to day. Each of us, must be aware
of this --big picture--, and should able to change this
direction in favor of all people of the world.
For
this purpose, our main aim is to be aware of the causes
and to bring to the front all ideas which convey positive
approaches towards solutions rather than simply submitting
to this unjust state of world affairs.
*
* *
The
United Nations has a declaration, which states that GLOBAL
HUNGER WILL BE DECRASED %15 by the year 2015, which is
not enough, but still, that is considered a very optimistic
projection.
The
Rockefeller Foundation's president Gordon Conway spoke
to the House of Lords on May 8, 2003, and expressed his
skepticism, saying most experts did not see how it could
get any better by 2015, that in fact the number of chronically
malnourished might reach 2 billion by then. He explained
his reasons in his 10 pages remarks at the following web
page: http://www.rockfound.org/display.asp?context=1&collection=8&Preview=0&ARCurrent=1
True
Majority (truemajority.com) displayed a very shocking
graphic during their September 4, 2002 Rally in New York,
which stated that every year 12 million children die from
hunger in the United States.
This
was shocking information to me then, and still is now.
There
is another shocking piece of information from Guatemala
during the Non-Proliferation Prep. Conference in April
2002 at the United Nations Based on, what I can remember
now, Guatemala asked from the US Government about $5 million
in aid for 60 thousand children to protect them from hunger
and starvation. They did not accept to give that $5 million
in aid. Instead of giving $5 million in aid for children,
they gave to Guatemala's military more than $100 million.
*
* *
I
wonder, will Non-Governmental-Organizations be able to
bring in long lasting solutions to decrease global hunger?
If not, what may be some other channels or coalitions,
whether on a local, national or global level?
Also,
can the World Bank, though its record is being called
more and more into question, can it begin to play a major
role towards a solution? Or are some of the major international foundations and the
UN willing to work together for solutions? Or can the
UN be able to switch its spending from "peace keeping"
troops to investing those funds instead in food, children's
health, K-12 & higher education, vocational schools,
job opportunities, and housing in those ruined countries?
Over all, what can it do to lessen drastically global
hunger and poverty?
* * *
I
can develop more questions on the issue but I do not have
a definite answer yet. Some might point to the need to invest
and research and implement new technologies, while others
think it is more a matter of reorganizing the structure
of our trade, the way our food is grown, and distributed.
Once again, it is undeniable that world wide hunger
has been increasing and is directly related to the growth
of the war business in each and every country, which preempts
all sorts of progressive spending, including for instance
on alternative energy, which would reduce our reliance
on fossil fuels, and a good deal of our reasons for going
to war. It
is very important to be aware of the deeper causality,
instead of just pointing to the resulting poverty, lack
of education and underdevelopment. While perhaps it is not purely money that
will solve the problem, changing this outrageous imbalance
in our spending priorities would definitely be an essential
step. Along with making more funds available, and ensuring a democratic
process, we must carefully craft our strategy with cooperation
between governments, corporations, and non-governmental
organizations, as one big global family, in order to invest
to elevate social standards for all. And each of us should invest in
our own way to make things better within our capacity
as individuals.
*
* *
A
Summary of the Dedication Issue:
During a summer e-announcement we announced our theme
and invited all participants as well as potential thinkers
and writers--and that means each of you--to submit your
ideas on "How To Decrease Global Hunger?" Only
Babur Albayrak submitted his article by the October 31st
deadline. I was very disappointed and began thinking that nobody really
cared...
Still,
I was determined to obtain at least 3 - 5 articles on
this immense and very important subject.
Even if we couldn't get more than one article,
our dedication issue would remain the same. At least, this would be a beginning, and
open a new channel for ongoing submissions on the topic.
Then, I had a wonderful message from Marianne A. Kinzer
from Chicago, that she was going to contribute an article
on the Adelante Organization, which fights back with "micro
credit" against poverty and hunger in Honduras. When I received Marianne's article I was
full of hope, and wished to be able to make similar efforts
to Adelante's...
Marianne's
article has circulated a new energy for the LM. Geraldine
Green contacted us from Northern England at the same time
regarding Nazim Hikmet's poetry. She had read some of
Nazim's poems on the Light Millennium, and was willing
to contribute her poems to the LM. We have quickly developed
good communication and friendship with Geraldine, and
I asked her if she knows anyone who can contribute on
the dedication issue. Via Geraldine, Harvey Tordoff and
Maureen King also contributed their ideas on this issue.
Below
is Maureen King's reply on How to Decrease Global Hunger?
question:
"Geraldine
Green has passed on your email address and asked if
people had anything to contribute about the subject.
One thing
that is really important to help solve the problem would
be to gain peace throughout the world. A friend showed
me a graph the other day that illustrated American Government
spending on arms and military equipment compared to
what they spend on social services. It was really amazing
to see the huge difference in spending in that country
alone.
I think
this is a problem throughout the world. The Military
Industrial complex seems to be in control at present
and people need to struggle hard to make sure this trend
is reversed and money is spent on decent food and water
as well as health and education."
Yours
Sincerely
Maureen KING
November
9, 2003
Sydney,
Australia
Please
also visit our Dedication
page for the other articles related to this issue.
*
* *
Angel's
of this issue
Figen
Bingul has joined to the Light Millennium as a volunteer
editor and translator as well as a participant.
Julie
Mardin contributed a piece, "Endangered: The Family
Farmer," that tries to understand why the rate of
suicide is so high among the farmers of the world.
It explores the impact of 'Green Revolution' technology,
and free trade, on the small family farmer.
Our
banner quote of this issue, "Any man's death diminishes
me." by John Donne, English Poet (1572 - 1631), was
sent by Harvey Tordoff. The whole passage of the poem:
"
No man is an Island,
entire
of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent,
a part of the main;
if a clod is washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends
or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee."
(Meditation
XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions ~ 1624.)
*
* *
After
the Istanbul bombings, my grief transformed to an e-call
titled, Istanbul: Grief, Share and Call. I received several
responses which you can find all together on the MANY
VOICES FOR WHOLE page, and also an independent article
by Sue Tordoff. Thank you so much to all for your sensibility
and strong responses to the Istanbul Bombings...
And
wishing that our days will come very soon when we have
the power to protect every human being from any unnatural
death and all sort of evil practices.
As
closure to this letter, once again, our New Year 2004
message to all:
Why
don't we plant olive trees as many as we can to keep up
our hopes!
We
wish you a happy, healthy, peaceful New-Year 2004 full
of Olive Trees, with love, hope and light for the rest
of your lives...
Be
in peace, love and light,
Bircan
Ünver
December
7, 2003
New
York
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