WHAT LEGACY WILL we leave for the next generation?

In 40-years our oil supply runs dry and we have about 70-years of natural gas remaining if we consume it at the current rate. Our earth's oxygen supply is in danger as rainforests disappear. At the current rate they are completely consumed in about 30-years time. Weather will become even more unpredictable, global warming causes vast climate changes, grows larger holes in the ozone layer, 300 foot high artificial waste mountains leak toxic chemical waste into our water and food supplies and mysterious viruses endanger birds, other animals and humans.

We live in interesting and paradoxically critical times. This is an age of artificial happiness courtesy of Prozac and Viagra, unlimited 24/7/365 shopping and record numbers of burnouts and an epidemic of obesity. There is unlimited knowledge; the haves have even more and those without, even less. Real time 24/7 news coverage outperforms even the goriest horror movies. Why fantasize when we can watch the real thing? From live genocide in Darfur to starvation of babies in Ethiopia; Tsunamis in Asia to live torture, car bombs and hostage beheadings in Iraq... and in the so-called first world, our obsession with the X Factor winner outpaces only the sale of books on how to become rich, thin and happy.

Is this the legacy my generation will leave? As the first post baby-boom generation, we had the power to change the world, yet seemed to choose Internet shopping instead... What will it take to wake up? To see that our mother earth is in trouble and that there will only be a future if - and a big if it is - we can find sustainable solutions for the problems of our time. We can only survive if we find a way to work towards that which unites us in our humanity: our search for a meaningful life, keeping our children safe and having a future worth living. Or, will we callously choose instead the pursuit of more, more, more?

The world's largest anti-poverty movement came together under the banner: Make Poverty History. Millions of people continue to wear the white wristbands with those words. Make poverty history - sounds simple, yet nearly 20% of our world's population, 1.1 billion people, lives on less than $1 a day. Almost half of our world's population, 2.7 billion, lives on less than $2 a day. One third of all deaths, 18 million people a year - 50,000 each day - are from poverty related causes. That is the equivalent of fourteen September 11th disasters per day, every single day. 11 million children die every year before their 5th birthday and 800 million people go to bed hungry each day, not because of a fad diet, but because there is no money to buy food. The irony is not that there isn't enough food - 80% of the world's hungry children live in countries with food surpluses. For the first time in history the number of people with obesity rivals with the number of underweight, malnourished people.

Or, will we in the so-called developed world just continue to ignore and invest globally annually as much as we do on our primary needs:

Missing from the above figure is money spent on the "adult content" industry - a nicer word for the sex and exploitation industry - currently earning more than $20 billion per year. Also missing are global government armament expenditures. Global military and arms expenditures exceed $900 billion dollars annually. Less than one percent of that amount was needed to ensure every child on the planet was in school by the year 2000 and it did not happen.

So, if money isn't the problem, why is making poverty history so difficult?

Do we really want to boil it down to selfishness or apathy? Do we really want only to have our cake and horde it, no matter what? Why is sharing such a difficult concept? We are taught early in primary school about sharing; we sing songs about it but then we get busy with life and seem to forget.

Is there a fundamental deep rooted belief that there just is not enough? What is it that we - the haves - are afraid to lose if we share with the have-nots? Is it just so easy to spend everything (and then some) that by end of the month there is not enough left to give? Is it that we just don't care because stuff - clothes, make-up, furniture, toys, cars, computers - are all more important than the lives of others?

Do we really feel guilt gaining at the expense of the have-nots and future generations? Or is it that - since we won't live there or have to see it - it's just easier to not feel affected by it?

Well, we are all affected.

In the last 50 years we consumed most of the world's millions of years' old resources - oil, natural gas, wood - that can never be replaced. We pollute the earth in so many ways with our waste that the once flat landscapes of many countries are dotted with artificial hills hiding millions of tons of buried waste. Household-waste, corporate pollution, chemical waste, nuclear waste and God-knows-what-else is hiding in the depths of our oceans. We've lived for the moment, in this moment and will leave it all for future generations to take care of.

Wow. Is our "stuff" really all that important?

We seem to answer "yes" by buying goods that contribute to the problem: products from China, Vietnam and other developing and exploited countries, toys assembled by children for children. Did you ever wonder if the impossible-to-open packaging is their subtle revenge for working long hours for almost nothing so we can buy sport shoes? The factory workers earn far below what is needed to support their family so we can purchase end product at $150+. Nike, Disney and other icons of so-called family values (according to their marketing) all use these tactics. Production in these countries is cheap because labour and environmental regulations don't exist. Think about the waste each McDonald's visit creates where even the plastic spoons are wrapped in plastic bags. How much waste do you give to mother earth as thanks for her abundance? What footprint do you leave behind?

Is it that easy to close our eyes to truths staring us in the face? Our world will cease to exist, according to scientist this past week, even more suddenly than we think if we carry on like this. It's easy to say this is not our fault, we didn't know, we didn't do it, we didn't support it and if we did, we didn't mean to cause this... It's easy to shrug and say I want to do something but it's too big a problem for us to solve. It's easy to point at corporations, the government, the United Nations or some institution and say they should do something about it. What little can I do?

A man and woman were walking along a beach where thousands of fish washed onto shore. They were the lonely observers of millions of fish gasping for water, slowly dying. The man said, "there are too many; no matter what we do, it is not going to make a difference." The woman picked up one still-alive fish and threw it back into the sea and said, "Made a difference to this one, and this one," throwing another back into the sea. "And this one..." She carried on as her friend joined in...

Give someone a fish they eat for a day. Teach someone to fish, they eat for a lifetime. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was recently awarded to a gentleman teaching the world to fish. Muhammad Yunus invented the microcredit. He started in 1976 by lending $27, divided amongst 42 people, to help them start their own business. He founded Grameen Bank, a bank providing small loans to the poorest of the poor. To date, Grameen Bank has helped 6.6 million people free themselves from poverty, 70% of them women. See the difference one person can make!

We all can make a difference. It doesn't matter where you start, just start somewhere. If we do, we can and will cause change to happen.

Each of us has enormous personal power. We have the power to do what we can on our square metre of this planet. Do we also have the guts to use it wisely and take responsibility for doing our part? Power is and always has been to the people. When used it changes everything. The anthropologist Margaret Mead said,

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

As in the Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life, when the ant colony realizes it outnumbers its oppressor grasshoppers by 100 to one, there is nothing that can stop them. Start somewhere. Sponsor a charity, speak up, raise consciousness everywhere - in your workplace, at home, at school. Say no to war; strive for peace; pray for peace. Write letters to those in power - corporations, nations, hospitals, schools, EU, UN - and support organizations like Grameen Bank, Make Poverty History and others.

If you have children, teach them about saving this planet and being grateful for what we have. Tell them daily there is enough. Do the little things and the big things. Give when asked for a donation, walk, ride your bike, turn off lights, recycle, use energy from sustainable sources, refuse to buy from companies that exploit children, people or our earth in demeaning ways. Commit to buying only from good citizen companies. Buy less. Become creative and find ways to do with what you have. Support projects for those who have less. Share. Above all, be your own hero. Stop waiting for someone else - a sports star or superhero - to do it for you. Start now.

Is it easy? I have no idea. The temptation of more, more, more is hard to resist. I know I feel better when I do resist and I feel guilty when I don't. If we all take one step towards a better future, change is possible. Let's make it inevitable.

We were born into this world alone and will one day die that way. What you do with the time in between is up to you. You can be one of the many almost invisible sheep in the flock... or you can choose to leave a legacy that will be remembered by those around you with pride and love.

That is the spiritual choice; the choice that is yours.

Once there was a man who extracted salt from seawater to avoid government taxes on this commodity. It was the start of a long, long fight for freedom. He inspired millions and liberated one of the largest nations on this earth. His name, Mahatma Gandhi... He urged everyone to "be the change you wish to see in the world." If one man can quietly, non-violently and with dignity, firmly end an empire's rule, we can certainly make poverty history.

Every gun that is made - every warship launched, every rocket fired - signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

- Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953

© Dorret Groot Wassink, 2006

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dorret Groot Wassink is a director of Target Point Ltd, a firm specializing in bringing cultural change into organizations. A former chartered accountant, she works on developing the human side of business. She has worked with the leaders of companies around the globe helping them to be the change they wish to be. She, her husband and their three young children live on an organic farm overlooking the Irish Sea in Southern Wales.

You can contact her via: dorret.grootwassink@targetpoint.org.uk.