My local newspaper guy (late 60’s immigrant from ME or one of the ‘stans, not quite sure, withered weary look about him, always shivering) gave me a Christmas card yesterday quite unexpectedly. It reads "Peace on Earth…Peace is the healing and elevating influence in the world."
I could hear him laughing with joy and imagined him dancing with delight as I headed into the subway this morning, having tipped him handsomely and wished him "Happy Holidays." There was something pure about his happiness in seeing his plan had worked. That by handing out cards to his customers yesterday, he’d reminded them to tip him today. It was as if he hadn’t believed this simply ploy would produce results, and yet here it was working. This wonderfully gullible nation of people who would actually give you handfuls of cash because you gave them a 50-cent greeting card. How miraculous.
The New York Times Editorial today highlighted the fact that America is way behind in its promise to help fight global poverty:
It was with great fanfare that the United States and 188 other countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, a manifesto to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and disease among the one billion people in the world who subsist on barely anything. The project set a deadline of 2015 to achieve its goals. Chief among them was the goal for developed countries, like America, Britain and France, to work toward giving 0.7 percent of their national incomes for development aid for poor countries.
Almost a third of the way into the program, the latest available figures show that the percentage of United States income going to poor countries remains near rock bottom: 0.14 percent. Britain is at 0.34 percent, and France at 0.41 percent. (Norway and Sweden, to no one’s surprise, are already exceeding the goal, at 0.92 percent and 0.79 percent.)
[…] Jeffrey Sachs, the economist appointed by Kofi Annan to direct the Millennium Project, puts the gap between what America is capable of doing and what it actually does into stark relief.
The government spends $450 billion annually on the military, and $15 billion on development help for poor countries, a 30-to-1 ratio that, as Mr. Sachs puts it, shows how the nation has become "all war and no peace in our foreign policy." Next month, he will present his report on how America and the world can actually cut global poverty in half by 2015. He says that if the Millennium Project has any chance of success, America must lead the donors.
My father and I were talking on the phone the other night and he noted that he’s been more than usually generous lately and he wasn’t sure why. I said I had noticed the same thing about myself. I actually feel compelled to be generous again and again. Neither of us has any extra money compared with recent years, quite the contrary, and neither of us has had any life-changing event occur that shook us to our core. It’s odd, we agreed, like subliminal messages were behind it. Perhaps it’s as simple as how much more obvious than ever it is how little those around us have, how the money won’t make as significant a difference in our life as it will for those we give it to. Or maybe (donning tin foil hat) the government has implanted computer chips in our brains and….
There was an elderly Polish gentleman at the Bedford stop of the L train the other night playing a sad rendition of "Silent Night" on the accordian in a style reminiscent of nothing so much as the intermission music played in a Parisian cabaret just slightly past its prime. I threw a dollar in his green plastic bucket and noticed only a handful of change already in there. I hoped he was the sort of busker who frequently pockets his takings to avoid tempting some teenager from grabbing them. His accordian looked ancient and sounded older. It was eerily appropriate background music for my mood and our times.
I’ll be offline for the next few days, but before I go want to wish each and everyone of you—at least moments of—peace, goodwill toward others, quiet warm moments with your loved ones, and joy. Most of all I wish you joy!
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