The value of trust
Eugen Brand, the Director General of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, spoke about the world economic crisis at the United Nations - New York on October 17th, 2008, World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty.
In tiny village markets around the world, there are people who can no longer afford a whole onion and who buy a quarter of an onion instead. They wonder what is happening to our world. It is hard to find the funding needed for global food and agriculture programs or for education for all; while at the same time hundreds of billions of dollars are invested to maintain the balance of a financial system that creates inequality, exclusion and misery. Why? Is our world walking away from the Millennium Development Goals? Is it succumbing to a «totalitarianism of money»?
Because Mrs. Orlando’s debts to the vegetable seller have built up, she no longer dares show her face at the market. Like so many others, she and her husband walk for miles to look for work, or for medicine, or for something to feed their children. If they don’t find it today, maybe it will be tomorrow. «When I get too hungry,» she says, «I lie down on the roadside to try to sleep for a while.» The Orlandos did not dare participate in the hunger riots. They feel too responsible for their own children’s malnutrition, and too guilty for having seen two of them die.
The multitude of financial and economic analyses that try to explain these days of crisis and to propose solutions have not made it to the Orlandos. And yet their own story has been shaped by all the crises the world has faced. Their memories, their resistance, their thinking have been forged in this experience. This gives them, like all the poor, a unique wealth of knowledge. It is a knowledge that teaches us that trust is the most lasting kind of social glue. It is the basis for everything, the most important venture of the 21st century. If there is to be a second Bretton Woods conference, as some have proposed, trust should be the first item on the agenda.
Even while speaking about participation, our societies create ways of thinking that devalue some people, that institutionalize exclusion and the violence of refusing to know. This deprives populations in extreme poverty of the possibility of thinking freely with others about the fundamental questions: «Who are you? What is your hope for your family and with others?» This situation is a violation of human rights.
Through this World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty, people and families living in extreme poverty invite us to think together with them about the content and the interdependence of fundamental values like freedom and solidarity, rights and responsibilities. They invite us to seek together what defines human beings and our future, what enables us to recognize others in their history, in their vision of the world, in their uniqueness, and in their universality as human beings.
This common work will enable us to put an end to a basic misconception: Families and people in extreme poverty do not hope only to participate in the fight on poverty and in anti-poverty projects and policies. In the name of the future of their children and young people, their hope is to be able to contribute to the search for solutions for an economy based on decent work, for an ecology preserving the planet for future generations, for schools that will unleash the intelligence and the solidarity of every child. In creating this kind of partnership, we will find the intelligence and stimulus for comprehensive, forward-looking policies to end extreme poverty. This investment in partnership is what will build the trust we need.
People living in deep poverty, in both the north and the south, await us at the crossroads where we can unite around a contract for our commitment. Our first common goal is that of human activity that can collectivize all knowledge; human activity capable of putting money at the service of freeing people in extreme poverty and the world; human activity that will enable young people, all young people, finally to take their full place in the world’s future.
This gathering on October 17th, launched by Joseph Wresinski in 1987, offers us a public space, a unique and precious space, both local and international, where we can look for and try out the conditions of a genuine partnership for a world free from want. Let us make no mistake about it, it is not quixotic to want people and governments to invent ways for people in poverty to be the central participants in all kinds of policy-making. It is a necessity just as vital as today’s environmental priorities that were long considered too idealistic. To come together to give back to people in poverty the possibility of joining in the challenges humanity faces is essential for our path toward peace.
17 October 2008 – United Nations - New York Eugen Brand, Director General, International Movement ATD Fourth World
Because Mrs. Orlando’s debts to the vegetable seller have built up, she no longer dares show her face at the market. Like so many others, she and her husband walk for miles to look for work, or for medicine, or for something to feed their children. If they don’t find it today, maybe it will be tomorrow. «When I get too hungry,» she says, «I lie down on the roadside to try to sleep for a while.» The Orlandos did not dare participate in the hunger riots. They feel too responsible for their own children’s malnutrition, and too guilty for having seen two of them die.
The multitude of financial and economic analyses that try to explain these days of crisis and to propose solutions have not made it to the Orlandos. And yet their own story has been shaped by all the crises the world has faced. Their memories, their resistance, their thinking have been forged in this experience. This gives them, like all the poor, a unique wealth of knowledge. It is a knowledge that teaches us that trust is the most lasting kind of social glue. It is the basis for everything, the most important venture of the 21st century. If there is to be a second Bretton Woods conference, as some have proposed, trust should be the first item on the agenda.
Even while speaking about participation, our societies create ways of thinking that devalue some people, that institutionalize exclusion and the violence of refusing to know. This deprives populations in extreme poverty of the possibility of thinking freely with others about the fundamental questions: «Who are you? What is your hope for your family and with others?» This situation is a violation of human rights.
Through this World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty, people and families living in extreme poverty invite us to think together with them about the content and the interdependence of fundamental values like freedom and solidarity, rights and responsibilities. They invite us to seek together what defines human beings and our future, what enables us to recognize others in their history, in their vision of the world, in their uniqueness, and in their universality as human beings.
This common work will enable us to put an end to a basic misconception: Families and people in extreme poverty do not hope only to participate in the fight on poverty and in anti-poverty projects and policies. In the name of the future of their children and young people, their hope is to be able to contribute to the search for solutions for an economy based on decent work, for an ecology preserving the planet for future generations, for schools that will unleash the intelligence and the solidarity of every child. In creating this kind of partnership, we will find the intelligence and stimulus for comprehensive, forward-looking policies to end extreme poverty. This investment in partnership is what will build the trust we need.
People living in deep poverty, in both the north and the south, await us at the crossroads where we can unite around a contract for our commitment. Our first common goal is that of human activity that can collectivize all knowledge; human activity capable of putting money at the service of freeing people in extreme poverty and the world; human activity that will enable young people, all young people, finally to take their full place in the world’s future.
This gathering on October 17th, launched by Joseph Wresinski in 1987, offers us a public space, a unique and precious space, both local and international, where we can look for and try out the conditions of a genuine partnership for a world free from want. Let us make no mistake about it, it is not quixotic to want people and governments to invent ways for people in poverty to be the central participants in all kinds of policy-making. It is a necessity just as vital as today’s environmental priorities that were long considered too idealistic. To come together to give back to people in poverty the possibility of joining in the challenges humanity faces is essential for our path toward peace.
17 October 2008 – United Nations - New York Eugen Brand, Director General, International Movement ATD Fourth World
