Comments of the Economist's article "Virtuous in New York"

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) tries to bridge the very rich and very poor by philanthropy. Philanthropy is beneficial, especially if it takes place within an international economic system that works for everyone.
That is presently not the case, because the international economic system enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. Like the CGI where intentions are good, but analyses are superficial, the Economist’s article “Virtuous in New York” does not touch on the underlying economic structures that make people very rich and very poor. Notwithstanding the good intentions behind the Millennium Development Goals that are reviewed by the UN General Assembly this week, also in New York, nation-states are willing to pony up (insufficient) funding, but unwilling and unable to tackle the international economic system that, to a great extent, has led to this unacceptable social and ecological predicament of both people and planet.
Perhaps, the US financial meltdown might become an occasion to review this international economic system of which the financial and monetary systems are such important subsystems. I, for one, foresee a major new approach to solving US and international problems with the election of Mr. Obama. His vision, unlike Mr. McCain’s, is based upon equity rather than growth as his guiding principle.
While both the CGI and the UN General Assembly are taking place in this great City, another Summit is being planned on Saturday October 11 where the integration of social and ecological values is applied to the climate crisis, using the values, vision and ethics of the Earth Charter. www.earcharterus.org Participants from government, business and civil society will listen to climatologist James Hansen of NASA/GISS who will relate the climate crisis to the US presidential elections, engage in workshops dealing with Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC2030, and come up with the NYC Earth Charter Declaration on the Climate Crisis. Cf. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycecall.
While Mr. Clinton rightly speaks of the need of sharing opportunities and sharing responsibilities, this sharing should also include the willingness to revamp an international economic system, so that it starts working not for the interests of a privileged few, but for the interest of all people and planet. Let the US financial crisis with its enormous global implications become a blessing in disguise! I agree with the end of this Economist’s article: “In short, this is the moment when we will find out if all the talk of doing good in recent years by big business and the rich is more than mere talk.”