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Thousands of Bloggers Tackle Poverty for Blog Action Day 2008

Thousands of Bloggers Tackle Poverty for Blog Action Day 2008

Last Friday, Chris Garrett asked what you are doing for Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty.

If every blogger involved in the annual October 15 event would have left a comment at Chris’s post, there would be well over 10,000 of them.

And yet, if every person living in poverty were to comment, there would be more than 3 BILLION comments.

Can you fathom it?

I am grateful to be an assistant event coordinator for Blog Action Day this year. It has broken my spirit several times over to consider the magnitiude and subject matter of the effort.

Already, Blog Action Day 2008 has been graced by many bloggers who do grasp the global problem of poverty, at least to some extent (for who can really plumb its depths?):

See Also
Google Patent

There are thousands of other wonderful posts around the Web popping up right now.

Blog Action Day is a prime example of the power of the Web and blogging to make a positive difference in the world.

Visit BlogActionDay.org for event news and information on how you can participate in the discussion about and fight against poverty.

View Comments (6)
  • Seriously, people, I do not believe that using blogs we can fight something as big as poverty. How on Earth writing about it helps people who starve? Who die because they cannot afford water? Who are scared that the crisis that is upon us will break down their lives?

    I just do not understand all that hype – but I do not mind to participate, not in the least. Although I do believe that “writing about poverty” is not the same as “fighting poverty itself”.

    And even though I believe that poverty of mind (if I use the terms correctly) is way worse – since this is the only reason there is technical, monetary poverty in the world.

  • Writing about it, in and of itself will not make a difference, but PUTTING ACTION behind the words will. Collectively we can all make a difference.

  • Easton- thanks for your kind words and for putting this in perspective. The point of blog action day is well… to make a point. Ioni- yes, these articles in and of themselves are not physically doing anything to change poverty. However, I believe you’re missing the purpose. By lifting up our voices in unison we are able to make waves in the community and draw attention to this subject. These waves ripple out and cause people to think about a subject that they would otherwise turn a blind eye to! We write these blogs in hopes that people will actually DO something. These blogs are a call to action, not words to placate and massage ones ego. Look at Darfur and Rwanda- why did we not react to these outrages with more passion? It was because it got buried in the news. The word did not get out. People did not talk about these topics and because of this, many of us had no idea what was going on half way around the world. Blog action day is about spreading that word and making sure that no one has the excuse of saying, ‘Sorry, I just didn’t know.’

  • stephen, Ioni and Yasmin you are all right in your points, that first we create the awareness – that there is a serious crisis going on in the world. It is also very vital that we must look at creating long term solutions intead of temporary relief and aid. That is to put forth actionable solutions – it is not all about donating money – that by itself is a good enough short term/temporary measure. For it will enable those starving people to have essential supplies – so they do not die. But we also have to think beyond giving people food for the moment, into self sustainance and creating surplus for themselves. Reason been that we also do not want to create lifelong depency systems. Active progressive thinking requires us to help people start helping themselve – with resources like education in farming based on their environments, training and education on methods of farming based on their climate and types of soils, trade skills, or skills in general that are greatly needed right in their communities. It is about empowering people to stand on their own – parents do that to their kids – some parts of the world are still like kids – let’s help them become their own adults.

  • Lucas- I couldn’t agree more! I actually work for an organization that helps promote wholistic change with the communities we work in. The goal is not to provide hand-outs which lead to dependency, the goal is to teach communities how to become self-sufficient. Great points! :)

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