Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

"From the outside, it too often appears that the American dream is to be served by everyone else, not shared with everyone else"

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane gave the annual Martin Luther King Jr. lecture at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, USA yesterday [Thursday April 7]. Echoing King's famous "I have a dream" speech the Archbishop spoke about his own dream of "a world with a human face". This in contrast to the present one, rife with a "new global apartheid", where millions of people are still trapped in an ongoing spiral of poverty.

He challenged international institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation which, he said "are all on paper committed to overcoming poverty and pursuing prosperity". He pointed out that in practice however, the unprecedented economic growth of recent decades has profited the richest most and had a minimal, sometimes negative impact on the poorest.

"You may argue that poorer countries are party to decisions that keep them in the poverty trap," said the Archbishop. "But when, for example, in the IMF, the poorest 50 nations share less than three percent of the vote, what choice do they have? Meanwhile, one country - guess which - has veto power. Is that justice?"

Archbishop Ndungane quoted Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech of 1964 when he identified poverty as one of the greatest problems of his time but said, "We have the resources to get rid of poverty," and added "There is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in human will".

"The resources are still there," said the Archbishop, "but the will power is still lacking. It is shameful."

He added that in the next few months there will be unique opportunities to break the grip of poverty in tangible and lasting ways. These include global commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's pro-poor chairmanship of the G8 and EU and the launch of the report of the Commission for Africa which offers far-reaching and realistic recommendations.

The Archbishop said that in all these initiatives, the spotlight will be on US President Bush and how far he will support recommendations for funding to meet anti-poverty targets and for reform of international institutions. These institutions need to be biased in favour of poorer countries, to enable them to compete equally on the global stage, he said.

"From the outside it too often appears that the American Dream is to be served by everyone else, not shared with everyone else," he said.

The Archbishop called the US "the only superpower" and said "Surely it is for this great nation to give a lead in ensuring world affairs are governed through policies that uphold equity, fairness and the well-being of all humanity".

The Archbishop also expressed his concern over the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment's warning that many of the world's ecosystems are on the brink of irreversible collapse. "We cannot have a life of freedom if we degrade the home in which we live," he says, adding "I pray the United States may turn around and walk with the rest of us in the Kyoto Protocol. Indeed, I pray you may stride ahead of us in setting an example of sustainable growth, for the healing of the planet, and for the healing of its nations," said the Archbishop.

For further information or a copy of the full speech, please contact Penny Lorimer, Media Liaison for Archbishop Ndungane, on 0027 (0)82 894-1522 or pennl@netactive.co.za