A World Record Stood Up And Took Action

The record for the biggest mass mobilization on a single issue was broken last month when over 116 million people participated in the Stand Up and Take Action Campaign to end world poverty.

It was a response to the troublingly slow progress being made in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that were ratified by the leaders of 189 countries in 2000. Designed to end extreme poverty throughout the world by 2015, more than half of the timeline to the target date has passed but less than a quarter of the aid has been delivered. Meanwhile, according to Stand Up’s website, 50,000 people die every day from the very causes that the MDG aims to eradicate.

“No excuses,” said Michael Douglas in a video clip to promote the Campaign. “We spend $900 billion a year in arms. Do you think this small planet cannot afford $50 billion a year to end poverty and stop hunger? We are six billion people and this world will do what we say.”

In his own promotional clip, Richard Gere agreed: “Our governments reflect us and who we are. If we don’t care, our governments are not going to care.”

It looks like people do care. At events held in 131 countries across the globe, 116,993,629 people plus another five million unregistered – nearly triple the number that participated in Stand Up and Take Action last year – also see the Millennium Development Goals as obtainable and are holding governments accountable. This is one broken record that may be difficult for governments to ignore.