Following on from his blog entry yesterday (and our blog entry from Joshua Schulman- Marcus), Danyaal Raza gives his take on the talk by Jeffrey Sachs at the weekend’s Unite for Sight conference including Sach’s 10-Point Memo addressed to the next President of the United States-Definitely worth a read! RhonaJeffrey Sachs talks to a packed house

Jeffery Sachs, perhaps the world’s most famous economist, delivered one of the final keynote speeches of Unite for Sight’s 5^th annual conference. He did so with the vigour that readers of his book The End of Poverty, and the passion that supporters of his Millennium Villages Project expect of him. What surprised myself and I suspect many others, was his unexpectedly political message.

He began with a discussion of the global pressures on food, oil and water being exerted by not only the economies of the west, but by the rising buying power of China, India and parts of the developing world. Is the answer to these escalating demands a reduction of consumption in the developed world? Is it to continue development at the expense of the environment? Perhaps we should deny the economic independence of the world’s poor as a means of capping global consumption? To all, Sachs categorically says ‘no’. Instead, he challenged the crowd, filled with countless students, to implement solutions reconciling these large questions. Many of which, he added, he has began to address in his new book Common Wealth (available outside the auditorium and which I happily bought; if anyone knows how to work ‘the market’, I suppose it’s an economist).

The hammer fell when he began to talk of the changes that needed to be made in his native United States. Applause punctuated his speech as he condemned the Iraq War as a literal and figurative bleed of the United States. He dismissed Dick Cheney’s energy policy as nothing more than a permanent placement of US soldiers in the Middle East. It should come as no surprise then, that John McCain is prepared for a hundred year occupation of Iraq. He had scathing words directed at George Bush for diverting funds to an annual Pentagon budget that this year will surpass total aid to Africa by all donor countries. Ever.

He made no secret of his countdown to the end of Bush/Cheney and it comes as little surprise then, that he began to conclude his speech with a 10-Point Memo addressed to the next President of the United States. Below is a paraphrasing:

1. Immediately end the Iraq War
2. End the Bush tax cuts.
3. Increase sustainable energy funding to the level given to the National Institute of Health.
4. Appoint an envoy to travel around the globe, meeting with foreign governments and recommitting the United States to international climate change agreements
5. End the subsidization of ethanol for the use in biofuels
6. Sign the international convention on biological diversity as well as international conventions on the use of torture.
7. Unite ‘dry land’ leaders of cities, states, provinces and nations around the issue of water security.
8. Re-establish funding for UN led sexual health planning services, including the use of condoms.
9. Make the Millennium Development Goals the centerpiece of the America’s international development policy.
10. Establish a cabinet level position overseeing a Department of Sustainable Development to guide environmental, energy and other related policies.

Sachs carries many labels; a UN ID badge, a Columbia University office and the status of pseudo-celebrity. He used this speech to solidify another; activist. Economics is an art and science often lost on most of us. Sachs continued to do what he does best, make it relevant and accessible to individuals working and providing opportunities to those who need it most. Danyaal Raza: draza2009@meds.uwo.ca

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