3 weeks till the World Summit and....

I posted maybe ten days ago about an opportunity to sign up to fast and pray for the World Summit, which used to be called Millennium+5 because it is to include a review of the world's progress towards meeting the internationally agreed-upon Millennium Development Goals. The summit is expected to bring together more than 170 heads of state in NY. Readers of this blog probably already follow things like the ONE campaign enough to know that 2005 has been a key year for anti-poverty activists and Africa in particular because of this upcoming summit, as well as the G8 in Gleneagles.

Well, I'm grateful, if that's the word, to Holly at Hunger for Justice for pointing to this article. Obviously there are all sorts of political issues at play here, but here's a section likely to be of interest to you if you texted during "One" or got yourself a white armband or watched Live8: Less than a month before world leaders arrive in New York for a world summit on poverty and U.N. reform, the Bush administration has thrown the proceedings in turmoil with a call for drastic renegotiation of a draft agreement to be signed by presidents and prime ministers attending the event. The United States has only recently introduced more than 750 amendments that would eliminate new pledges of foreign aid to impoverished nations.... The U.S. amendments call for striking any mention of the Millennium Development Goals, and the administration has publicly complained that the document's section on poverty is too long.