A month away: Sep. 14-16 is the World Summit

The G8 was the first focus event for 2005; here's number 2 (and it used to be called Millennium+5, in case you're confused; I was). This 3-day event in NY will bring together world leaders to review how we've done, 5 years on, at achieving the agreed-upon Millennium Development Goals (hint: poorly, especially in Africa. Incidentally, the ONE Blog is beginning to try reporting on how debt cancellation and targeted aid are working in very specific locations, which if people pay attention could do a lot to reduce some Americans' chronic suspicion about partnering with non-Western countries).

If you sympathize with ONE and Make Poverty History's campaign to hold our leaders accountable for their promises on this, you can sign up to fast and pray during the World Summit here. Also, can any readers tell me of online sites that have information on vigils/ demonstrations in NYC itself? It was very easy to find full instructions on how to travel to the G8 in Edinburgh, but I'm not having much luck this go-round.

Incidentally, the World Youth Day, which is a large Roman Catholic event going on this next week in Germany, is also focusing heavily on the Millennium Development Goals this year.

Finally, for readers who may not be familiar with the facts about trade, odious debt, and development that motivate this whole campaign, I've tried over the past several months to keep posting links to explanations. This time, let's go to a Christian on the ground in Africa (well, he's on sabbatical at the moment, but has lived there since 1989): here is a mission worker in Burkina Faso giving a very good introductory summary.