Blog Action Day - Poverty Edition

Though most of us have probably gone to bed by now, I and my fellow Canadians spent some of the evening of October 14th (and in my case, the first hours of October 15ht) watching the latest federal election results come in.

As much as it can be hard to keep the bigger picture in mind on nights like tonight, it's important to remember that we elect politicians to take care of some pretty important 'big picture' decisions.

One of those big pictures, in my mind at least, is poverty alleviation (both at home and around the world).

Today is Blog Action Day. It's a chance for bloggers from around the world to spend some time discussing/pontificating/posting pretty pictures on a single issue: poverty.

Though even defining poverty can be a pretty complex task and the causes are equally complex, I think we can agree that it's an important issue to tackle as we go forward (particularly as the current troubles on the world financial scene continue to put pressure on everyone). I encourage you to surf the other Blog Action Day contributors for discussions on definitions. I want to tangent a bit and briefly raise a different part of the picture.

Over the course of the next year, I/the organization I work for has the potential to be directly affected 3 elections (not counting the American election, which arguably affects us all with varying degrees of directness). Canada, Ghana and Malawi will all be dealing with the consequences of national elections in the coming months. I wonder, will these governments be expected to renew commitments to prosperity for their citizens or even for the global community?

Hard times are ahead, and I think it's incumbent upon us all to make sure that it's not just a small minority of concerned citizens "getting involved" to do whatever it is we're going to do to face tough, 'big picture' questions like how to tackle global (and domestic) poverty, but also that our elected representatives continue to be expected to make just decisions even in the face of such challenges.

As Demosthenes, an old Greek favorite of mine, once said:

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Making democratic contributions often feels like a hopelessly small opportunity - be it through voting, writing a letter to your elected representatives, getting involved in your community league, volunteering with a citizen's action group of some kind or even just discussing your thoughts in public - it can eventually make a difference. That's what the system is for - it's our job to undertake the great enterprise of making it work for us.