A New World Order
By Nick Edwards
This is a time of many campaigns — such as “Me Too” and “Time’s Up” — focussing on the issues of inequality, inappropriate behaviour, and the exploitation of women in the workplace. These follow other campaigns that exposed abuse and misuse of power, particularly, but by no means exclusively, by men. These are timely and good causes.
The experience of the rich and famous women who started the “Time’s Up” campaign is experienced every day on a colossal and unimaginable scale by so many other people, not least the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society. This suffering occasionally makes headlines, but is quickly superseded by the next big event. However, the issues remain.
All of ATD’s projects over the past decade have been based on breaking the silence about extreme poverty experienced as violence, as we sought to help people understand the entrenched, institutional way in which exclusion and exploitation trap people and diminish their human dignity. Our priority since the beginning of ATD has always been to give poverty a voice and to enable this story to be told by the people best placed to tell it — that is, activists and other people who actually live in poverty.
The fact that the message so often falls on deaf ears rests on two things: the self-interested and materialistic nature of our world; and the way in which governments and media manipulate facts to suit their own interests and the interests of those who hold power and wealth. It was always thus; and it can be easy for us to fall into the belief that things can never change.
They certainly will not change if we do nothing! The good news is that through our efforts, and those of many others who gather with us throughout the world, there is now a much greater understanding than in the past of the reality of exploitation and the abuse of power. However, this is fragile and subject to all kinds of assault by vested interests, which is why in the end what is required is a change of culture so that crucial issues would be identified not just as the latest campaign but as a necessity for our survival and for the well-being of our planet and all its inhabitants.
ATD’s founder, Joseph Wresinski, once said, “A new world order without poverty will see the light of day”. For this to be true, and not just a pipe dream, we have to try to persuade those who will not yet listen. We have to join our voices, our “me toos”, to change the darkness of extreme poverty into a new world order where everyone has a chance to give the best of themselves.
We who gather in ATD Fourth World are in the vanguard of this movement. We have been there a long time and must continue to tell our story until the world listens and no one is left out or left behind.
