While I can agree with most of the points that the author points out at the same time I do see areas where I am a bit skeptical. I do see ares where the goals have made vast improvements but there is still so much work to be done that I can't help but believe that the 2015 deadline is just too far out of reach.

Another issue that I wish the author would have addressed is the importance of doing research on the foundations before donating money to them. It is extremely important to know where your money goes. The author brought up Bread of the World which is more of a christian based foundation. In reviewing the annual reports the foundation has seen a rise of 8.9% in profits, has increased its administrative fees from 2.8% to 3.9% and has also increased its fundraising from 13.1% to 17.9%. While these are very minimal, they still need to be watched.

Over all I think the author did a good job in reviewing the facts and giving an educated opinion about the MGDs and the 2015 deadline.

The author of this post touched on my beliefs for the MDG's and the 2015 deadline. Some may be reached while others will have a vast improvement made upon them.

I also agree very strongly with the education bit of females, but to be more general the education of children. Each of these goals affect one another, they are all tied together. If one shows some progress, others will show some progress. If education among children in other countries, as well as our own, starts to be of higher quality you will start to see, over years, some improvement on some of the other goals such as gender equality, women getting better paying jobs or better positions due to the education, Poverty will start to decrease, due to the education of the youth and jobs they might incur as a result, Child mortality might decrease due to the number of doctors that could be produced as a result of a higher standard education, or education period for those who currently do not have it.

One could go on and on and tie in the different causes and effects each of these goals would have on each other, but the important part, as the author stated, is WE all get involved at any level we can. We can not rely solely on the UN to find the answers to these problems themselves. The United Nations will need the help of their nations to make any kind of impact on these goals; so to think that "What difference would it make if I helped at a food donation shelter?, What difference would my 10 cents a day to some kid, I dont even know, in Africa make? anyway Im saving up for a new Ipod." These statements are foolish and deep down we all know it. I started out talking about the education of todays youth to help make an impact on these MDG's, guess what todays youth is your little sister, your little brother, your cousin, even your neighbor down the street. These children only know what you teach them so if all we teach them is to be looking out for number one ONLY, then these goals will have no progress. We have to be like the UN and stand united not only after a country tragedy, or a terrible disaster, but everyday we can stand united and teach our youth the benefit of helping our neighbors. 

This is a video that I found to be very inspiring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltSKo19pXTI

I will have to say the same. She really came across the heart of what the purpose of these goals are. She touched on a lot of data that did not even come to mind for me. Most importantly the fact of rising costs to live in the world. Food and housing is becoming more expensive day by day so I can only imagine that it gets harder for those to try to work for more money when it is a constant battle. Poverty will be a high priority to stop as it seems to be the most difficult. She stated how this rising cost pushed 100 million into poverty. Children whom need to stop working and focus on education would solve a world load of problems more than just the poverty issue. The more educated people are, the more ideas can flow in to solve problems. I think a lot of CFO and company presidents take the extra money for themselves when it should be distributed to those employees in need of it. I can see this evidently in the job I hold today. Yes this is a lot of negative to look at but she also highlights the positives that the goals are working to accomplish. She focused on enrollment ratios increasing, more job opportunities for women, decreased in malnourished children, and more. As I stated in my first post of this unit, I agree that goals are something that you work for. They may not be accomplished but you work for them and this is the change that we are seeing. Slowly people and nations are gaining the help they deserve.I feel like environmental stability is a tough one but she does state that sanitiation, forestry, and any attempt to savour our atmosphere will help. My favorite out of her whole post was that she stated our economic crisis is a preventable factor. Well yes! I mean our debt ceiling is climbing higher and higher in the USA. It makes me almost sick regarding the amount of money we fail to pay back. Overall, simply put- "Leaders should put themselves in the should of those in need to see the change". We can all be leaders, right?

I have to say that I agree with the author on many of the points made. In my opinion, all of the goals of the MDGs will not be reached by the year 2015. That does not mean that they were not worth trying for and as the author said if the MDGs had not been implemented things would probably be worse instead of improving. The author touches on some of the improvements that have been made thus far, such as the decrease in undernourished children from 33% to 26%. However, I also agree with the author that while the goals are slowly being reached there is still a long way to go. I said in a previous post that all of these goals seem to be correlated. We cannot completely end child mortality without treating diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, etc. and we cannot cure these diseases without better prenatal care or educationg people on how to prevent them. The connections are endless. Just because the dealine may pass does not mean that everyone should stop their efforts. If anything people should be proud of what they have accomplished and hopefully this will open others' eyes to what can be done when goals are set and everyone works together. I know that reading about the progress of the MDGs has really inspired me. Before I would have thought that these improvements were just talk but reading about some of the goals being met fives me faith that the rest can be accomplished as well.

I really enjoyed reading this article. There are a few things that I don't see eye to eye on with the author but there were some points that the author made that really made me think. I personally do not believe that the goals will be met by the 2015 deadline. Through the first weeks of getting to know these goals I've honestly felt very disheartened that the goals as still so far off. The fact that we even need to have these goals today makes me sick. Yet, the author states something that gives me hope and makes me feel a lot better. The statement was:

 "Even if they don't reach all the goals they have still helped so many people along the way and without the goals in the first place, things would probably be way worse compared to 5-10 years ago instead of improving."

That alone made reading this post worth the time because it's true. Even if the goals won't be reached by the deadline so many people are benefiting from the efforts. It also made me remember that the deadline is just a number anyway. This isn't about reaching some quota to show off how you made a difference in the world. This is a global effort to improve people's lives and improving lives is exactly what is happening right now. The goals are simply a way of measuring how much difference in being made.

The other thing I really like about this post is the last paragraph. The author brings these global goals into a personal perspective by writing the things we can do today in our community. I think a lot of people look at these goals and think, "those are great goals and I hope that the UN achieves them." But, what about us? It's not just the UN trying to achieve the goals it's all of us. We all can play a part and by spelling out some very specific and feasible things we can do it gives a sense of empowerment and it made me feel like I can do my part today to help out. Overall a very good post.

The author of this most had a lot of great information and for the most part I agree with everything that was said. I especially like the idea that contraception would play a major role in meeting the UN's goals. Like the author stated with contraception less women would be dying during child birth and the spread of disease to those children would be less. Also with fewer mouths to feed families could have enough money to live. I absolutely agree that condoms or forms a birth control need to be easily available and less expensive.

I also like that the author stated good ways to help reach these goals was to donate money or time to different organizations that are helping reach the MDG's. They are very right though about doing plenty of research so that you know the organization you donate to is in fact doing its part to help the goals.

Lastly I agree that these goals are reachable by the deadline set and that even if they are not met in that time frame at least there has been so much ground already covered and that there is no reason to stop what we are doing. We could be worse off if these goals were never set in the first place.

Overall I agree with the author of this piece on several different levels. I don't think that it is completely feasible that we reach all eight goals by the year 2015, but I definitely think that we will have made much progress by then. In addition, as the author pointed out, if we had never set out for these goals in this manner in the first place, then we never would have helped all of these people along the way. Things would be in worse shape then they were before, or have not progressed at all.

I similarly agreed with the comments that the author made regarding global realization of these goals in order for them to be attained. If parts of the world do not recognize the goals that we are aiming at, then they cannot aid in the completion of these goals, and they will forever be unmet. So many of these goals really require everyone everywhere to take part and put forth some effort, and if we cannot make them aware of the circumstances, we will forever be at a loss. As the author pointed out, there is such a distinction between those with and those without, and because of this the fight for improvement is often one sided. We need to use our power to inform and coach, so that we lessen the ever-widening gap that is taking place.

In addition, I really liked the authors mentioning of ways that she herself helps out, and ways that others can reach out as well. The different roles that people can play in the community are simple, yet easily passed over. People don't realize how much they can help, how easy it is to improve the quality of life of people elsewhere. I know I myself fall victim to this scenario, where I am always to busy and stressed to put my time and effort into volunteering and supporting. But as the author points out, there are many other ways to help that don't necessarily involve volunteering your time or money. The bottom line is, the more people that put in just the slightest bit of effort, the further we will grow, and the closer we will get to achieving these goals.

I think the author really summed up overall the main ideas and points surrounding the MDGs and how globalization and individuals can help in making these goals realistic for the future, even if it is not by 2015.

Overall I think the author did a great job at summerizing the MDGs.  She brought up a lot of points that I didn't even realize.  I agree that we won't meet these goals by 2015.  I think we will have made much progress, but that we are quite a few years off from completely completing these goals.

When I first read about the MDGs and the United Nations goals I honestly felt a it overwhelmed.  These are such grand goals that I didn't think they could ever fully be accomplished.  Our world is definitely not in a great state when it comes to poverty, death and the other subjects.  The thing I really enjoyed about this authors post is that she broke down the things that each one of us can do individually.  I think this really helps to narrow down completely the goals and makes them less overwhelming.  Considering her thoughts on what individuals can do, I believe the MDGs are more within reach.  

As she said we should all do our part in sharing information about the MDGs.  In spreading the word through Facebook, Twitter, and other scoial media we should be able to get the word out in order to get more help.  I had never heard of these goals until this class. So I know how important it is to spread the word now.

Overall I enjoyed reading this post.  The author has many great ideas and did well at discussing the goals in depth and what we can do about them.

After reading this article I can see several valid points that the writer has made, concerning the UN millennium goals. As she said, the world has made several developments to further achieving these eight goals and the progress that we have made has helped to make the world a better place. This is true that our world is more improved now than if we never made these goals in the first place. Furthermore, I would like to point out that she also did not think that these goals would be fully accomplished by 2015, although the changes would be enough to be called a success. I completely agree with this view. There are some of these goals that are more complicated and we cannot simply make to disappear. While it is very nice to believe one day no child will have to go hungry or go without an education, I think that it will be extremely difficult to put into motion. Schools can only be put in place with money and money can only be raised through awareness and organization.  Other factors play into being able to receive education which includes poverty, health, and equality. As all these goals are entwined with one another they are also entwined with other problems. How do we achieve all these goals and overcome all these obstacles in one fail swoop? By attacking at multiple angles and working together to find minor solutions that can eliminate problems. For example, while we have to focus all of our attention on every goal some are more achievable than others. Minor goals are even more achievable than major ones. It is easier to get clean water in one town than it is in an entire country and working slowly and efficiently to fully accomplish easy goals first, will help to accomplish more complicated ones further down the road. Another idea is what Dr. Gonzales mentioned during his lecture is the idea that once some of our goals have been accomplished, they will be replaced by new struggles that we must overcome and therefore I don't believe our job will ever be done. It is important to not only get these goals accomplished but help maintain them and find new ways of helping in other areas. Working with communities themselves rather than just in this organization will guarantee a success in not only these goals but future ones we may acquire. At this point I did find myself disagreeing with the author who claimed if we all got together and discussed our ideas we could find the most efficient for these problems. I don't believe that every problem has one solution; more or less I believe there must be multiple projects that work in different places. As I was reading in the text I was very much interested in the idea of learning about a culture before ever trying to change it. What suits a westernized culture is not going to work for developing countries and sometimes no matter how much we believe we are helping, we aren't always wanted. It is important to know these cultures, to understand their problems and to work with them. In doing these steps and finding solutions as unique as the cultures themselves I believe that we will be able to accomplish these goals.

I liked that Christine acknowledged the importance of having the 8 Millennium Development Goals at all. I believe that the first step to doing something is to communicate that you will do it. If the internal, mental decision to reach a goal is transformed into a coherent verbal expression of that goal, then one can begin to act on accomplishing that goal. I understand that this process is much more complex for multi-faceted and complicated goals that require the collaboration of many people, such as the MDGs, because these goals are usually abstract and function on so many different and overlapping levels. As one of the panelists in Dr. Josh Gonzalez's presentation stressed, disagreement of what are the common goals among members of an organization is one of the major obstacles toward finding and implementing effective solutions. However, the more concrete and specific we make our goals, the more realistic and approachable solutions become. To bring this back to my opening comment, we need the MDGs, but most importantly, we need to communicate the MDGs on paper, electronically, through word of mouth, etc. Without them, without spreading awareness of them, a unified effort to accomplish these goals would not, and could not, be possible. The MDGs provide somewhat of a common language of what are the greatest problems citizens of the earth are facing, which will gradually lead to a common language of solutions.

I believe that this idea of developing clear and concrete goals is well illustrated in Christine's discussion on how any one individual can help to reach the MDGs. It must start locally, somewhere, with someone or some group of people. I know that we live in a global community, but there are many smaller local communities that make it up. If a small group of people from every local community can come together to reach some aspect of an MDG, then it contributes to the overall achievement of that MDG on a global scale. After all, if a solution works for one local community, perhaps it can work for another. However, I also understand that communities are diverse and what works for one community may not, and perhaps should not be expected to, work for another. As Dr. Gonzalez said, there is strength in diversity when considering new and innovative ways to improve community programs and institutions, such as education. In conjunction with this, I still believe in finding our similarities, and that there is strength in numbers. As one of the members of the UCP-SARnet Leadership Team talked passionately about, networking with people around the world and discussing similar goals and how to reach those goals is an exciting and emotionally salient experience. I believe that as local community programs develop and evolve, the global community slowly but surely also develops and evolves. One person can make a difference in his/her local community, and a group of people, unified and in agreement of a goal, can make a difference not only in their local community, but within the larger global context.

Through local community involvement, concrete goals can be established and achieved. By starting off small, we can gradually move onto solving the big-picture problems that the MDGs address. For example, how can we alleviate, in direct and influential ways, the impoverished conditions in our local community, such as in central Phoenix or Tempe? There are local organizations already addressing this issue (e.g., Phoenix Rescue Mission), and becoming involved with them can allow one to gain new perspectives. As Christine also mentioned, and which brings me back to the idea of communicating the MDGs to others, spreading the word about the mission statements of the organizations you are involved with is an important first step. I know that ASU students are very active members of online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These are great places to spread the word on becoming involved in the community, and to educate others outside of academia on the MDGs. As was mentioned in the article, many organizations have Facebook pages. It does not take much effort to visit these pages, learn more, and send links to friends and families. Donating money, sending a letter to your local congressmen/women, or signing a petition advocating for human rights and well-being is community involvement. Perhaps if people begin to do these initial things, it will serve as motivation to become even more directly involved in social action.

I think the author of this article conveyed the eight goals and statistics corresponding to each goal in a clear, yet interesting manner.  However, I do believe that she is being a little too optimistic when she states that she believes some of the Millennium Development Goals will be reached by 2015.  There is still so much to be done, and although we are making progress and we are slowly able to better communities by these goals and efforts, there is still so much to be done.  I think the UN has put a lot on their plate by taking on all of these 8 important issues at the same time, and as I stated before, I think they should work on one at a time instead of the shotgun method of trying to work on each one a little bit.  As stated by the author, these 8 goals are somewhat intertwined, which could make it more difficult to isolate each one completely from the other goals.  However,  focusing all attention on one goal at a time seems like it would be more efficient, and could also have a positive consequence on other goals.   The statistics of poverty levels, the percentage of undernourished children, people infected with HIV/AIDS, and the like are extremely startling.  Viewing last week's Millennium Development Goals was an eye opener as to just how many serious issues there are facing communities at a global level.  

I like in the article how the author gives facts for each of the goals, and how there has either been improvements toward each goal, or not.   I think this was an effective way of mapping out exactly where the UN stands at reaching each individual goal. You hear about poverty, and malnutrition, and lack of primary education, but the real facts about each of them brings another level of realization to just how many people are in need of help around the world.  It definitely motivates me to go out into my community and contribute more to helping society as a whole and making other people aware about being proactive in the community.  As stated in the UCP-SARnet video for this week, "We can make a difference".  That may seem like a simple and obvious statement, but I don't think many people on a regular basis think of how they can affect change in their community.  I think the start to helping reach the Millennium Development goals is awareness: making people more aware, on a global level, of what's going on in the world.  With technology today and websites such as UCP-SARnet available to aid in discussion and the sharing of ideas, we are more interconnected than ever and I believe that with this technology we have, more than ever, the opportunity to help others.  

            Most of the information stated in Christine's post was in my post as well.  I on the other hand think that we need to focus more on females having equal rights because as I said on my other post it is essential for women to be educated to be able to protect not only themselves but also to be able to protect their children and that in turn will help their communities.  The issue is how do we do that?

            I find it difficult to see how we can become a stronger community globally when it seems most of globalization and technology seems to be depersonalizing relationships more and more. The panelists in Dr Gonzales' audio recording spoke about people having common interests but different goals. I think with the MDG goals we have common goals but not common interests. I believe you cannot have common interest globally especially if we don't have local communities with common interest. Dr Gonzales said that America asked for the Berlin wall to be demolished and then America turned around and asked to bring up their own wall to keep immigrants out. This shows the lack of community within the U.S. where we want to kick people out and keep others out as well.

 A positive aspect to all this is that communities in other places around the world do seem to have a sense of common interest and goals, unfortunately, in my opinion, it is those communities who don't have access to the internet and the world wide web. If there were more people, like the members of UCP-SARnet, who seem to be genuinely interested in the welfare of people around the world, great things would be accomplished.  Although I don't doubt that people from different backgrounds can get together to achieve goals for the sake of another community, I think the strength of a community needs to come from the one closest in proximity.  As we had a chance to see the authors of our text were involved in politics at young ages and they have done things to better the communities that they feel an attachment to.

            As explained in our text most of the idea of community psychology in the U.S. began in the 1960's. The mental health issues and the lack of people getting help in the United States showed that those who were mentally ill were also part of the community and if there are personal issues that cannot be resolved within a person it will be even harder to go outside of oneself to help the local community and eventually the global community. Can a small amount of people who are interested in the well being of the world make the difference and spread the word enough so that the communities who are usually secluded or left out will get the word too?

The author did an excellent job of describing the progress and shortfalls of reaching the 8 millennium goals.  She touched on a lot of great points and provided detailed information for each and every goal.   After learning about the 8 goals, and viewing the videos I, like the author was very touched and inspired to do everything I can to help reach these goals and make this world a beautiful place to live for everyone.    However when asked if I thought whether or not these goals could be reached by 2015 I answered no, but after reading Christine's response, I do have faith that some goals have more potential to be completed by 2015 than others.

  I agree with response for the first goal; however I think more can be done to educate people, especially our children, about the issues regarding extreme hunger and poverty throughout the world.  I think our culture tends to be overindulgent and wasteful at times, and we need to remember how many people go to bed hungry when we are overly picky or wasteful with food.   As far as the second goal, I believe we can help by donating old or unwanted textbooks as well as books for entertainment.  At the very least, these children and young adults should have the opportunity to read!  I agreed with Christine's thoughts on the third goal and in addition to her thoughts, I believe females, from the time they are very young girls need to be taught that they are just as smart, important, and capable as men, and men and young boys need to do their part by encouraging and respecting them.  Just that sense of confidence can do wonders!    As far as the 4^th and 5^th goals regarding child mortality and maternal health and I think the author covered all points.  Unfortunately these issue are directly related to poverty.  Once out of poverty these women can afford to have quality prenatal care and their children can have a jump start on healthy lives, and that can continue with good pediatric care and necessary vaccinations.  I thought the author basically summed up everything about the 6^th goal regarding treatment for HIV/AIDS/ and other diseases, this also goes hand in hand with poverty level, but I think education about these diseases is helping  slowly but surely.  Christine covered the 7^th and 8^th goals very well, and I agree that education and awareness is key in accomplishing these goals. 

I really appreciated the author's optimistic view of these goals.  She pointed out that even if they are not accomplished by the deadline in 2015, they have helped many people and the world is a better place already because of them.  She also gave some great suggestions for how we can get involved and do our part in insuring that these goals are not only reached, but reached by the deadline.  She did an excellent job reviewing the 8 Millennium goals, and I for one and inspired to do my part! 

I found this article to be inspiring and it has swayed my views on the ability of our world to have a greater impact on reaching the United Nations Millennium Goals. Her discussion on the first goal of eradicating hunger and poverty was the most impacting on me personally. She is completely right when it comes to the fact that the oil and food productivity is a in a huge crisis and is causing an inability for this goal to be reached. If we would be able to reach out to these communities and educate them in how to produce their own means of food it would be greatly beneficial and would then tie into the other UN Millennium Goal of education.

She touched on the point of getting children out of the work force, which I completely agree with. If we could get children into the classroom and provide them with the education they deserve, it would help in so many other areas of the UN's goals. Providing them with education would allow them to help better their own communities and themselves, in the sense of being able to have a future. Education is the key to all of the United Nation's Millennium Goals. Education of the world on these issues would allow a more cohesive understanding of the problems we are facing on a global level and would hopefully cause more of an outcry to help fix these issues.

It was good to know that in the areas of diseases there have been some improvements, as she noted, but I still feel that education would have a huge impact in this area as well. If we could have more resources (i.e. people, tools and time) to educate those suffering from malaria, TB, etc. I feel as though there would be a greater chance of getting this problem under control. Education of everyone, is to me personally , the most important goal of the United Nations Millennium Goals. Education is the first step to allowing the world to understand and care about these serious issues that are causing our global community to suffer. I wish she would have touched on more ways of getting involved in the education aspect of the goals, on a global level and on a more personal community based level.

I think the use of the internet is the greatest tool for educating the world on all of these strifes we are facing. Being able to connect to people on different continents and discuss these issues, is more beneficial than I could ever explain. Just the concept of discussing these problems would allow people to become more aware of the steps we can take to start really begin fixing these problems.

                I can definitely see how this course would transform Christine Williams' passion about issues such as the MDGs.  Looking at the UN website and studying the progress we have made toward our goals really enables anyone learning about these problems to identify with solutions and how they can personally get involved to change people's lives. As Pollyanna in the opening leadership video stated (see the UCP-SARnet home page), "united, we can make a difference". We all have ways that we can contribute individually, and UCP-SARnet exists to help us realize and achieve that degree of integration between our personal lives and the lives of those we associate with within our community as well as within the global community at large.

                The author of this article did a really good job summarizing the MDGs and putting our progress in perspective, while also noting that we still need to develop better approaches in many areas.  I think she makes a great point about the recession slowing things down, as I also noted in my last forum posting.  However, if we all combine our efforts the goals are still reachable. I like how the author approached the notion of not achieving the goals. I agree that the progress we have made has helped many people, and without set goals to work toward, we would not even have made the huge difference that we have.

                I also really liked the author's take on globalization. It has definitely increased the gap between the haves and the have nots, and leaders need to address this issue.  This brings back up what Dr. Gonzales was addressing in one of his lectures provided by our Community Development class taught by Dr. Marek; leaders are currently addressing new problems using old methods.  How this ties in to the current discussion on globalization is that we need to understand that in order to effectively deal with the challenges that globalization presents, we must adapt our responses and "evolve" (as Dr. Gonzales would put it) to address the situation in new and innovative ways, instead of applying old principles- which may have served us well before, but times are changing.

                I appreciated the suggestions on how to get involved that were provided at the end by this article, and I think this class will have a positive influence on my own level of involvement in issues surrounding the achievement of the MDGs. One take home message that I have already learned is that no amount of help is too small. We can each contribute to varying degrees to attain the goals set forth by the UN.  I look forward to growing and learning, and look forward to being a part of this network.

This was an incredible read! I certainly agree with Christine on the point that not all of the eight goals will be reached by 2015. I agree that the economy has prevented those who were once moderately wealthy or getting by from helping achieve these goals. Those who may have donated their time or some of their money can no longer do so because they must put their time towards working and save their money. Personally I haven't been too affected by the recession, but I know many who have and encounter many people who are struggling at my job (I work as a cashier at Fry's). If the United States is struggling to feed more and more people, how can it be possible to focus on other countries?

On a community level, I am definitely in agreement with Christine. It is my personal belief that coming together is the first goal that needs to be met. In fact, if I had to rank the eight goals, it would certainly be number one. While listening to the presentations for this week, I heard a great example; one gentleman said that pushing a car is hard on your own, but if there are people helping you push that car (in the same direction) it becomes an easy feat. This is the perspective I take on reaching the MDG's. If different communities can start pushing the "car" together, we can reach our destination much more quickly. How to do this uniting is the tricky part. I've read a few comments to this blog that mention the Internet as being a good way to connect with others. This is true, but mostly only in the developed countries. As the MDG Report from 2010 states, only 13 out of 100 people have access to Internet in developing regions compared to the 64 out of 100 in developed regions. So perhaps uniting for the more developed countries should be done through the web and technology and then connections can be made with organizations that can connect with the less developed countries.

Perhaps my favorite part of this blog entry was how the author went from the global level, to the community level, and finally to the individual level. While I agree that getting involved is the first step, the question I am always interested in is how to involve people. Facebook and Twitter are ingenious ways to reach the developed public these days (specifically the United States). Most of the younger generations are involved in one or both of these social networking sites and would be much more included to be informed and persuaded in such a way. I would propose that we use some social psychology techniques to influence people because it is incredibly hard to start that "spark." It is so easy to focus on us and ignore the larger picture.

I would like to offer some additional ways that an individual can get involved! As I noted earlier, in tough economic times it is difficult to let go of much needed money. While donating time can also be difficult, it seems much more plausible to ask. Rather than just volunteering at a food bank, why not tailor the time to your trade or skills? Most of us are probably some time of social sciences majors. Psychology majors might donate some of their knowledge on persuasion. A political science major could work with the state government to rally efforts. A computer wiz could design a webpage for an organization. And finally, a charismatic person might be able to speak publically and the eight goals. In sort, there is something that every individual could easily contribute!

In this article I believe Christine makes some very valid points about the progress of the MDGs and their future outlook.  I can relate to how she says she feels more passionate about helping the community and its needs, because I haven't even been taking this class for a month yet and I already feel stronger about it. I definitely agree with her that the UN will have made great progress in reaching their goals my 2015.  The statistics support this fact; an article on the UN website titled, "UN reports progress towards poverty alleviation, urges increased support for the poorest," explains how the world has made significant improvements in many areas.  School enrollment has increased in many areas, deaths of children have declined, drinking water has been improved for millions of people, and so much more!

One common theme that comes alive to me from Christine's article is the problem of poverty.  In one of the introductory videos by Dr. Marek he explained how poverty is really the "root" of all the other problems.  It reminds me of a trickle down effect.  If extreme poverty is present, it is hard to have the resources to provide education, provide food, provide equality, prevent death, provide safe water, etc.  There is an unequal distribution of wealth in the world and this is really why we need the unity of many people.  Our textbook Community Psychology shows how community psychology is developing in other nations.  One key factor to point out is where it says that in developing countries community psychology is in its' "incipient" stages (pg 17).  These countries are in Asia and Africa where the need for community psychology is high.  I believe a lot of opportunity to have success with the MDGs comes from these countries.  We need the outreach of other nations to help achieve universal success.

Christine did a really great job of going through the 8 goals and explaining the opportunities and achievements.  I believe she was realistic in all of her explanations.  For example when she discussed the equality of women she said how women have been given more job opportunities, but they are still underpaid.  When she discussed sustainability she said that deforestation has decreased, yet is still high.  She did not paint a rosy picture; she gave the truth and good facts.  It was great that she didn't just focus on the positive aspects, but that she also analyzed the need for a lot more improvement in order to achieve the MDGs.

Another great part of the article was the paragraph about "global community organizations." As I stated above I feel that it is very critical for there to be global outreach.  Every country has its own problems and need for improvement, but there are also a lot of other countries who need whatever help they can get.  Christine made a very strong point when she said the communities can share their ideas and perhaps even combine ideas to create an even better solution.

The ending about individual involvement and what she could be doing to help progress the MDGs was inspiring.  It was also very insightful to learn about all of the different ways one person could help.  The ideas she gave were very attainable for people who may not have the time or commitment to provide extensive help.  One of the important points she made was to spread the word by e-mail or even on facebook.  Social networks like facebook have become so popular, that I could definitely see it as an easy way to spread news about good causes and the MDGs.  I stated it in the last forum and I still really believe that education should be a huge priority if we are going to reach the 2015 deadline.  In order to help a cause people must first have knowledge of it.

The UN Millennium campaign is very inspiring. It is powerful to realize that there
are so many people investing in the welfare of others. It is amazing to become
part of a global community working to enact social changes that will improve so
many lives. I have only recently become aware of these goals, so I can imagine
how further working to understand and implement them will increase my passion for them as it has for Christine.

The Millennium Development Goals are slowly being met. Christine emphasizes how the goals to eliminate poverty and hunger are slowly being reached. I think that the reason that this progress is so slow is because poverty and hunger can be such strong cycles, where poverty keeps people poor and hunger keeps them hungry. For instance, if you are poor, you usually have to work which can
detract from your education which limits your ability to get a better-paying
job which keeps you poor. Likewise, if you are struggling to find food each
day, it is hard to find the energy or the means to make the progress that would
develop more sustainable food sources. I think that these cycles can make it
extremely difficult to eradicate poverty and hunger, but that is also why it is
so important that the global community pulls together to help meet these goals.

Christine mentioned that for the achievement of universal primary education some programs and interventions still needed to be made, but that enrollment had increased. I thought it was interesting in listening to the lecture from Dr. Gonzales this week and the discussion that followed, one of the people there talked about how uniform the institutional model for schools, hospitals, and jails is. It was discussed that the most typical model as it now stands is not always the most effective and that when schools are shaped to fit the students they teach, more can be accomplished. I think that if this is taken into consideration in implementing this goal, as in understanding the community that the schools are becoming part of and meeting the needs of that community rather than being organized in a cookie-cutter fashion where one institution is expected to be effective in every situation, then progress will be much more rapid and
effective. I think that education is an extremely important goal because as I
read through the progress statistics and the measures that are being taken I realized that a lot of these problems are significantly reduced as people around the world become more aware of them and informed as to how to deal with them. For instance, one of the measures cited to prevent disease involved awareness and the informed use of condoms. As people became informed about the diseases and simple measures used to combat them, the people at risk could then use these measures to prevent disease contraction and reduce the toll the disease takes until it can be eliminated entirely. Prevention is usually much less costly and more widely effective than treatment given limited resources, but it requires educating people. As people become more educated and better trained their capability to resolve the issues that they face is increased exponentially.

Environmental sustainability seems to be a goal that is still in much need of improvement. Measures such as drinking water access are progressing more rapidly. I think that this is because environmental sustainability goals really require a full community effort. The community has to recognize a need and work together to fulfill it. Because everyone is part of the environment and is either supporting its sustainability or destabilizing it, it really is important for
the community to be unified in environment sustainability measures. No one person can do this alone. In achieving sustainability it is important, as discussed in Dr. Gonzales's lecture, that the members of communities have common knowledge, interests, and goals. They need these if they are to work together effectively for progress.

A global partnership for development is growing and improving, but it is not yet
fully integrated and affecting all of the social change that needs to occur. As
globalization progresses it is important that partnerships are formed so that
communities can support each other and grow from each other's strengths. It is
also important that the communities support the individuals that comprise them
as such major changes occur. It is important that measures are taken to promote equality and progress so that gaps in social classes, resources, and standards of living do not widen and impede development. However, globalization should not be just a melting together of all peoples and places into a homogenous nonidentity, but it should be an integration of people and communities where all can work together with the special advantages of each to achieve common goals more effectively than could be done separately. 

There are a lot of problems being faced in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, such as economic crises and opposition from groups with other interests, but these problems have always had an impact on goals such as these. It is barriers such as these that the Millennium Development Goals will help to diminish. To achieve these goals, we cannot simply wait for difficulties to
pass before we move forward. We must move forward despite difficulty because
that is what it will take to achieve these goals by 2015. It is by achieving
progress that more progress can be made.

I am still discovering and developing my role in the community to become part of these social changes. I, like Christine, am starting by supporting these
changes and the organizations in the community that are working to enact them. Organizations like those she mentioned, United Way International and Bread of the world, are ways to become involved in the community and start contributing to world progress. I am most involved in the community through my church and the programs that are run through it. Just reading this post made me realize how important global partnerships for development are because there are a lot of ideas here for becoming involved in supporting Millennium Development Goals that I hadn't thought of before. Every person can make a difference; every person working together can change the world.

Forum 2-

This was a long and clearly insightful passage written by Christine Williams. When I read about the goal and fats, it makes me more interested also.  That is why I'd like to touch base on a few of the things she mentioned.

            Goal 1: eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.

            Williams stated that food production has indeed increased, yet the prices have risen causing 100 million more people into poverty. I feel that this is wrong. It makes me a bit irritated to see how much food we have, yet some food producers are not willing to donate food to the less fortunate, and most likely due to the fact that they would not to give up any of their own chance at earning a fortune. Williams also said something about having higher paying jobs. I do not think having higher paying jobs would pay anything because that would just cause inflation, and then people who were previously in poverty would return to the same unfortunate position in poverty.

            Goal 2: achieve universal primary education

            Williams stated ". There still needs to be programs and interventions for poor households to end gender inequality." While I agree with this, I also have to wonder why she did not mention anything about households that are not poor who also have gender inequality. I do not believe that gender inequality is strictly limited to the poorer people of the world. Also, she said things need to be accomplished so that children may achieve primary and secondary education in a timely manner, but I failed to see anything about establishing schools in the first place. It would make the most sense that in order to have children advance in schooling, that there would need to be schools for the children to attend at all.

            Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women

            About this goal Williams said that women are still being paid on the lower end of the spectrum. I have heard the same, and although I haven't had much proof, I have seen it firsthand within my own family with my father and step mother.

            Goal 4: reduce child mortality

            Regarding child mortality, Williams seemed to say that little was being done to reverse this process. While she did say that 80% of children were vaccinated for measles in 2006, I feel much more can be done to stop child mortality. Child mortality seems like one of the eight goals that I personally believe could be fixed in the shortest amount of time compared with the other remaining seven goals. I think perhaps we should not be focusing on child mortality, but health care for the people in general. This way we would not only be eliminating the child mortality rate but the adult mortality rate also.

            Goal 5: improve maternal health

            I think that goal five correlates with goal four. I stated previously that instead of focusing on strictly child mortality that we should focus on overall health care. I believe if we do focus on overall health care, that we would also be improving maternal health in the same step. If health care was to be increased, perhaps more families would be able to afford the birth of another child, or perhaps they would not be risking the mothers' lives in the process of having a child.

            Goal 6: combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases

            When goal six was mentioned by Williams, she said that newly infected people for HIV/AIDS has actually decreased by .3% from 1990-2007. While it is great to have a declining number for newly people affected with HIV/AIDS. I still believe that this is taking us back to the health care system again. Not only is it health care, but I believe that it is the knowledge aspect of having an understanding of what HIV/AIDS is, and how one can contract the disease. Unfortunately, not having the knowledge brings us right back to goal two regarding primary education. It seems that if people had more education that they might know more about contraception/condoms and it would directly help for most of the eight UN goals.

            Goal 7: ensure environmental sustainability

            Williams mentions that the slums and water need attention in many countries which is true. She also touched base on global warming. I believe that goal seven is a goal in the world that people are not taking as seriously as they should be. It seems there is so much happening in the world with natural disasters which are more extreme than they have been for about fifty years, yet people still deny that the human race has anything to do with it. Although, some of the natural disasters may have been happening regardless, I still think the world is refusing to see that the world is warming. This could also be attributed to education, because it could be that people just may not be educated about what has been happening.

            Goal 8: develop a global partnership for development

            Williams mentioned that global partnership for development is getting better, and technology may be to blame for that. I agree with this 100%. I think without the use of the internet and other such technologies that many people would still be clueless to what is going on around them. This raises a concern for me, however, because I wonder if the people without these technologies understand the extremes of the things that are going on around them. I wonder if these people even know that people are trying to help them.

I enjoyed the enthusiasm that the author expressed through their impression of the United Nations progress in the Millennium Developmental goals. However, I do not believe that enough progress can be made in the eight developmental goals by 2015. In regards to the first MDG: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, the author had stated that, "from 1990 to 2006 undernourished children under 5 has decreased from 33% to 26% but still leaves 140 million." This shows that within the span of sixteen years, only seven percent of the worlds population has been removed from being categorized as living in extreme hunger and poverty.  Although this is a positive statistic and there is obviously a valiant effort being put forth in implementing the first MDG, this also shows how change on a global scale is slow process. 

Resources are a compounding variable with the second and the sixth Millennium Developmental Goals. These being to achieve universal primary education and to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. These two MDG's require a massive amount of financial support. Education is an expensive amenity to maintain and without a stable legislature to disperse the appropriate finances to education in a certain area, it can be nearly impossible. This is also true for combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Funding vaccinations, educational programs, and especially medical support requires not only a huge budget, but a task force behind them to sustain this support. The author writes that, "Newly infected people from HIV/AIDS declined from 3 million (1990) to 2.7 million (2007)." Over the course of seventeen years, there has only been this small of an improvement. Improvement is not to be taken for granted, however, this also supports the idea that major change demands a long time. The United Nations does not have seventeen years, instead they have four. I believe that this is not nearly enough time to implement all eight of the Millennium Developmental Goals by 2015.

Christine Williams mentioned several significant indisputable facts pertaining to the millennium development goals. From her stance, I can understand how she believes implementing these goals have made significant progress in fighting some of our world's most self-inflicting harms. I agree that establishing these eight goals has helped make improvements in our world, mostly because leaders of the United Nations finally accepted the notion that there were some issues that needed to be improved upon and took action to tackle these goals. With this being said, I think this indicates just how important it is to have strong networks lead by effective leaders.

In her blog, Christine wrote, "The role of the global community organizations in realization of these goals is extremely important." Yes, I agree with her; however, I think the importance of the local level needs to be strongly emphasized. Dr. Josh Gonzales (2007) mentioned in his lecture the term, "Globcalization, which ties together globalization and localization." Therefore, whatever happens at the local level of the community can have a major impact on what happens at the global level. If the United Nations hopes to see changes in the world, it has to start with local leaders emphasizing important issues going on in the world with their local citizens. To be honest, I did not know what the eight millennium development goals were until last week. There are two theories that I can come up with that might indicate my lack of knowledge on such an important issue. First of all, I think it could be due to a lack of communication at the level of the local government. I have never seen any type of advertisements or promotions at the local level informing the community about these eight goals our world is trying to reach by the year 2015. In my opinion, if politicians can spend all this money for commercials, signs, and other forms of advertisement for elections, I think communities should be able to afford some sort of advertisement for these goals. There also seems to be lack of communication between local leaders and the community. It seems like too many times leaders inform the public about issues, but do not relate it in a way people of the community understand it. I am not saying that community leaders need to "dumb down" information in order for us to understand, but part of being an effective leader is finding a way to reach the community in a way that people understand him/her. Secondly, I am sometimes under the impression that many people do not keep up with current events, because the news seems to report the negative side of stories and people are frustrated with hearing about everything wrong in the world today. When I first went on the website to look at the UN Millennium Development Goals and read about each goal, I was overwhelmed with how far we still had to go to accomplish these goals. But, when I went back to read about what the United Nations has accomplished, I realized just how much of an improvement they have made. Just to name a few of the successes as listed on the United Nations Department of Public Information (2010):

• The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing regions dropped from 46 percent to 27 percent - on track to meet the target globally.
• Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 89 percent in 2008, up from 83 percent in 2000.
• The number of children in developing countries who died before they reached the age of five dropped from 100 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2008.
• Access to HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries increased ten-fold over a span of just five years.

The successes seem to get lost in all the information about what still has to be accomplished, yet these are major victories not only for the people who are no longer suffering, but also for the United Nations and all the people who have been involved in making significant strides in the accomplishment of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The next vital step would be to look at these eight goals at a global level. According to Dr. Gonzales (2007), "We are at a point in human history where we have to think about our infrastructure that supports things - not only the physical and technological, but also the spiritual and bonds of the community that would allow us to behave in a friendly way towards each other in case of emergency and to find ways of adapting to all those things." We are living in times of crises. Not just economic crises, but humanitarian crises as well. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals supports this. We are living in a time where we need to combat hunger and poverty, establish universal education, promote gender equality, improve child and maternal health, discover treatments for HIV/AIDS, assure environmental stability, and develop global partnerships. Christine had mentioned some ways that could help achieve these goals, one of which grabbed my attention: children need to focus on school rather than having to go to work. This should be common sense - children go to school so that they can earn a degree and receive better paying jobs. However, due to lack of finances in developing countries, many children are forced to quit school and start working in order to help financially support themselves and their family. Accomplishing this is proving to be a difficult task. How can families make enough money to support themselves while having children stay in school in order to receive an education? This is where our leaders and networks need to come together to help solve such a problem. Once we form stronger networks, we will be able to collaborate better, more efficient ideas on what we all can do to make sure these goals are achieved within a reasonable time span. They might not all be achieved by 2015, but with strong networks and intelligent, creative leaders, we will be able to conquer these goals within another 10-20 years.

Mentioning her role in the community and what she could do to help achieve these goals was inspiring. To me, it was as if she indicated that she is only one person but she can still make a difference. Not only can people volunteer to help out with certain organizations, but they can also participate in local food drives and fundraisers that are sponsored by organizations that are with the United Nations, such as UNICEF and WHO. Even simply spreading the word to a couple people about these global concerns and what can be done can have an impact, because not only are you involving other people, but they will most likely spread the word to more people which can have an even larger impact. Providing this information not only made me realize how easy it is to get involved, but it also showed just how much one person can help out. As Christine indicated, United Nations will donate $1 to families in New Orleans for every person who signs up. This is such a simple action that can have an everlasting impact on people. Sometimes it is as simple as thinking locally in order to help globally.

References:

C Williams.  MDG 8 global partnerships for development [Web log comment].  Retrieved from http://ucpsarnet.iglooprojects.org/WILL

Gonzales, J.  2007 Summer Institute on Community [iTunes]. 

United Nations Department of Public Information.  (September 2010).  We can end poverty 2015: Millennium development goals.  Retrieved from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

I felt with Christine Williams' comment on the MDGs, you could really feel her passion about this plan to make a world a better place.  She stated that viewing the information on the Millennium Development Goals and becoming aware of what it is all about was "very inspiring and touching, urging me to want to help others and participate in the UN Millennium Development Goals."  I was the same way after viewing the information about this good cause, it made me want to take action and do the things that I can in order to create a better world for us now and the next generations to come. 

In my opinion, I have tried to be aware of what is happening in the other parts of the world.  I realize that even though I live in a developed country whose populates have the privileges of equality, education, freedom of speech ex., but other countries do not have these same rights for their citizens.  Most countries don't even have clean water or proper sanitary systems.  However, researching into the MDGs and seeing cold facts has opened my eyes even more and made me want to spread the word to others and do what I can to help us reach our goals.  After viewing the information, it gave me a drive to actually do something so I posted a clip onto my facebook of the Millenium Development Goals in hopes that my friends will watch it and want to help as well.  I feel that others could have the same experience if they were made aware of the MDGs. 

Like the check list said to do, part of reaching the goal of 2015 is the spreading of the word to family, friends, coworkers, schoolmates.  The tool of information has the power to spark a flame in someone, which leads them into action.  Once people view the information and are aware, in more depth, of what is going on, then I feel they will become passionate about the cause like Christine and I and all the members of UCP-SARnet.  I feel it will benefit the people who do not know what is going on in other countries because if people do not know, then how can they help?

I feel if people volunteered or walked a mile in another persons shoe's then it will help the movement.  My friend, who moved to Arizona from Chicago, had never seen people living in poverty but when she came to Mexico with me on a trip she was submersed into a culture that was less fortunate.  We volunteered in the rural parts of town, passing out food and clothes to the families, where she was able to see first hand the effects of poverty.  Although she had heard about people who only live off a couple dollars a day and who have a shelter that is poorly made without running water, actually seeing it was shocking and eye opening to her and made her want to volunteer more. 

Like information, passion has the power to create success.  When someone has a passion there is no stopping them until the goal is reached.  Multiply this by millions of people and there is enough individuals who want the world to be a better place to reach the goals.  

However, even with the spreading of word and passion doesn't mean we will reach the goals.  I agree with Christine on the fact that some goals are reachable by 2015 while others will need more time.  Hopefully the actions of us wanting to make the world a better place will continue with our future generations.  If they see their parents, grandparents, friends and other family members caring about the people and environment of the world then there will be a higher chance that they become involved too. I have faith that we as human beings can come together and achieve greatness by helping out each other and by reaching our goals to make the world a better place.

Christine Williams did an incredible job of getting her point across. I think she made if very clear that these are very ambitious goals and maybe not all of them will be achieved by 2015, but any change towards these goals are a huge accomplishment. She may be a little optimistic about these goals but that is not a negative attribute. I agree with her when she felt inspired by these websites and the videos. The Millennium goal videos are especially inspiring because you are seeing first hand the suffering that you can not actually imagine. Most of us could never imagine living off one dollar a day or even going without food for a day. We can't imagine not having the privilege of going to school instead we complain about having to wake up early to catch the bus or even skip class because we don't feel like attending that day. These videos are inspiring and should be shown to everyone to make them think a little about their lives and what's going on around the globe. Williams breaks down the Millennium goals and explains what is necessary for accomplishing each of these goals.

For the most part these goals are somewhat similar. If you help accomplish one of them it will support the others. Throughout the break down of these goals Williams trend seems to be providing. Providing communities with what they need to work towards these global goals. This has always been an important point in helping people. That you can not just do it for them, that you need to provide them with the tools to change their lives. This is how these goals will be accomplished, with opportunities for everyone. Williams makes a good point about it being a struggle right now with the economic crisis. What she forgets to mention is that there is a war. This huge burden holding us back from accomplishing these goals. I made this point in our last forum but I truly believe without peace and a oneness throughout the world these goals are not fully possible. I also could not agree more with Williams point about leaders having to take a stand for what is right and wrong. Williams says "Leaders should put themselves in the shoes of those in poverty and realize that this needs to change." We need to make sure we are holding certain people accountable for their actions. This is a global fight for the greater good and that means every type of leader needs to be standing strong and needs to involve their communities so that action will be taken. Everyone needs to come together and needs to have a positive attitude to make these changes.

Optimism is the key to achieving the UN Millennium goals. The United Nations might have high hopes for the world, they might be expecting more from communities around the world that aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good, but they are challenging everyone. They are challenging everyone to forget about themselves for a moment and think about the less fortunate. We should all be held responsible to take action and to change our communities. Christine Williams seems to have the right mind set to make a difference. She talks about the different organizations she believes would be a benefit to donate to. She also makes a very important point about trying to get your groups involved in this fight. If you are involved in a church group or even making it a point to try to get your community involved. People say a lot of things and intend to do a lot of things but only you can hold yourself accountable for your actions.

This forum was written just last year. I'm curious to hear Williams opinion even just after a year about how much the UN Millennium goals have been accomplished. I wonder if she is still optimistic and enthusiastic about these goals and her own community. I'm curious if she is keeping up with the organizations she has mentioned and still fighting to be involved in bettering her community. We all need to be this optimistic and enthusiastic and just forget about all the differences we have throughout the globe. We need to make sure we are coming together to fight for our species as a whole and I think we need more optimism like Christine Williams shows in her forum.

1. Discuss various implications of diversification of communities.

Diversification of communities can have positive and negative effects. It can produce diversity in a gene pool that might be plagued with some genetic diseases and provide acceptance of other cultures. However, it also means we may force cultural changes that may not have been needed to be "improved". Many times have we attempted to make improvements on things that might have been optimized with their own technological advances provided can cause leaps and most cultures are not able to survive those leaps that are pushed upon them.

2. Discuss challenges and opportunities of what is offered by internet.

Challenges of the internet can be miscommunication. We can provide the information to several people and have it be interpreted several different ways and maybe not the way as intended. We can also find a lot of dis-information or fault information. Which if you are not aware on how to look or where to look when starting out using the internet. But the opportunities mostly outweigh the challenges. Having the ability to easily connect several communities together, you abolish limitations of knowledge based upon locale. You can also access great minds in certain disciplines that might be completely out of touch normally that could lend the best information and technological advances based upon your needs specifically. This is something that couldn't be really accomplished before. Or be accomplished easily.

3. Explain what impact events and problems on a global level may have on local communities. 

We are a global community. With multinational corporations, we see how interconnected we are through the global market place. And due to this, we have become more intertwined than ever. It is no longer a world tied by a certain stock market, it is a world tied to international business ventures and import export markets. Probably the easiest impact we can see is what we buy on a daily basis and where it comes from. We don't just get produce that was grown locally anymore, or whatever the local farms had that day is what we had access to, we can have access to fruits and vegetables that are unseasonal because we can get them shipping hundreds if not thousands of miles. From Mexico and South America and even from Europe and Asia; the number one manufacturing country at this time is China. So it is not as simple as what store you buy something in anymore, but where they get their supplies from. We are globally connected. And jobs are now in a global market place setting as well. Manufacturing, especially textiles, must compete with workers from various countries with dis-similar economic states.

4. Discuss how local communities may contribute to solutions of global issues. 

It always comes down to your personal choices in life. And it always will. If you don't believe your food should be shipped across the world to get to you and leave that huge carbon footprint so you can have unseasonal fruits and vegetables, you can make choices in your life to impact those markets. Where you shop, how you shop, and knowing who you are getting your purchases from are all apart of making a difference. If you do not want to support child labor in Polynesian counties, read the labels before you buy. Education is the best forum for changing the world.

5. Explain the role of global dialog in attempts to resolve global issues. 

Which leads into the role of global dialog to resolve issues like poverty, and education for children and women's rights and other major goals of the MDGs. If light is shed upon an issue, but nobody is looking the right direction, it is as if it never happened. But when you have a global community which demands information about conditions, about the status of local economies around the world, you cannot sit by and let those things happen. In the Leadership forum video, one of the students mentioned how surprised she was when she found out how few students actually knew about the MDGs. And I must say, before this class I was one of those people she was referring to. I did not know about the goals or what was being done in the world to accomplish them. But after talking to some of my friends who have different world perspectives than me, I was able to acquire massive amounts of knowledge regarding who these goals affect, why they are being implemented how and to what end.  I was able to talk about the pros and cons of each and with different people and different experiences with the goals, I received different answers. That diversification, allowed me to really make up my own mind about the goals and how I could affect my own level of change.

6. Explain the mission, organization and activities of UCP-SARnet. 

And one way I can affect change is by participation in groups like UCP-SARnet, which lets people dialog about changes they are working on, allows you get speak to people and get involved in their projects or even get people interested in your own, and this program is to help impact change through education and community organization. Which can be something different for every person who is involved. We all have our own goals and our own experiences to bring to the table, but this does help us weed out those that can be accomplished in a greater picture than just our own little mission we might have had to start with.

It makes me feel like I am on the right track after reading this response from Christine. Christine and seem to agree on most of the issues and arguments brought up by the 2015 dead line to meet the goals set forth by the United Nations. However, recent global news must be pointed out and I for one am concerned more or less about the real truth behind why these goals are not being met.  Both Christine and the United Nations report that was released in 2008 and 2009 blame the collapse of local and global economies as being part of the main reason why these goals were not going to be met by the guide line in 2015. Although Christine's repose is dated it does not negate that fact that the United Nations and the people on which serve it has asked and is pushing for a pay increase. The rest of the world is fighting for food, water, education, female equality, and a safe place to go to sleep at night. If money and the world wide economy falling part are playing such a huge role in the failure to meet the goals there were set; how can they even think that asking for a salary increase is anything but ridiculous at the moment? It begs the question as to what really is going on to why these goals are not being met because money appears to be a little factor if they are asking to be paid more instead of using that money towards the projects that have already been in place for the last decade.  I feel that the economy falling apart has becoming a default answer or scapegoat to almost any question that asks why has anything dealing with any form of government has not been completed.

With all that being said I would like to say that I feel (as I stated in my last post) that we have made a noticeable and impactful progress in meeting these goals. Yes, we will not meet them to what the original plan has stated but I do not feel it's fair to call this mission a total failure.  Awareness is still growing and the messages are becoming louder and louder as more countries and people catch up with the times and communication is allowed to reach everyone in a moment via the internet and other forms of digital information.  Communication and or education are the keys for the success of this protect as a whole. As other members have pointed out these goals depend on each other if one fails they all fail. I was very impressed by the number of mosquito nets that were deployed from 2004 to 2007 almost tripled in just a 3 year time period. The numbers of HIV/AIDS cases were reduced from 3 to 2.7 million and overall enrollment into education has grown almost out of control. This data proves that we are going out and doing what the United Nations set out to do. 

We are making progress towards these goals. All we have to do is keep on fighting and pushing forward. If there is anything to be learned from this project it's that process will not happen overnight. Just because we did not meet the goal of 2015 should not mean that we give up and stop trying. All it should mean is that we try harder to complete the goal as soon as possible. 

            In general, I have many of the same outlooks on the MGD's current status, as does the author of the article.  In order to make any progress towards any complex issue, there must be goals set to work toward.  The author agrees that regardless to completing the goals, the attempt is enough to begin to relieve these specific matters.  A standard has been set by the UN to aid these people, any effort to diminish poverty, increase education opportunities, and combat simple but deadly health issues is the first step.  Without these efforts and goals, the state of the world would be getting worse by the day, nothing will be fixed if nothing is done.  Sorting through all of the statistics, there is not one area that has not improved in some way or form.  Knowing that these issues are interconnected and play a role as a whole to promote welfare, any positive aspects of the MGD aid in the efforts. 

            We cannot bring a country out of poverty without laying the groundwork of education and immunization for the children who become the future.  Another example would be implementing the use of condoms across the globe to reduce sexually transmitted infections and aid women in reducing unplanned pregnancies.  As for the issue over hunger, the statistic of more food and oil being on the planet now and not having an effect on the hunger rate sickens me.  The cycle of making the poor much poor is continuing in this area, which is the basis for life as a human being.  Although the 5 percent decrease in child hunger, there are still millions of mouths not being fed a sufficient amount of nutrients. 

Even though I do not agree that all of these goals will be met by 2015, I understand the importance of striving on a daily basis for a better world for all to live in.  Until reading this article, I never thought of the effect of our current economic state on these goals.  When we as a country tend to struggle, the instinct to help others decreases with the money in our wallets as we continue to lead privileged lives. As she had mentioned, efforts can be as easy as making a donation to a website, just a few clicks away.  The article made me realize all of the different ways anyone can get involved in making our world a better place over all.

            The author also touches on what needs to be done on a global level by leaders and figures across the world. "Globalization may have some positive effects for some sectors, such as improved health and material standards of living, new meaning and purposes for life and freedom from oppressive traditions, but these changes, combined with negative effects, can be very disruptive if individuals are not supported by community structures that help them negotiate change," (p. 321-322).  She uses this quote to touch on a subject I feel like is one of the biggest obstacles to the success of global economic growth with other nations.  Opportunities of trade between other nations can boost all economies and bring whole groups of people out of poverty.  Government officials must attempt to reconcile past differences and allow economic progression to occur in poorer nations. Countries need to overcome disputes such as war in a healthy manner; those regions are hit the hardest by the MGD's goals. 

Christine, the author of this article, made an excellent summary of the UN Millennium Goals, as well as discussed what has been done, and what can be done to see these goals accomplished. Seeing the statistics stated for each goal is both inspiring and daunting to think about. There has been much progress made, such as newly infected HIV/AIDS patients declining from 3% to 2.7% between 1990 and 2007. Also, undernourished children under 5 have decreased from 33% to 26% between 1990 and 2006. But when I look at these statistics a few things come to mind. These statistics are over a period of time that includes before the UN Development Goals were put into place. This leads me to believe two things, that the items the goals were looking to improve upon were already improving before the goals were developed, and also that the actual statistics are lower than they appear to be.

Also, we can see through these statistics how much time it took to see a 7% change, or a .3% change; it took 16 years. This leads me to believe that in the short 4 years we have until 2015, there will not be a completion of the Development Goals. This isn't to be pessimistic, but realistic. If we continue on the same path as now, then one could predict that rate of goal completion. Although, I do realize we have to take into account advances in science, medicine, and technology that have and will greatly increase the rate at which these goals can be met. Also, as time goes by more and more people will become aware of the goals and how they can contribute to the completion of these goals. Social networks in particular, I believe, will be a major contributor to the spread of this information. But, improvement is improvement nonetheless, and as Christine stated, "they (the goals) have still helped so many people along the way." Even if the goals are not completed in the time specified, 2015, the improvement made is a major success. It helped change lives, improve lives, and save lives.     

The article by Christine Williams perfectly sums up my views and opinions about the UN Millennium Development Goals. Every goal that has been set by the UN has progressed towards the end result. While we may not achieve these goals by 2015, the progress that has been made up until now and the inevitable progress that will be made over the next couple of years, one could consider them a success. Additionally, as Christine stated, "Even if they don't reach all the goals they have  still helped so many people along the way and without the goals in the first place, things would probably be way worse compared to 5-10 years ago instead of improving." This is a thought I had when reading all of the information about where each of the MDG's are. We may not succeed at reaching these goals at the desired level, but the amount of progress that has been made for each goal should not be discredited.

Furthermore, Christine brings up an excellent point in addressing that "communities need to come together from around the world and hear productive ways that have helped them accomplish these goals so that they can collect ideas from each other or combine ideas to have more productive results." I completely agree with this. While the goals the UN has set have brought nations, countries, and communities together from around the world and an immense amount of progress has been made on the MDG's, I think the only way these goals will be ultimately reached is if more and more people and communities are involved and understand what has to be done and how important it is. I think communities are the fundamental foundation of each of these goals and it is very important that even when one community has achieved a goal, they are encouraged to give other communities the knowledge and experience they have. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one," and I find this to be especially true when trying to achieve multiple goals on a global scale.

Finally, I feel that it is going to take all of us embracing these goals to push them to succeed and even exceed the goals set by the UN. All it takes is one individual in one community somewhere to be inspired by these goals to become a leader had help make the final push towards the goals. We may not see the direct effects of achieving any of these goals, but I feel because some of us are in a position to not know what it is like to be in poverty, to not have a chance at education, be weary of deadly illnesses, etc., we have a responsibility to do whatever it is we can afford to do to help those that do have to experience these things. Be in volunteering, donating, or just talking about these issues and the UN Millennium Goals to people around you, it doesn't matter. To reach these goals, its going to take one step at a time. And in order for those steps to be taken, we all must do are part to stay involved, to let others know about the MDG's, and to encourage those around us to do what they can to help.

The author of the post does a good job in explaining and summarizing the eight UN Millennium goals; she also gives some suggestions towards the end of the post on what individuals can do to be part of the UN Millennium goals. I agree to some extent with authors view and have slightly different views at the same time. I still think that with all that is going on in the world, the year 2015 for reaching the UN goals is not a realistic date. In 2000 when the leaders of the world agreed on the goals and set the date for 2015, it might have seemed enough time to achieve these goals. According to UN's 2009 development report, there has been some progress but it has been really slow. So if reaching all the goals was not possible in 2009, it can't be possible two years with current wars in different parts of the world and the dysfunctional economy.

The first goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The author explains how rising prices of goods have pushed more people into poverty. And I totally agree with that explanation. However I think if the leaders of the world were more invested, we should have at least reached this goal. There is so much food waste in this country alone that can feed hungry people at least in the United States. The following quote is part of the results of a study done in University of Arizona in Tucson: "forty to fifty percent of all food ready to harvest never gets eaten…on average, households waste 14 percent of their food purchases. Fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened…an average family of four tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products". These figures are just shocking, that is why I believe with raising awareness, attitude change, right policies and action plans at minimum eradicating hunger can be achieved in the near future.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Half-of-US-food-goes-to-waste

The second goal is to achieve the universal primary education. I agree with the authors point in this regard. I also believe that with knowledge comes power, and that is why I believe if the second goal is achieved we are going to see improve in the areas of gender equality, child mortality, maternal health and combating disease. As far as progress in the area of primary education, the 2009 UN report indicates that the number of children out of school is dropping but with such slow rate of growth that won't be reached by 2015. In 2009 there were 72 million children out of school, and half of those have never been to any classroom. In 2004, UNESCO estimated that 3.8 million teachers will be needed in Sub-Saharan Africa alone to reach the 2015 goal of primary education.

As far as the other goals, as the author of this post has also mentioned and according to 2009 UN report much more effort is needed in the areas of employment, hunger, sanitation, maternal mortality, living conditions and the climate change. I think the UN Millennium goals should be goals of leaders of countries until we reach them. It is apparent by looking at the 2009 report that we won't meet most of these goals by 2015, but that doesn't mean that we should forget about them or stop working towards achieving these goals. After all as the author of this post said, so many people have been helped along the way that without these goals it could have been worse.

I agree with the author that each one of us should contribute as much as we can to accelerate achieving these goals. This might be by donating to the NGO's that are already established; but let's not forget some organizations take advantage and don't use all the money they have raised the way they have promised; therefore doing a little research before donating money should be taken in to account. Another thing that needs to be done is teaching children about these goals and raising them as responsible and caring individuals as possible so that they don't grow up indifferent to other people's need. To make a change a lot of time the public attitude towards the issue needs to be changed; when people are united and have common goals the change is possible. It is hard to set a date for change since the future is not quite predictable, and things happen in the way that can slow progress. The due dates are good means of measuring progress towards a set goal; so we shouldn't let that be a discouraging factor.

            She goes on to say aid is rising but only in five countries have they reached the targeted level.  The others are unable to make the goal level due to high tariffs and if they do not see a reduction they might not make their goals.  The good to have come from this in the public sector is the decreased pricing of drugs.  I believe the main goal should be to help people get health care above all else.  If we do not have parents remaining alive to raise their children those children will move into the same revolving door their parents stepped into.  The Internet has become an integral part of the MGD campaign.  The Internet connects all the people in the world to one source.  This source in turn is informing more people about the desperation of the situation, even though the World Wide Web is still closed in some countries preventing access and awareness.

"The role of the global community organizations in realization of these goals is extremely important. Different communities need to come together from around the world and hear productive ways that have helped them accomplish these goals so that they can collect ideas from each other or combine ideas to have more productive results" (Williams).  I could not have said it better myself.   

I agree with the majority of the points made by the author in this article. She did a great job of putting forth her opinions and backing them up with facts. She also concisely outlines a few necessary steps for each MDG that needs to occur for that goal to be achieved. She states that "I believe that some of the goals will be achieved by 2015 and some goals will need to be put to a further date" I expressed this same opinion in my first discussion post and reading others' posts I saw that this was the general consensus as well.

Christine states that eradicating extreme hunger and poverty is a "distant possibility." I completely agree with this point. I think that this is going to be arguably the most difficult of the Millenium Development Goals to achieve. Eliminating poverty requires the most collective group of people to come together to resolve this issue. Attacking poverty is going to take the most widespread awareness, action, funding, and incorporates everyone on the social ladder. 

Christine did a good job of effectively showing that her opinion that a some of the MDG's can be achieved by 2015 is based on facts that show that there has been progression within them. For example, when talking about the second goal of achieving primary education, she states that "Enrollment ratios have successfully increased 90% in 2006." This supports her opinion that even though the problem of limited education is stil evident, it should be made aware that there is significant progress being made. Another good example of this is when she explains the eigth MDG: to develop a global partnership for development. She states that even though there are a few aspects that still need to be addressed like access to the internet to bolster awareness and communication in certain sectors, there are issues that are making significant  strides like how developing countries are gaining better access to resources necessary to sustain better living conditions.

I strongly agree with the notion that whether or not these goals are achieved by 2015, the most important thing to realize is that without the implementation of these goals, these global issues that our negatively affecting our world would not be progressing like they have been. The facts are that these goals are in place and awareness is being spread, and action is being taken. This is very significant to realize. Whether it takes four more years or 20, as long as we as a people are moving forward and not remaining stagnant or allowing these problems to get worse, we have succeeded.

This article was very insightful and had numerous thoughs which I believed in. Last week as I was reading though the statistics for the UN Millennium goal their was alot of beneficial and informative information. I agree with the writer on majority of her ideas but I personally do not believe any of the goals will be accompished by 2015. After reading 'The Millennium Development Goals Report for 2011', there has been signficant improvements, but is it enough? Serveral sections of the goals are within reach; poverty, water supplies, Malaria disease control, etc, but the overall entirety of each goal does not look promising. As the writer stated, poverty is slowly decreasing, but their are still approximately 10 contries who suffer from extreme undernourishment (35%+) and numerous more who suffer from high undernourishment (25%-34%). Education has increased very slowly over the past several years, quoted from the goals report, " In more recent years, progress has actually slowed, with an increase of just 2 percentage points between 2004 and 2009, dimming prospects for reaching the MDG target of universal primary education by 2015" (Pg.16). As the writer stated, there has been an increase in jobs for women and also an increase in political power for women, however both primary and secondary education for women has increased slowly from 1999-2009. 1/10 regions in the primary education chart have reached their goal and 3/10 regions in the secondary education have obtained their target goal. In general child mortality seems to be underfunded, mainly because the lack of sufficient results. The regions that required the most help, the developing regions and Sub-Saharan African obtained the lowest results. Similarly is the issue of maternal health and the lack of progress. Numerous regions have experienced dismal results. For disease control, I do agree with the writers comments. They should spread awareness about AIDS and its process of transmission. Environmental stability is heading in the wrong direction on several issues. Africa, Oceania, and South America still have a net loss in forested areas. Also CO2 emissions is continuously increasing and has increased from 21.8% to 30.1% worldwide. The writer brought up an important idea, which was the effect the worldwide economic downturn had on these goals. Granted economic instability effected a few years, mainly 2008-2009 (according to The Millennium Development Goals Report of 2011), but if we disregard those 2 years, progress on numerous goals still seems slow, why is that? Lack of funding, commitment, research? I totally agree with the writer when she talks about how these goals helped alot of people. In addition to her thoughs, I feel that even if these targets are not reached by 2015, the world has a stable foundation to grow and to continuously improve the living conditions of people worldwide. Lastly her idea about community organization and their roles to initiate and achieve these targets is very important. Community organizations not just within the boundaries of a country but worldwide can communicate with eachother and provide helpful advice and information. They can communicate with eachother on what works and what does not. Overall this writer's article was very informative, it put the entire UN MDG into prospective and educated those who are not familiar with the subject.

The author of this primary post talks about all of the long strides we have taken in recent years, but also highlights how far we have to go. He says that the rate of undernourished children has decreased; that enrollment in schools has increased, etc. However, the UN Millenium Goals are attempting to solve these and more problems universally. There are a lot of facts and figures in this post, but little resolution. I now know that 80% of children in 2006 received a measles vaccination.. but what are we going to do to get them protected against malaria, HIV, etc.

The author makes a good point when he says that we will most likely not reach these goals in totality. However, by having them in place, we are pushed to do better and will improve the lives of so many along the way. We would not be striving to do better without these goals. The organizations that are taking part of these goals should make It their priority to educate people about them and what they can do to help. I think we can say we will have truly succeeded when the majority of people are inclined to take part rather than just the UN. When we donate a dollar to ones of these causes, plant a tree, or send aid to a nation in need, we are helping to nudge ourselves closer to achieving these goals. I like the way Osee closes this post. He tells us what we can do to help. He makes us feel responsible. By putting some of the burden on our shoulders and making us aware of these global issues, we feel more compelled to do our part. Step One: spread the knowledge.

The article written by Christine last year really helped to alter my perspective on the MDG's achievability. While I agree with her that not all of the goals will be reached by 2015, her passion and optimism throughout the article was contagious. After reading Christine's thoughts I felt more motivated to go out into the world and make a difference.  Because of Christine, I felt more passionate about the specific problems we are facing after reading her description break downs of each MDG, and I felt more optimistic about that effect that just one person can have on a community.

All of the information provided about MDG stats and progress was very informative although some counter hegemonic ideals were present as well. Eradicating poverty and extreme hunger is a goal that is very much intertwined with the remaining MDG's and this fact is illustrated by Christine. For example, achieving full employment and making it possible for children to school rather than work all day affects the long and short term worldwide poverty and hunger percentages. Christine also pointed out that progress of each goal really depends on the country. It's important to remember that the MDG's are not a race. If one country falls behind than we all do in a sense.

The third goal, which is to promote gender equality and empower women, was also elaborated by Christine. Surprisingly, this goal is incredibly interrelated to several other MDG's. As Christine mentioned, one of the major components of this goal is keeping girls in school. This is not so much an issue in the United States, but many impoverished countries have a very high dropout rate and a high absence rate as well. Interestingly, the privatization of water has a major effect on a girl's ability to go to school in developing nations. In an effort to address the growing fresh water shortage, international financial institutions such as The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have encouraged countries to privatize their water sources.  This has led to lack of accessibility, massive price increase, and poor water quality.  This affects aspects of women equality, maternal health, the spread of disease and environment sustainability. As I mentioned in a previous Women and Gender Studies course paper, "the rising costs, inaccessibility, and worsening quality of water associated with its privatization directly contributes to lower educational standards, poorer health and nutrition, as well as increased labor for women (Ware, 2009)."

Another obstacle of promoting gender equality and empowering women is overcoming the feminization of the labor force.  Much of the work that women do is a part of the "informal sector". Not only are these women dominated services underappreciated and paid drastically less than the male-dominated services, but the "informal" and "flexible" working situations often prevent women from the benefits they are entitled to.

I appreciated Christine's thoughts on the importance of global community organizations to execute and achieve MDG's. I was a little confused on her statement that we need to eliminate the haves and have nots which are preventing countries from further developing, but I suppose that what she really meant was that we need to decrease the gap between the two (the haves more and the haves less, perhaps). Eliminating both would imply a form of socialism. While this counter hegemony might be helpful in reaching the goals it would also create a whole new set of problems.

Like Christine, I'm beginning to develop my role in the community and support different organizations. Some of her ideas for activism were pretty exciting and got me motivated to get involved as well. Reflecting on the concept of ethos, pathos, and logos (three components of an effective and persuasive essay), Christine nicely implements each category. After reading her thoughts on MDG's and global community organization I'm more prepared and motivated to make a difference.

After reading Christine's article, my eyes have been opened to a world of information and possibilities to push us closer to finishing the goals. Progress was more apparent than I had imagined with the numbers she provided, however there is still much work to be done. She touched on many specific issues in each of the goals and summarized effective solutions and ideas that I had not considered. Discussion of these issues made me realize how much detail these goals are trying to complete in such little time. Such problems are being worked on, but there is a load to each one that they should be focused on for completion instead of scanned through. Also, each solution seems to chain with others, showing how interwoven this project is and the strength of people working together.

I agree that the goals look unable to be fully accomplished by 2015 but she is most absolutely right when she says, "they have still helped so many people along the way." Each bit has helped and improved it from what it once was. The only direction they are heading is up, even if they do not fully accomplish all goals by the set time. The view does not have to be so negative because the truth is that it is truly amazing what success has been made, and how many children, families, and communities have been aided.

It all begins with an individual. I had not known much about this prior to this assignment and I wonder why. Are others, just as me, to be uninformed and if so, how many? The spread of knowledge is the first major step, it is the underlying ground of which we build upon. Awareness in community organizations, discussion of how important these goals are, and what we are going to do, are another important steps. Leaders need to know the seriousness of the matter and that it is the duty of the people to help those truly in need.

Christine's passion is inspiring; if we worked together with as much a drive as her, we would be closer to the finish line. There is a grand amount each person can do to fulfill their role with the UN Millennium Goals that could make all the difference no matter how significant it appears. 

This article was very enjoyable and was very surprised how similar her opinon was to mine.  I feel like the author touched on a lot of points that most people can agree on and most people feel the same way.  Personally, it doesn't make sense that these monumental goals will be met by 2015.  I am not saying it is impossible, it just seems irrational to think that their is a chance these goals may be met.  Like I said in my previous post I believe that these goals are meant to stretch over a much longer time period.  But setting these goals will help people so much throughout the next 5-10 years as the article says.  Ultimately, it is good to say that these goals must be set as objectives to help people in general and not necessarily a race to beat the clock.  So many people are benefitting from the MDG8.

Originally, I was surprised to see that Gender Equality was on the MDG8.  I guess living in the United States can blind someone to the issues regarding sex in other countries.  After reading this article I feel much more informed about the topic and hope this issue can get resolved.

In the article it was mentioned/questioned what will "We" do!  I thought it was awesome that it was brought up because even though not everyone is getting involved there is definitely a lot of activity within the communities to help a lot of the goals out.  Every year in my community back home we collect canned food/ clothing from all of the neighbors.  We throw a huge party to celebrate and we collect thousands of pounds each year to donate to people.  It is the little things like that that will help MDG8 and its' progress.  

Like i said before in my previous post, I think it is ridiculous how those with so much can't spare the extra they will never use to help those who are going to die or suffer from malnutriton or whatever it may be.  It is going to take the planet to achieve the goals not just the U.N.

I think Christine makes some very valid points in her article. The goals set forth by the UN are goals that can be met, although I fear the deadline of 2015 is a bit lofty. We can make immediate changes to the health and well being of people who are in desperate need of it be setting up clinics and dispensing medicine to the sick and education on how to be well. Mothers can receive education on child health and breast feeding, for example. 

Christine clearly outlines what needs to be done in order to meet these goals, however, I do think that there are a few foundational structures that need to be changed on a macro level in order for the goals to begin gaining greater momentum. Children work young because wages are low in many of these developing nations, and not because the parents of the children desire to send them to work instead of school. Their earning potential can help the family survive in poverty-stricken areas. It seems then raising wages should be in order, however this is easier said than done. By raising wages, the cost of goods will increase, not only to the people in the immediate areas, but also to consumers all over the world. A modern example of trying to change this discrepancy is "fair-trade" which is often associated with coffee farmers. The brief premise of fair-trade is to pay the farmers a more liveable wage to help ensure that they are not living in poverty, but the cost is passed down to the consumers. This does not help when the cost of food and goods all over the world are already increasing.  In order to keep children in school, however, parents must be able to earn a liveable wage in which they can provide for their families without the help of their young children. It seems only reasonable then that wages must increase to workers, even if that cost is deflected to consumers. We must be willing to pay a bit more for goods because it is designed to help people living below the poverty line. As a united world, we must understand that not all countries are as rich in natural resources as others, and therefore will continue to battle with poverty as their GDP is not as high. If parents are able to keep their children in school longer, children are able to receive better educations, which will give open up many possible opportunities for them, and therefore increase their future earning potential which could potentially bring more income presently impoverished areas. 

Another major foundation that needs to be changed in order to meet some of the MDGs is culture. A lot of the goals reflect a cultural thinking, such as gender equity. Culture is a much more delicate issue to approach, as this shapes a person's way of life and much of their thinking on how the world should work. I do not think gender equity can be achieved without a shift in cultural attitudes, and the only way to do this is through education. Women are an important resource in the community, deserving of fair wages if only to help keep their children from having to work alongside the fathers. Christine also brings up contraception. In many cultures, this would be taboo. Again, through education we can help to change attitudes towards this and ensure that women have the right to reproductive health, which could also help with infant and child mortality, as the less children to feed, the more a woman can focus on helping the few she already has. 
These issues, though, reflect cultures often rooted in patriarchal family tradition without the benefit of modern education to help a community come together and survive. Finding a way to help people preserve their identity as a community and also improve living conditions will require different plans, as each community has different views and ways in which they try to make sense of and surive the world.  

I agree with Christine Williams that not all eight millennium goals will be accomplished by 2015, however, some of them will be close and some of them will need a little more time. The author had a lot interesting points about each goal which pointed out what we need to focus on in order to accomplish abolishing hunger and poverty or infant mortality. It does make me sad that goals had to be put in place to eliminate what is wrong with the world and the worst part is that we probably won't even put a decent size dent in them. I have been trying to think about why we are not able to meet these goals by the designated time but I haven't been able to pin point one particular problem.

The author pointed out that there are a lot of organizations we could join or help out in some way that are trying to work on the eight millennium goals. I would think that with the amount of population not in poverty and that can afford to donate money or time we would of already accomplished all eight goals before the targeted date, so why haven't we? What is not being done properly? Is it that most people are not educated about the troubles of the world? Or how easy it is to donate or join a organization such a UNICEF?

Overall, like everyone else, I agree with most of what Christine Williams had to say concerning the Millennium Development Goals and the chance of them being completed by 2015. I enjoyed her comment that said, "It is a lot different to look upon these goals in the beginning of the course compared to right now at the end of the course." I too am looking forward to finding out more information about the progress of these goals as the semester continues. That being said, on a personal side note, I knew nothing about this very necessary set of goals before the beginning of this semester. I for sure realized that other countries were facing some deep issues but did not know that there was an actual "plan of attack" (so to speak) about how to combat these and bring these countries out of their poverty and mortality stricken state.

Although a lot of progress has been made, I believe it is important to take note of and realize that there are some subcategories in which progress is worsening over the past few years and Christine really didn't talk about that in her post. I was looking over the UN website and decided to compare the progress charts from 2008 and 2011. For example, I noticed the following:

            Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Under the subcategory of "Reduce hunger by half"- Southern Asia has been reported as being in "high hunger" status both in 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "no progress or deterioration" has been made in this area.

            Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education

Under the subcategory of "Universal primary schooling"- Central Asia has been reported as having "high enrolment" status in both 2008 and 2011 but form 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "no progress or deterioration" has been made in this area.

            Goal 3 Promote gender equality and empower women

Under the subcategory of "Equal girls' enrolment in primary school" - Oceania has been reported as "almost close to parity" in 2008 and "away from parity" in 2011 and both the 2008 and 2011 reports show that "no progress or deterioration" has been made in this area.

            Goal 4 Reduce child mortality

Under the subcategory of "Reduce mortality of under-five-year-olds by two thirds"- South Eastern Asia has been reported as having "low mortality" status in both 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "progress insufficient to reach the target if prevailing trends persist."

            Goal 5 Improve maternal health

Under the subcategory of "Reduce maternal mortality by three quarters" - Oceania has been reported as having "high mortality" status in both 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "no progress or deterioration" has been made in this area.

            Goal 7 Ensure environmental sustainability

Under the subcategory of "Improve the lives of slum-dwellers"- Oceania has been reported as having "moderate proportion of slum-dwellers" status in both 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "no progress or deterioration" has been made in this area. Also under the same subcategory Latin America & Caribbean has been reported as having "moderate proportion of slum-dwellers" status in both 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "progress insufficient to reach the target if prevailing trends persist."

Under the subcategory of "Halve proportion without sanitation"- Latin America & Caribbean has been reported as having "moderate coverage" status in both 2008 and 2011 but from 2008 to 2011 the status declared that "progress insufficient to reach the target if prevailing trends persist."

The bottom line is, for more progress to be made in accomplishing these goals, more people need to hear about the project! I like how Christine provided information about different organizations linked with the MGD's and ways to get involved in these organizations and to donate. She also mentioned putting a link on her facebook page that would allow her network of friends the opportunity to dive into the project as well. I thought this was a great idea so I too added links onto my facebook page for my network of friends to do the same.

I also thought it was very interesting when Dr. Josh Gonzales presented the term "glocalization", which combines globalization and localization. I feel like this directly relates to what Christine and I have done by providing links to our social network of friends (local) and encouraging them to get involved in the progress and accomplishment of the MGD's (global). I was in another class this last week and we were talking about all of the garbage that makes its way on to our local and national news. Throughout the brief discussion, several thought-numbing examples were given about what has become "news worthy" information. I then turned the conversation to talk about some important issues that don't get as much public awareness; for example the MGD's. There wasn't one person in my class, including the two instructors, who had heard about the MGD's. I find it hard to believe that an organization that has such profound and life altering goals, doesn't have media publicity to assist in the process of achieving these goals. That being said, it is pretty remarkable how much progress has been made in achieving these goals. I can only imagine if this topic were on the forefront of more people's and organization's mind, how much closer we would be to achieving these goals and how many more lives could be saved because of it. 

Christine's post was very informative, clear and concise. I do agree with her that some of the 2015 goals will be reached while others will need to be revised, either with an alternative deadline or an alternative goal. I really enjoyed all of the facts she presented regarding each goal and the way in which each of these goals has improved and what can be done to help keep it in the direction of improvement.

One of the main points in her forum that I intensely agree with is educating women. While education in general is important there is a reason why this goal was initially geared towards women. With education comes knowledge, confidence and the drive to work towards the seemingly impossible. Education doesn't just mean math, writing, history, etc. Education can come in many forms. One of the other points Christine brought up was contraception. How many women are aware that pregnancy is optional through the use of contraceptives? Sure it seems common knowledge for those of us raised in the United States, but would it be as commonly known in other poverty-driven countries? Even with the education now in place to let these women know about the use of contraceptives, how many women and cultures of women still have no idea? I do not know the answer to this question, but the thought is intriguing. And if the knowledge that contraception can be used efficiently do they know or have the resources to use it other than what they've been told by the organizations? In addition, what is thier knowledge on the contracting of AIDS/HIV? Do they know what forms of contraceptives are available for this purpose as well? Education can be as simple as learning how to plant and harvest their own food, to the use of contraceptions to help with mother/child mortality rates to learning how to read and write. Education is not merely a notebook and a pencil.

Before starting this course, I didn't know of all the resources available to help aid in the efforts like those related to the UCP-SARnet. Sure, you can text "hunger" to "2221" and donate $5 from your Verizon bill, but there are tons of avenues available to help aid our community. Furthermore, the term community plays such a complex role in our lives. What is our community? As was pointed out, we are no longer connected through rivers, ravines, etc. we are a spider web of networks and yet we are afraid of our own neighbors. What I have been getting from the course thus far and especially from Christine's post is that everyone is the community and our goals are only as good as the individuals, groups, networks (community) who backs them. With the help and more specifically, the positive attitudes of those involved in the process, any goal can be reached. Maybe the goal won't be reached in the strived for deadline, but the goal itself is achievable through the good will of the community and their actions to get others involved.

I found Christine's article to be very interesting and also felt that she shares a very similar opinion to mine when it comes to the MDGs. As I wrote in my last post, I don't think that all eight of the MDGs will be fully achieved by the 2015 deadline. However, I do feel that at least parts of the goals can be achieved by that date (as the statistics provided in Christine's article seem to imply). If you look, you can find that significant progress has been made in areas of each MDG over the last 10 years. Some specific examples of progress that stuck out to me in the article include the decrease in the number of undernourished children from 1990 to 2006 and the increase in the number of skilled health workers in developing countries during that same time frame. These improvements are the direct result of the implementation of the MDGs and show that, even though the MDGs may not be fully achieved by 2015, they have still improved the lives of millions of people in the developing world. I fully believe that if you compare the state of the developing world today to what it was before the MDGs were made and implemented, you'd find it to be significantly better.

While Christine does a good job of pointing out the progress that has been made towards the realization of the MDGs, she also points out the considerable amount of progress that still needs to be made. The points that Christine made about the need for full employment to truly end poverty and the large proportion of countries that have made minimal progress in reducing child mortalities really reaffirmed my belief that the deadline for completing the MDGs should be extended. The 2015 deadline is too ambitious and doesn't appear to provide sufficient time to truly deal with serious issues targeted in the MDGs. I feel that it may take another 15 years (or more) after 2015 to fully achieve goals such as eradicating extreme poverty.

I fully agree with Christine about the importance of global community organizations in the realization of the MDGs and found her comments about the role of the individual in the completion of the MDGs to be very interesting. Personally, I feel that one of the best things that people (myself included) can do to advance the progress of the MDGs is to simply get the word out. By educating people about the existence of the MDGs and how they can help, you can get and more people to support the community organizations working towards their realization (either by donating or volunteering). It's amazing the number of small things that people can do to make a difference. Supporting the UN Millennium campaign on Facebook, donating a dollar to a community organization, and writing a representative in Congress are all relatively simple things that people can do to help the progress of the MDGs. However, unless people are informed about these opportunities (and the MDGs as a whole), it is likely that they will do little to nothing. It will take a full global and local effort to fully achieve the MDGs.

I do a appreciated that she summaries each goal of the UN. I agree with her when she says that by 2015 we will have made an impact in the goals that where set by the UN. I'm not sure how significant the impact will be in reaching the goals. This organization is relatively young, it doesn't have the "pull" that most organization set to accomplish the  same objective dose. I do like her idea of building the network. We do need to let our congress people know what we want. If poor families had bigger tax breaks then maybe that could help bring some of the families above the poverty line. It could also help ease some of the tension off of society. Which intern could lower stress and stress related illness like a heart disease of high blood pressure. This would also be beneficial to the heath care system. With less people being sick, less people going to the doctor, since most people who it would affect are on some type of government health care plan. Less sick poor people, less they go to the hospital, less time they have to take off work, or this could able more people to work. This means that less money will be funded to Government health care and can be put towards other budgets, like Education or Community Development. Which more people supporting themselves, it will also help those who need a little bit more help to get above the line. With less people at the county hospitals, people can get even better, more personalized health care. There will be a less time to wait to see a doctor. With all the extra money going towards school or community development, Children in poorer communities, can have a better education, more opportunities. It is a proven fact that people will feel better about themselves if there surrounding are better. The effect will hit everywhere, happier people, lower crime rates in areas, more people willing to build businesses in the area, more job opportunities, and people making even more money. This will be funneled back into the community in which they live.

When people are less stress about their own lives, they seem to be able to notice stress in other people lives. People may finally notice the millions of other people around the world who are having problems, like having food, clean water, health care, equality. 

Communication is also important. You can truly help other no matter how close they are, if you don't know what their problem is. I believe the best resource we have today         in communication in the internet. I think its one of the best places to be if you want to be heard by millions. As she said in her article, you have to speak, Get the word out so others will know, and help in a way they can. Whether the help is telling more people, donating, writing letters, organizing events to help the cause, it all can be useful. Since there are eight goals to be accomplished, I believe there is something everyone can do to make a difference.

There were a few good ideas and sentiments in this article; and while I don't find anything problematic per se in wanting to achieve the MDG 2015, there is a greater need for a realistic look at why these problems/issues actually exist. I have been involved in different humanitarian/activist organizations in my time and while one may get a good feeling from the idea that you are helping someone else or affecting a social situation--we are missing the point. The eradication of social ills has nothing to do with anyone feeling good about themselves (the paradox of altruism comes to mind), or for that matter, feeling guilty or compelled because of their having a so-called 'privileged' life but with examining the forces that (directly and indirectly) contribute to lack, poverty, inequality, and injustice.

Statistics do a good job at displaying the results or picture of the point being conveyed but we must also understand the roots of these issues. Just as many people would like to see the end of the ills outlined in the MDG, there is another side. There had to be policies and ideas or ideologies put into place to allow the atrocities that we now have the opportunity to speak on in these forums.

It is also good that the author of the article was affected by information she acquired in class, however, life is not a vacuum and we must come to the table with ideas and always have our eyes and minds open to what is going on in the world--not necessarily globally either, because as she did briefly mention, Arizona has its own share of social ills as well. Unemployment and underemployment, homelessness and mental illness, alcohol and substance abuse, malnutrition (yes, that's right) right here. It is not just about the effects, the social ills and issues that we don't want to see, but about the causes.

Communities are important but only to the extent that their respective governments allow or recognize them to be. Perhaps the people in the communities under the jurisdiction of governments should realize their own worth and power; in an effort to exact real change, but I wonder if we know the ramifications of even that. Internet and cell phone usage and other media being introduced into other areas of the world do not look like a resolve for a great life either, in my opinion. We have definitely been fooled to think as much. With the health risks involved (ELFs) and our unnecessary consumerism--why would we want to introduce these things to those around the world who cannot even afford food, healthcare, or education?! Even further, globalization as well as globally connecting via the internet, etc. has nothing to do with actually connecting with your fellow man (community?).

Christine seems to have had the right idea.  It's refreshing to see that she was motivated at the end of the semester to still tackle the Millennium goals. I admit, I went back and read through many of last weeks responses to whether or not we felt the goals were still obtainable. It seemed fairly unanimous and seems as though there was a bit of discouragement throughout.

For the first goal, Christine points out that tackling world hunger is becoming increasingly difficult with the rising food and oil cost. With a down economy, it becomes exceedingly difficult to encourage people to help in the aid efforts of others, when they are constantly watching their dollar fail to stretch. It is so important for people to understand that there is still always a way to give. With only a 7% improvement in undernourished, we still have ground to cover and room to give. 140 million malnourished children is a scary number.  This particular goal reminds me of a story told to me by a priest at my church who has been going missions to Haiti over the past couple of years. The story, in short, is of a man who waited two hours in line to receive his ration of uncooked rice and beans. The elderly man made it about 15 feet from the line, fell to his knees and began shoveling raw rice into his mouth. The man was so hungry he couldn't even make it out of the door let alone cook it.  Stories like these bring you down a notch and make you humble once more.

For education, the author points out an impressive enrollment increase of 90%. This honestly shocks me but I am glad to see it. I agree with the author that the quality of education needs to be the next plan of attack. Focusing on what are youth is learning and retaining is just as important in securing their future as them enrolling. Also, let's not forget about retention rates. How many are dropping out to work and help support the family. From what I have read, these rates are still not where they need to be.

Next, gender equality has been improving globally. Women are receiving more prestigious jobs and are represent a significant portion of the workforce. Pay is still an issue. Women are statistically paid less than men as Christine points out.  She also points out women becoming active in politics. This is a huge achievement that I believe we will begin seeing more of in the near future.

Child mortality is another tough one. As the author highlights, the rate of children receiving vaccinations has improved. However, preventative measures are only just that. If the surrounding conditions are unsanitary, then a child with an undeveloped immune system is just not going to be able to combat illness and mortality. Clean water is another major contributing factor without clean water the diarrhea part really comes into play.

For the 5^th and 6^th goal, health standards and practices really come into play. Maternal health is still a leading issue in south Asian countries. Although healthcare is more prevalent, this does not mean to me that the funding to seek treatment is there. Christine brings up the alternative for contraceptive to combat maternal health. For those not seeking a family, this provides a positive alternative. This goes for double when it comes to the spread of diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. Health education is key. You need the tools and knowhow to be successful.

Environmental sustainability is another hot topic right now. Christine mentions The Montreal Protocol eliminating the HCFCs in 2017. Why so distant in the future when the problem is rapidly deteriorating now. And what is the alternative that they are seeking one might ask. 

Lastly, we have developing a global partnership for development. I feel that this one is somewhat in reach.  With technology rapidly advancing, many goals will be a bit easier to accomplish. One of the examples used is education. So much of the world is becoming accessible through the internet.  Communication with people around the word almost instantaneously is now possible. This to me sounds like a means to improve efficiency and outlet to tackle poverty. To put it in perspective, how many people use the internet to find a new job?  To pick a University?  To find a place to live? The only part of this that worries me is, as technology increases in some parts of the world, those who cannot afford to keep up will get left behind.

Overall, I agree that by 2015 we will have made a significant impact on these crucial 8 GOALS. However, even though it is tough to admit that we may not make them,  it may come to a point where we must make decisions to at least hit one, or adjust what we will have accomplished within the individual goal by 2015.  I hope to stay motivated like Christine and continue my own efforts within the community!

Christine Williams seems to have a well thought out perception of how the MDG were developed, how they were meant to be applied and the results so far. She even goes on to talk about progress that can be touched upon in the future and how she can get involved. She is applying the most basic of all sociological skills and taking her resources and putting them to use for the greater good of society. She may not be putting her own needs above her, but she is taking action to help those who are less fortunate than her. That is what community is about.

While most of the MDG has progressed since the dawn date of the goals that were set, many are still lacking - even in countries that have been well established. Take the United States for example where gender equality is still a problem for woman who wants to climb a corporate ladder. They may have to take several more steps than a male co-worker would to achieve the same goal or get the promotion that they deserve. But if the male co-worker were to reach the ladder before the female counterpart, still to this day, their chances of earning a higher paycheck are greater than if the woman had gotten their first.

Williams talks about the increase in oil and food prices which has pushed more people into poverty which weakens the goals. The economy is never stable as history has shown and is not only a problem in third-world countries but well established countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. Violence also takes a toll on the economy. In times of war, the budget increases to develop war planes, ammunition and funding for the troops that takes money out of health insurance funds, contraception funds and even a reduction in resources like Planned Parenthood which helps families reduce unwanted pregnancies with the use of contraception and other means. The United States has funds that distribute condoms to countries like Africa and if their monetary focus is elsewhere, it takes away from the greater good.

One of the greatest problems faced in helping the 8 goals progress is the lack of volunteers and funding. Funding buys the supplies to vaccinate children, provide contraception, create primary and secondary educational programs and promote gender equality, extend the life-span, reduce childhood mortality and so on. The possibilities are endless if every person who could afford it would even donate just a dollar out of their pocket every month or week or more if they could. The chances would  improve of reducing world-hunger if a family could donate at least ten dollars worth of canned goods to a cause a month. If money is a problem, time may not be. Even time is valuable, but lifting a hand, putting care packages together, writing letters, making parachutes to drop the packages off if the area is not safe to land can make a difference. The community needs to step up and help those around them to be able to achieve what the UN envisions will happen by 2015.

I still do not believe that the goals will be met 100% by 2015, but I believe that significant progress will be made to the point that the goals could be met within the next few years after. If people can donate time and money, it could work.

The author did a great job of not just stating what has improved, but what hasn't and what needs to improvement. She is very realistic in her views and not shooting for pure optimism, which I feel most people who are in support, will tend to do. They will focus on only the good. While that will make people want to join in the cause to help the UN reach their goals, this could detrimental, in leading people to believe that their help isn't necessary.

I agree with the fact that people need to realize that there truly is an issue before they are able to help. Which was the problem in the first place; people were so unaware of the problems happening outside their shell of a life. Or they knew there were problems but they thought they were too big for them to tackle. The author points out many levels in which we can help make progress towards reaching the goals. Which although they will more than likely not be fully met by 2015, progress should hopefully show that they are indeed moving along to that in the future these issues won't be issues, the only thing that'll be needed is active development into better communities that are connected.  

It was also mentioned that many nations have raised quite a lot of money, but very few have raised enough to the level to being able to help out the impoverished nations. I think the United Nations needs to work on getting that problem solved. This is a team effort that everyone needs to be a part of. Being divided and selfish is what got developing nations into this mess in the first place. I think they need to implement more ways for nations who aren't reaching their quota, to do so.

The author's article is inspired and very optimistic; I do not view things quite as positively. In my opinion, I do not think any of the goals will be met by 2015. There have been many events that have occurred since the goals were set that have slowed down progress. The recent economic crisis has surely slowed down progress significantly, because the more developed countries have had to focus on their own problems and have not been able to give as much aid. Large scale natural disasters are taking a toll on the developing countries as well. Haiti is a perfect example of how natural disasters can devastate any progress a country has made. In recent years it has appeared that natural disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes and becoming stronger and more frequent; but I feel that overpopulation plays a large part in why it seems like they are getting worse. In places like Haiti and Indonesia there are more people than ever and they are living in areas that were not always heavily populated. I think a key part to the puzzle of achieving these goals is to reduce the number of children being born and to slow population growth dramatically. It is no secret that if the world's population continues to grow at the current rate, the earth will eventually not be able to support everyone. Education, the empowerment of women and an increase in the use of birth control are all vital to slowing population growth. Decreasing infant mortality is also vital; if women know that their child is going to survive they will not feel like they need give birth to a large number of children.

  think the author made a good point about utilizing social networking sites to promote awareness of these issues and to recruit help. Communities are no longer confined to people who live in the same neighborhood or town; with our current technology a person can talk to someone in a different country just as easy as a person who lives down the street. Nowadays the majority of people use some form of social networking to stay in touch, and it is a perfect platform to spread a message. We are seeing social networking sites like Facebook being used in political campaigns and even to start revolutions in some countries. Information can be shared virtually instantly and we need to take advantage of this new technology. The author also mentioned donating to organizations that are trying to help reach these goals. While I support giving to organizations like the Red Cross and UNICEF, it is important to always research the organization you are giving money to because sometimes only a small percentage of the money actually goes towards the cause.

 While I do not think that the goals will be reached by 2015, I think it is important to keep in mind that any progress at all is amazing and it is a step in the right direction. All of the goals are interconnected, so progress in one goal is always going to lead to progress in another goal. The most important thing is to not give up on the goals and become complacent. We cannot think that the next person to come along is going to fix it; we have to take it upon ourselves to continue the change.

In the article, Christine Williams explained the reality if the United Nations eight millennium goals will be achieved in the year 2015. I liked how she incorporated her experience in the community and the likelihood of the UN achieving each goal. She stated each goal and gave a reason or statistics about why she believed the goal would or would not be achieved. For example, the fourth goal is to reduce child mortality.  I think by writing some statistics saying a large majority of countries have made very little progress to reducing child death from the year 1990 to 2006 envisions the lighter picture for meeting this goal by 2015. She also listed the most common deaths relating to child mortality. I believe that to make her article more interesting she could have added where she got her sources from.  However, the article did appeal to readers about her input on the eight millennium goals. I agree that some goals can be met by 2015 depending of each individual country's progression.

Christine Williams also made her article more personalized by adding her role in the community. Once again she demonstrates customs so individuals can become a part of the community. She gives numerous examples about the benefits for the community and the person volunteering. For instance, she creates a motive to have people find their interest in aiding their community and describes multiple behaviors about how she gets involved. All in all, she relates her involvement, as a community service participant, to how others can help society.

I really appreciated what the author had to say. She put a sincere and genuine opinion out that says things may not go according to a time table, but they will occur. I appreciated her way of saying things, almost matter of factly; the things she had to say really put the issues into proportion for me. The individual goals may not be reached by 2015, but the progress will continue and the goals will be met. I sincerely with what she was saying about the ability we each have to donate and the roles we can individually play. I believe we need to be more educated on organizations and charities so that we each feel like our dollar at Walmart or that extra $5 on our phone bill is worth the time and effort; the time we give to volunteering and helping does make a difference. I love the time I am able to spend at the Sperical Olympics and at walks for Autism because I know each minute is an unpaid blessing and the money saved will go towards a solution or aiding the cause. The biggest problem I have is how much actually makes it to charity and how much goes to pad the high hancho's pocket. This last summer I participated in raising money to support a Guatemalan family and their lawyer fees. We went, as a group, door to door selling their delicious homemade food. We promised the family we would raise $300 for them, which we exceeded. It was such an awesome feeling to know just how much our menial efforts paid off. It broke my heart when I found out that the person who organized the group pocketed the extra money. We far exceeded our goal, yet the money the family received matched only what we promised. It angered me that someone would donate the minimum (when far more was easily reached!!) and simply pocket the remainder! I know this occurs on a larger scale in big companies and corporations, which deters me from donating in public areas. I have learned that if I believe in a cause, I will donate directly to it, after I have studied it out. As a family affected by cancer, I can testify that ALL money that is donated goes to Phoenix Children's Hospital and the areas in need. I know that my few dollars makes a different, of which I am glad, but I want to make sure it makes a difference in a place that really counts. 

            This forum makes a point that Millennium Development Goals are achievable and some can be accomplished by 2015.  Although we still have many countries that are suffering from the very goals they are trying to attain, the UN has made a lot of progress.  Every day we see that some countries have advanced and working towards the goals.  I very much agree that some of the Millennium Development Goals are achievable by 2015.    However, there are some of the goals that will need more time to work on and finish.

            Some of the goals that possibly won't reach the 2015 deadline are most likely the first and last goal of poverty and global partnership.  There is too much financial crisis and other situations going on today that has worsened since this forum was written.  This forum was written based on the 2008 reports which I am sure today are have very different statistics.  We still have millions living in poverty and we still don't have peace throughout the world where there is a global partnership.  Much work has to be done in those areas and with what's going on today in the world, the 2015 deadline approaching these two goals seem a little out of reach.

            On a positive note, I like very much how she makes it a point to get involved with your community.  If you want to help change the world, why not start in your own backyard?  It's not even that hard to get involved and some organizations ask very minimal things of its volunteers.   She gives a lot of great examples of organizations one can join.  It definitely inspires me to get out and be more involved with my community.   More importantly her discussion makes me want to help out on a global level. 

            Also, more people should be educated on what's is going and what the United Nation is trying to accomplish.  I believe, as this discussion points out, that if more people were educated about the 8 Millennium Development Goals and how they can help out, then the UN will be able to get even more help.  If the UN had more help, they could advance even more thus making the goals more attainable by 2015.  I think that's the biggest fault the UN has in that it needs more help.   Perhaps if we can get more people thinking more collectively to advance our communities, we can help finish the MDGs.

            Even though some of the goals aren't so close to being finished, we can be apart of that process.  We can help in making the 8 UN Millennium Development Goals more attainable by 2015.  There is so much to help with and our global community needs more hands.  Our global community needs this change to better everyone's lives.  You may sit and say to yourself, "well those problems don't affect me?"  How do they not affect you?  A community that is not united leads to poor progression and eventually a poor community.  We should help people so that maybe one day they can live as comfortably as we do who have an easier access to jobs and an education with food to eat everyday.   This forum has explained very well the importance of the MDGs and how we can help.

Christine Williams does a phenomenal job pinpointing and accentuating the main ideas of the UN MDGs. Her descriptive analysis on the goals would give any reader a thorough insight of what the goals are, what they advocate, and what can be done in order to promote each goal to its outcome.  Implementing these goals will definitely have a positive effect in our world, especially to those who are in need of crucial resources and money. What Christine does very well, is promoting these goals by portraying, in future times, what would be possible if all eight goals were met.  In addition, she not only mentions the root of the problem, but includes current progress as well. The most important thing about her essay, however, is the fact that she gets the point across in a concise manner regarding the UN MDGs. I think a comprehensive networking strategy that will further promote and highlight the UN MDGs to the entire world, therefore, attracting prospective individuals to the cause.

Given this initiative, we need to act locally in order to see results at a global level.  As an example, I will use myself. First, I did not know anything about the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals until a few days ago when I logged on the network for the first time. I think this is the case, for many of you reading this today. But why is this the case? Perhaps, we are just too busy to pay attention to global issues, or we do not think about global problems on a daily basis, or it could be that there is a lack of local and global consensus on these issues. In order for the masses to believe and strive toward a common goal, there must be a consensus; in order to form unified action and progression, the information must first travel to everyone. This is where that concept of networking comes into play. I have never seen the UN MDGs in advertisement billboards or on television, or on any internet ad, for that matter.  The UN MDGs are a novel enterprise that barely came to my attention less than a month ago, as for many of you. Now, just stop and think about the countless individuals, who may be aware that our world faces such epidemics, and tribulations, such as hunger, and deforestation, but are also inclined to believe, that "somebody is working on it". While this stands true, I think if more people were made aware of this effort, then that might just give people the knowledge and information to want to participate in the continual efforts marked for 2015.

In addition to local advertisement targeted to the average citizen, our local and state representatives could be very beneficial in spreading the word about the UN MDGs. Currently in Arizona, immigration, the financial deficit and a bucket full of impervious, senseless laws are plaguing the news, media and the newspapers. They are marking the lines between "us" and "them", and only accentuating our differences in a time when we need to focus on similarity and strive toward progression.  It seems as though it would be impossible to have any state representative devote fifteen or even five minutes to the UN MDGs.  Nevertheless, I believe that with enough effort and the right initiatives, the right information can be made widespread for everyone to imbibe.  

We cannot leave the global community behind on the issue, when in fact this is a global problem. Sometimes it is difficult to see it this way, when locally, we have our own problems and those who suffer in other countries are sometimes "so far away".  However, this is not always the case. Moreover, Christine does a very good job adding the importance of global action and communication. After all, we act locally to change globally. One thing she highlights is that progress will not be possible or will be made nearly impossible if people do not form a bond of community. I cannot agree with her more. Like I mentioned, it seems as though people are only focusing on differences and ignoring similarities. Ultimately, this will not help those who are truly in need, nor will it help promote the UN MDGs.

Perhaps, the biggest concern for every constituent is the fact that our global economy is broke. We need resources everywhere, but they are more difficult to attain every day, even for some living in the largest, developed countries in the world. Progress toward achieving the UN MDGs has hit a speed bump in recent times, but that has not halted the process. It is very challenging to bring forth a consensus during these hard times, but it is not impossible, and Christine mentioned very good ideas on how she can act locally. By participating in one's own community or with organizations such as the United Nations one can make a difference in this process. Finally, by simply networking, talking, chatting, and communicating about the UN MDGs, progress has been made. Who knows? Perhaps, the next person to promote these goals to full potential has not even heard of them yet.

I thought the article by Christine Williams was insightful and informative. Ms. Williams seems to have a great understanding of the efforts that need to be put forth in order to achieve the MDG's. Although achieving each goal seems to be an immeasurable challenge, there has been significant progress. However, we are far from achieving the MGD's and the purpose of this article seemed to be the promotion of global community action.  

The first goal, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, is hard to imagine for many of us living in the comforts of the western world. Ms. Williams provided a perspective on food production and more specifically oil production and it's relation to this issue that I had not previously considered. Because food is so readily available to us it is nearly impossible to imagine having the burden of not knowing where the next meal will come from or if it will come at all. An increase in the cost of food and oil production to many of us translates to a choice not to buy a particular product or conservation of gasoline usage due to high costs. It is hard to imagine these high costs standing in the way of providing basic needs. Although, as MS. Williams pointed out, there has been a reduction in poverty and hunger, there is still a very challenging task at hand in order to meet this goal.

The second goal, achieve universal primary education on the surface seems to be more attainable. However, when we truly address this issue, it is clear to see that it is not a simple one. In order to facilitate change in this area, there must be a paradigm shift within many of these cultures. In order for this goal to be met, education must be viewed as necessary for survival and not a threat. Many children across the world are denied the access to education due to cultural beliefs, impacting girls on a much larger scale than it does boys. It is often a cultural expectation for girls to stay home and tend to the chores, work in the fields, and take care of the families. Until the third goal, promote gender equality and empower women, is met, the second goal will not be achieved. Although Ms. Williams points out there have been improvements made in gender issues, there is a great deal of inequality infused within many cultures. Cultural beliefs seem to be one of the major obstacles when it comes to goal advancement.

The fourth goal, reducing child mortality, has had some success, but access to simple vaccinations seems to be the key for greater success. It is important to get the drug companies more involved with provisions. Manufacturing vaccines, is big business for these companies.  Although I do not know the statistics on the profits for these products, I personally believe it is wrong to withhold lifesaving technology due to insufficient monetary compensation. Perhaps our governments can get more involved to provide greater tax incentives for the companies to become more involved.

The fifth goal, improve maternal health, I feel is heavily linked to the second and third goals. If women are uneducated and have limited rights, they will not be able to adequately take care of themselves before, during and after pregnancy, leading to a greater risk of ill health and death. As Ms. Williams stated, it is important we educated these women on contraception, but I also believe it is important to educate these women on family planning and the risks associated with pregnancy at young ages.

The sixth goal, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases is heavily reliant upon health education, contraception use and vaccinations. Prevention programs are designed to create awareness and should be more available to struggling communities.

The seventh goal, ensure environmental sustainability is one that we all are responsible for, not just those in developing countries. Although, developing nations are most affected by climate issues, overconsumption, poor sanitation and access to clean water, they have limited resources available to address the problems. We truly need social change on a global scale in order to see improvements in these areas.

The eighth goal, develop a global partnership for development, seems to be at the pinnacle of all the other goals. There is no chance of fully achieving any the MDG's without global awareness and involvement. It seems we need to promote more involvement within the public and private sectors. We could find creative incentives for big businesses to become more involved. In the public sector, those of us who are aware of the global issues need to be voices for change. Organizations like UCP-SARnet are a great example of how we can become more involved to impact change across the world. My biggest takeaway from Ms. Williams' article is that we all have a voice that can facilitate change. Although we may not be impacted directly, it must be the impact on humanity that gives rise to our willingness to be champions for change. 

A note that struck  me in this article was the author's reference to the impact that being in the course had on her. It highlights the effectiveness that knowledge and exposure to problems in the world can have. This information had been available to her before, but until she was directed to it she had been unaware of the extent to which things were happening in the world community. She is right about the fact that the more a person learns about extreme poverty, the more touched that person becomes. Eventually a seed of inspiration begins to grow and from that inspiration more hands to help.
 Linda Leigh said during a speech this summer at the state governor's conference for volunteers that there is one thing that can make the biggest impact in addressing global issues, an invaluable resource: people, people, people. Through connecting with people and talking to people something begins to spread. Ultimately, isn't that what community is? Williams states "Leaders should put themselves in the shoes of those in poverty and realize that this needs to change" I feel that this should be taken a step further, and that individuals should strive to become the leaders when they see a problem with infrastructures.  A leader is more than an elected position. True leaders exhibit elected behavior, and through that behavior have the ability to inspire others. Learning how to ignite that flame to care in a desensitized population is an immense challenge.
   As Williams discussed her role in the community, I couldn't help but think of my own. I also began thinking about when my sense of community evolved and the factors that effected it. I thought of those people I know that seem to be able to move mountains and those that have decided to remove themselves. Fred Huff said something very poignant, if true, during of one of his talks. He said "what shaped that person when he or she was ten years old was the community in which he or she was immersed". This is something to seriously consider when you think about the communities that are being assisted by the MDG. It exemplifies the need to have youth engaged in their community, and not removed from it. It also stresses the impact that growing up in strife can have on a person, how it will affect their lifetime decisions, and the care that needs to be taken.
   The article clearly stresses fundamental problems faced in the world's developing nations. The need for increased productivity, intense intervention, and education reveals itself across all 8 goals. Community psychology as a science itself provides an interesting opportunity to not only research particular areas and the history of how problem areas may have gotten into a particular situation in the first place, but also provides a solid way to begin systems and foundations. There needs to be effective ways to solve problems. The shift from relying on individualized psychology to community based just makes sense when dealing with something like the MDG because of how all encompassing they are. While great progress has been made in areas like mortality rates and affordable vaccinations there are still considerable surmountable road blocks that stand in the way. For instance, the fact that access to what should be affordable medicine is being denied to people who need it because the cannot afford the privatized prices is horrendous. It seems that just as people can be our greatest assets, they can also be a huge part of the problem.

Like in my last post, I have to say that I agree with Christine. Do I think we could reach some of the goals yes; depending on outside factors and how the other goals are going. I also have to agree with the opening statement she had, "It is a lot different to look upon these goals in the beginning of the course compared to right now at the end of the course." Right now with what I read this week and heard from the videos and the podcast; the goals just seem like goals to that were made because now our communities are so interconnected, yet separated, that there are so many issues. The goals, to me, are tried to get our focus back on to each other. On page 6 of our textbook it talks about how community psychology focuses on the social group, not the individual, which is what we are doing now; and the goals are trying to gear us into that thinking. Looking at our community as the world community, every little thing that happen affects me and the people around. However, if our community is just my state, the things that happen in Africa do not (even though they do, or will). Which I would have the two different thoughts of community if we were not all interconnected. When listening to Fred Huff's sessions, he started it off by talking about how we all came from our small tribes and that the world expanded into what it is today. When in my small tribe, it was us and only us. People helped each other out and that was that. Why can't we have the same thoughts with the "world" community; as far as we know it's just us. As Christine pointed out; it's not too hard to help. We don't have to have the mind set of all or nothing; every little bit helps. I agree with majority of the stuff she talked about, and I am really excited to see what the rest of the semester holds and will reveal.

As I read through Christine Williams Forum posting a lot of thoughts crossed my mind. Some of these thoughts lined up directly with her thoughts and others were the complete opposite. Christine went through each of the Millennium Development Goals and her opinions and research regarding each of them. In order to give a better understanding of my feelings on her forum I will go through some of these goals and my opinions on some of her findings.

The first thing that caught my attention was where Williams stated, "Children need to stop working at a young age and focus on school." Even though I do disagree with children having to work at young ages I do believe there are situations where they are in the position to assist with providing for their family. In some cases I believe this can be an honor usually given to the eldest child. In many middle class and lower class homes of minorities with large families this often takes place and I don't think it should be looked down upon. I believe it is a source of building character and a bonded family. Williams also explained that it needs to be an increase in…job security. This I completely agree with but I am also saddened by the idea that it is actually decreasing. In one of my readings from my SOC 324 course it stated that increasingly, organizations fill positions with various types of contingent workers (Work and Organizations, pg. 81). If this continues and individuals are constantly left job searching there may be an increase in poverty.

"There needs to be programs and interventions for poor households to end gender inequality", stated Williams. Although, I do believe there are many situations where women should be treated better I feel like at the end of the day women should not be equal to man because we are simply not the same. I believe that there are many upsides to being a woman. Even though we have the capability of doing manual labor and becoming company executives it is important to remember that it is not a curse but a blessing that we are the child bearers. This does not mean that I think women should just run around getting pregnant I just wanted to give a friendly reminder that the role of a women is also important. So maybe we need to simply realize that we are capable and know that once equality is reached we should be "Equal but separate".

I will also mention another thought on the idea of ending gender equality in poor households. I believe that gender equality does not only exist in poor households but in every social class. This led to the Women's Rights Movement starting in the 1840's.

The fifth goal is to improve maternal health. "Contraception needs to be made available and can help decrease young mothers risk of maternal mortality", another point noted by Christine Williams. I feel like this will be a helpful step in decreasing maternal mortality and the contraction of HIV/AIDS. But we must also remember that using contraceptives is a choice. I feel like it should be used more by individuals in the U.S. since it available but there are still many who don't use it. So it would be unrealistic to think that this idea can save everyone.

At the end of the day I believe that Christine Williams had many great thoughts and her Forum response was well thought out and researched. She was an addition to the many individuals trying to reach these goals. I believe that we all play a role in accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals and we cannot do it on our own. This Forum reading was inspiring.

        I liked how the author laid out the UN Millennium Developmental Goals in an orderly fashion while adding supporting facts and possibilities to accomplish them. In our society today, education is practically unavoidable if you plan on having any type of successful life. She really put things into perspective by noting that children shouldn't be thrown into the work field and that they should focus on school in order for our first goal to be accomplished. School is where a person begins to understand their life goals, talents, motivations, and interests. Adding to the third goal of gender equality and empowering women, there has been incredible progress towards this goal just in my lifetime of twenty years. I've personally noticed plenty more women in higher ranked job positions such as management roles, also we have women in political offices such as Sarah Palin, and women are also taking on better respected roles in the household such as contributing to finances instead on relying on their husbands. I would like to see equal pay between genders take place during my lifetime, and I very well believe that is possible.

      The fifth goal of improving maternal health is alarming and scary considering that a mother's health not only affects her, but her family and especially her children. I remember the women at a Hope Enterprises Feeding Center we went to in Ethiopia this summer who were homeless, physically ill-looking and deformed who were carrying their babies who were dirty and malnourished like their mothers. It is extremely disturbing how these poor mothers can't take care of themselves let alone their children. I truly believe that better birth control in places like this would do wonders for the society. I would love to see more third-world countries engage in safer sex and I wonder how goals like this can properly be accomplished.

      With advancing technology and medical research, I am confident that we can tackle AIDS and it is relieving to already hear reduced statistics. As for the seventh goal of sustainability, I had no idea that usage of HCFCs will be prohibited as of 2017. What incredible news! It is great to hear that officials are listening to research being done on our environment and we are being proactive about the jeopardized future of our planet. I can't even comprehend that animal species are going extinct by the day- I wonder if species in the past died off this rapidly and I am upset and embarrassed that mankind has allowed this to happen- if not caused it.

    These goals and their roads to completion are overwhelming and difficult to comprehend, which is why my favorite part of this reading is the final paragraph where she starts talking about steps to take to reach these eight goals. Supporting different organizations is great and exactly what individuals like us should do to contribute our help and concern. Volunteer work is also a humble way to help your community. I think that blessed people who are not even affected by what most of these goals entail should be more proactive in their societies, better educated of our world problems, and less selfish with their time and money in order for us to achieve these goals. 

The author, Christine, did a good job in explaining the MDG's and also giving a few statistics about some of the progress that has been made.  I also agree with how we can help reach these goals, and that is by reaching out to our communities.  With just spreading the word around about different organizations that can help with these MDG's, we can help reduce some of the percentages and/or increase awareness about these goals that were created.  

I had no idea these goals were even existent.  Which makes me believe that we need to spread the word around even more so we can get other organizations and members involved.  Some of the things that would help could be advertising, fundraising, having informational booths at different educational fairs.  We would just be increasing the chances for recruiting members that are also concerned for reaching these goals.  Aside from that we would be increasing the awareness of the bigger problems that surround us, like poverty, for example.  Even starting in your own community would help a lot.  Donating food or clothing to people in need, or cleaning up your neighborhood would make a difference and might even motivate others in your community to do the same.  This would have a ripple effect and could spread globally.  

The main objective though is to get most of these goals reached by 2015 and helping others lives improve by having better resources, health, homes, education, etc.  It takes a lot of work and dedication, and I will try my best to get the word out about these goals.

I am also very motivated to help in the progress of attaining the eight MDG. I hope to better understand my role in this project as well as be more involved with community events and organizations that are working towards these goals by the end of this class.

After reading the current 2011 goals report I was pleasantly surprised to learn that great progress has already been made from the 2008 goals report. The following information is based on the 2011 Millennium Goals Report on the United Nations website. Surely the increase in oil and food prices in 2008 did set back the progress of the MDG. However now, the situation in general seems to be stabilized and more optimistic about the 2015 Goals then it was back then. Due to the hard work of individuals who believe in these goals several really great things have happened that make this years progress commendable. 

The issue that was holding back the first goal of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty is that the resources of agricultural land or ability to purchase food were not easily obtained for many. While this is still true the statistics show improvements. The most disturbing fact is that the world as an entire unit does have enough food to feed every single human being (world hunger, 2011). But we CHOOSE not to. A major improvement has been seen since the global poverty rate is estimated to be 15 percent by 2015. This number would exceed expectations set up by the goal of 23 percent by 2015. With this said still almost 25% of children in the developing world remain undernourished.

Obviously the MDG are interconnected and directly correlate with one another's success.  So, If access to education which is the second MDG were to be attained, we would see huge leaps in success from the other goals. Properly educating people result in their ability to help themselves. For instance with a literate and primarily educated population we could get more people into the workforce or even create new employment opportunities for this eager to work and knowledgeable population. This goal has proven to be especially difficult to meet in conflict zones where the percent on children in schools has only gone up 7 percent in the past 12 years.  So clearly, with so many children still not having access to a standard education how else is the population supposed to survive if not for hand-outs and other unproductive measures of survival? We should be handing out dignity and equipping them with the chance to make a difference in their as well as their children's lives. This will ultimately be most rewarding and progressive move we could make.  The third goal of gender equality has to be also taken seriously as it also contributes to the rest of the MDG's. We are also still working on this goal within the U.S because we have gender issues that result in women not fulfilling their full potential even here. At the 2010 High-level Plenary Meeting of the general assembly on the MDG's, it was stated that "achievement of the MDGs depends largely on women's Empowerment" (pg 5). Hope is being offered to women globally by brave women taking a stand and going against the sexist policies and politics of their countries. For instance Kenya had a regulation that women must be represented in 1/3 of parliament (endpoverty2015). However when a particular woman that won the Ndhiwa parliamentary seat in Kenya,  she almost had her house bombed and is constantly harassed and threatened by opponents.  These types of situations make it extremely difficult for women to work or even be willing to participate in governmentally functions. Women currently only hold an unacceptable amount of 19 percent of seats in national parliaments.

The fourth goal of reducing child mortality is looking promising. Between 1990 and 2009, the daily count of children dying was improved by 12,000 children daily. This was possible because of proper immunization and second doses of immunization for diseases such as measles. With the empowerment of women in the third goal will come the fifth goal of improving maternal health.  If women are educated and free to use contraception regularly, more of them will get the opportunity to finish school which means more women in the work force. That workforce could potentially be in the hospitals which would ultimately lead to a properly educated women on prenatal as well as other maternal health matters. We are seeing the effects of our investment in programs combating HIV/AIDs which is the sixth goal. Since 1997, there has been a 21 percent drop in infections. Along with that, from 2004 to 2009 19 percent less people have died from the disease due to proper diagnosis and treatments.  

The seventh goal of environmental sustainability is being promoted from various fronts. We are currently in the International Year of Forests. This was designated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote awareness of forest degradation. Schools such as ASU are promoting awareness in the best way possible which is educating young people on the importance of having "healthy" earth systems. We are actually really lucky to have a global institute of sustainability on our campus which does research into innovative strategies of promoting sustainability. Promoting global partnerships for development is the eighth goal and basically focuses on funding all these projects. Unfortunately at the Gleneagles summit $25 billion was promised to Africa in aid and only about $11 billion will actually be given. However, some countries are doing more then there part in contributing funds for developing countries. Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Finland and Ireland all donated more than .51 percent of their Gross National Income to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

You are defiantly right that terrific progress has been made already since the establishment of these goals. I concur that the unequal distribution of resources needs to be addressed and corrected. All these various projects that stem from the UN's MDG are working towards that very goal.  The way in which I am contributing is taking the time to educate first myself on these world events and then others. I am working towards a minor in Sustainability which I think will give me an interdisciplinary outlook when it comes to seeking employment in an organization which promotes these types of human rights for the world.

Resources  

Five Years Left Vignettes : Goal 3 ( 2011) End Poverty. Retrieved Sept. 4, 2011 from < http://www.endpoverty2015.org/en/five-years-left-vignettes>

The Millennium Development Goal Report. (2011). Unitednations.org Retrieved Sept. 4, 2011 from <  http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/%282011_E%29%20MDG%20Report%202011_Book%20LR.pdf

World Hunger Education Services (2011). Wolrd Hunger. Retrieved Sept. 4, 2011 from <http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm>

The MDG's are a series of eight goals that the United Nations would like to have met by the year 2015. The author of this article, Christine Williams, did in my opinion, a fantastic job summarizing her thoughts on the issue. The Millennium Development Goals are something that I have just recently learned about upon taking this class. However, as I read more and more about them I feel more optimistic about them. After reading what Williams had to say, I feel yet again more optimistic. We hear everyday bad things about the economy, poverty, death rates, war etc. It is not often that we hear positive things that are going on. Does this mean that they are not occurring? Doubtful. In order for the MDGs to happen, major things have to occur. Major things that cannot happen overnight. This means that they will slowly start to occur. And while I do not know for sure, but I do have a feeling it will be a snowball affect once all the minor details are in place.

Williams lists many facts in her article. These facts are the evidence that the MDGs are

headed in the right direction. She says, "newly infected people from HIV/AIDS declined from 3 million (1990) to 2.7 million (2007)." It is statistics like these that are promising. People say that four years is not enough time to accomplish the goals that need to be accomplished, but I am not sure I agree. It seems like a lot of work, I do agree with this but I do think we have the capabilities to do it. The MDG that will be the hardest to accomplish will be number eight, "to develop a global partnership for development." This goal is what community psychology is all about. It is about overcoming bias and opinions and working together.

            The videos assigned to watch this week associate closely to this. The speaker brought up a good point when he brought up the war in Iraq. He stated "why are we fighting in Iraq?" He then goes along to have a mini conversation with himself about how "we're in war with them because of 9/11 however Iraq is not the one who bombed us. So it is because of Al-Qaida? Well that is funny too because the two weren't that closely related either. So how did it come about?" He goes on to talk about how people have hatred for each other that just comes about because of differences and misunderstandings. If people could look past this and work together then it would make completing these goals such an easier task.

            The author also talks about how she wanted to spread the word about supporting different organizations, specifically in her case via facebook. This is exactly what is needed to be done to get people involved, I agree with her 100%. Like I stated before, before this class, I didn't know what the MDGs were. I have a strong guess that there are many people who also do not know about them. If more people were educated on the issue then maybe more people would be willing to want to change. We have the technology to change. The speaker himself even said we have too much technology! We have developed it too fast and became too smart. Therefore, I know that we do actually have it in us to figure out, with the tools we do have, how to use them correctly to achieve the correct goal efficiently and effectively.      

            I agree with the author, I want to try my best to get the word out. Even if these goals cannot be reached by 2015, they should be looked at as if they can be. Because if people start to look at them like they cannot be reached then they will lose hope and that means people will suffer. I don't want anyone else to suffer.

I think that the author did a great job touching on all the points of the Millennium Development Goals. I also think that she did a great job at providing detailed information about the goals and ways to improve each of the goals.  Although I do love her optimism about reaching the goals by 2015, unfortunately I do not believe that we will be partially close to reaching these goals by 2015. Realistically we are progressing toward these goals, but there are still a lot of things - natural disasters, economic crisis, etc. - that have halted some of the progression towards these goals.  Yet Christine is right in saying that "by setting a completion time we have improved a portion of the goals compared to 5-10 years ago." I do agree that if there were no completion date set for these goals, there would be no progression towards completing the eight goals and thus the successful completion of the Millennium Development Goals would be unrealistic.

Christine makes very valid points when she touches on the third goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women. Women are the lowest paid workers around the world in both developed and under developed nations. Even today women are still considered inferior compared to their male counter parts. In developed nations like the United States, women still do not make as much money as men. Like Christine says, even though women are given more job opportunities it doesn't change the fact that they are still under-paid and treated as though they are inferior. Today we see the rise of many Women's Rights Organizations that are fighting for gender equality around the world. Organizations like the "Global Fund for Women" work with women's organizations around the world to "build peace and end gender-based violence, advance health and sexual & reproductive rights, ensure economic and economic & environmental justice, expand civic and political participation, increase access to education and foster social change." It is through groups such as this one that we are slowly progressing towards the completion of the third goal. If you are interested in what this organization has to offer here is the link: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/index.php

Another good point Christine touches on is the fourth goal of reducing child mortality. I think a large part of reducing child mortality and improving the health of children would be providing them with clean water. Many under developed nations lack clean water and many people, most especially children are at risk of getting water borne illnesses. Without proper sanitation it makes it hard to prevent diseases. Although diseases such as malaria, HIV & Aids, measles, etc cannot be fully eradicated, we can take steps to prevent and deter them from happening. By taking on prevention methods like vaccinations we can increase the number of children surviving these diseases.

Although I do not believe we will reach the full completion of these goals by 2015, I think that we will continue to progress towards the completion of these goals in time. I do think that it takes one person to make a difference in the world. By educating others about the Millennium Development Goals and ways we can contribute in the development of these goals we can make a change. Teaching others and showing them how we can make a difference will convince others to make a change, which could result in a cycle of constant education and development. The more people we can educate, the more people we can help, and the closer we will be in achieving the MDGs.

           The thing I think that what the author did best with this post was citing statistics on how far along in achieving these goals that we actually are. When I first learned about these goals I was a bit skeptical but it was very reassuring to see how much progress the United Nations and other organizations have made towards completing them. Having said that, I still think that the overall structure of these goals was set up poorly. I think that it probably would have been smarter and make the U.N. look more credible if they would have set one goal at a time, allocated all their time, money, and resources to that, and gotten rid of that problem, then moved on to the next one. That, of course, is opposed to their approach of claiming that they're going to end all of the world's problems- problems that people have been trying to fix forever- in the fifteen years.

          The post was very thoughtful and well supported, so I have no complaints there, but one thing that irked me was the poster's paragraph on what her role is in making a difference. I obviously applaud the fact that she is passionate about helping the world and is doing whatever she can, but while I was reading her paragraph I just kept thinking, "That is the U.N.'s job." Again, I think it is our duty as people to help our fellow man, but still, if anyone has the time and resources to get these jobs done, it's the U.N., in fact, it's their whole job. This is what the people at the U.N. get paid to do, so why are they guilt tripping people with slow songs and pictures of crying babies?

        This leads me back to a point I touched on in my first post: it feels like the U.N. only set these goals to continue to receive funding. And that would be perfectly fine as long as they didn't claim that all this would be done in 15 years. The goals are just that, goals, so why did they put such a stiff time constraints on completing them? I'm very curious to see what the U.N. is going to say in 2015 when not even half of these goals have been completed.

Reading this article really made me start to think about my post from the previous week. My personal beliefs are that we will not be able to reach the MDG by 2015 since we have a lack of time and a lack of resources. I believe that filling all of these goals will take a lot more time to be reached and one of the key missing elements is the lack of public knowledge and awareness of these goals. This aspect isn't really addressed in the article. I think that this is something that is easily overlooked but is something so simple but important that it shouldn't be overlooked. With learning so much about these goals and the importance of community the author sees the importance of informing people with mentioning Twitter and Facebook. But I believe that there needs to be much more than social media to inform people on these issues but I believe that they need to be taught through the education system so that everyone who attends school will learn about issues such as the goals in the MDG.

While the author did cause me to start questioning if these goals can be met or not I still believe that these goals can't be reached by the deadline set by the UN. Although they have made some very impressive improvements on the goals they are still very far from their target goals. The improvements made by each goal are the most important piece when analyzing the success of the MDG.

            What I really enjoyed about this article is how the author really showed the progress of each individual goal with individual statistics. The statistics that the author listed were very informative but also extremely engaging really making me think on how much things have changed yet how far we really are from completing the MDG. A perfect example of the statistics that were able to not only inform the reader but get them really engaged is "When it comes to hunger it is just as poverty and is slowly being reached. From 1990 to 2006 undernourished children under 5 has decreased from 33% to 26% but still leaves 140 million." This quote really caught my interest and made me really see how far we have come but how much further we have to go to try and complete any of the goals.  These types of facts that show progress but also show what else is needed to inform but also motivate people to stand up and make a difference.

            Overall I felt the enthusiasm and passion that the author had in regards to the MDG and the globalization of our world. With the progress that has been made on these goals I hope that we continue working on trying to accomplish them. Although Christine and I disagree on the time frame set up by the UN I think that the continue progress of these goals will help our world flourish and create a stronger globalized community.

The author did an excellent job outlining and explaining all of the Millennium Development Goals in detail. I liked how after she provided a brief overview of each goal, she shared somewhat of a personal opinion on each. Her article was very informative and refreshing to read because she provided a great amount of enthusiasm.

I thought that one of the author's main viewpoints in this article was that she believed that all eight of the Millennium Development Goals will have been progressed by 2015, but not yet completed. I could not agree more. I feel that there are many efforts across the globe to reach these goals, and although awareness could be improved, it is no secret that these underdeveloped countries are in dire need for all of these goals to be reached. I agree with what she wrote about large numbers of people being helped along the way. In the UN's effort to reach all of these goals, whether they are achieved by 2015 or not, people in these countries will undoubtedly benefit from the progress made.

In closing I think that Christine had a very positive, encouraging view on the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. I liked her optimism in the matter and it got me a bit more on board as far as my faith in the UN's abilities to further progress and possibly reach each of the eight aspirations. Like the author, I am skeptical that all of these goals can be fully reached in the next four years, however I have high hopes that the UN will be able to move closer toward the achievement. Ultimately I think a big change that needs to happen is people's level of involvement and their commitment to improving the issues at hand. Like Christine mentioned, it is important for as many people to participate in making these changes as possible, rather than leaving it in the hands of higher powers such as the government. I think that this was one of the most important messages her article sent out; it is the global community's job as a whole to come together and help these developing countries. It is of the utmost important for the world to unite and find a solution, and press on toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. 

I agree with the author that some of the goals may be closer to being met by 2015, while others may take a number of years to accomplish. The author did a great job in giving more background informationabout the eight goals. I felt like i learned a lot from this article about the struggles these countries are going through and how the economy crisis negatively effected them. I had no idea that the prices of food and vaccines became more expensive and unafforable.  I also didn't realize how the climate change was effecting them along with global warming.

It is so horrible to hear how human beings, our own brothers and sisters are dying of stravation, curable diseases, child birth, etc. Despite the horribleness i agree 100% that we can band together and help these countries achieve these goals. The programs will and are saving lives. I see so much success in it as it countinues to grow with more members. It is extremely important as a vast community of countires that we educate our friends, family, peers, government, and local communties about these eight goals and how we can help. If we can find a way to better promote and stress the importance of involvement and community we can reach these goals. People do want to help, but they only way we can do that is by being part of a community. This community being to directed to accomplish these goals (:

This post is extremely informative and very well written.  I agree with this student with everything she spoke about.  I think it was a very well thought out opinion and I enjoy the fact that she goes through each goal one at a time.

I really like the fact that she incorporated oil and rising food prices into her statement.  A lot of people don't think about the fact that there are a lot of external elements that have a impact on these goals besides the problems that the goals are trying to fix themselves.  Myself personally, didn't have my thoughts focused on how oil prices have affected the world, especially the United States.  People are struggling to live day to day, with the cost of groceries increasing, the soaring gas prices, and the continuing rise of education costs.

I like her point about trying to make education more accessible to further progress the world as a whole.  When I was thinking about the world education.  I stopped at primary education.  I love how she sees secondary education as much of a necessity as primary education.  However, I think that making secondary education in third world country as important as primary is "jumping the gun" a little at this point.  The UN's main priority is to get elementary, junior, and high schools in every country for children to attend.  They also need to enforce it by law the same as it is in the United States.  Now in regards to secondary education in the United States, I believe we need to work towards making secondary education more affordable.  Although the government has made wonderful strides in the expansion of loans and grants, education is seeing increases in costs almost yearly, with no increases in loans or grants.  Secondary education is almost starting to become too expensive for the current salaries of common day jobs.  If the average person in the most wealthy country in the world cannot afford secondary education, how can we expect a third world country to make secondary education somewhat routine?

Another part of her article that I enjoyed was the fact that she brought up prevention of pregnancies and spreading education about sex and HIV/AIDS protection.  I strongly believe in the campaign to reduce the number of HIV/AIDS cases as well as unplanned pregnancy.  These two issues go hand in hand, especially in Africa where we see the largest number of HIV/AIDS cases.  I believe that educating populations about contraception and abstinence would really be able to help both causes at the same time.  

I do believe that the Millennium Goals are a great effort to combat many of the world's largest issues.  I agree with the author very much that just the fact that we have these goals in place is a huge accomplishment for our population.  Even though we may not reach all of these goals by the year 2015, these benchmarks will still be in place for our world to work towards to create a more unified and cohesive planet.

The posted article on the UN Millennium Development Goals and its progress by Christine Williams was a great perspective read. Its content, in addition to the statistics provided, made a deliberate attempt to reach out to the reader that the UN Millennium Development goals can be attained with persistence and the full use of resources available to us all. Whether it is volunteering locally at an organization that will help reach the goals, or simply by providing information or access to the various portholes via our modern social media hubs, such as Facebook and Twitter.
We may be short in fulfilling some of the goals outlined in the UN Millennium Development Goals. For example Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality , according to
www.un.org child deaths are decreasing , however, not fast enough to reach the targeted year of 2015. According to the same website, developing countries are still dealing with maternal and neonatal tetanus disease, also known as the "silent killer" because many newborns that fall victim to this disease live in poor remote areas and are most likely never reported. As I read that information from the website, I could not help to ponder on how much of the information/statistic we have received is accurate or plentiful, in respects to providing a full and complete progress of the UN MDG 8. The majority of the goals set to be accomplished are, in large effort, for the benefit of developing countries, but considering that many people who need the help and assistance live in remote and hard to reach areas, a true depiction of current progress will ever be a true statistic.
I believe the most important goal that should be at the forefront of all , not only will it solidify and unite great powers and ideas but most importantly it will hold all countries accountable for their part in reaching the Millennium Development Goals is Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development. An important point made by Dr. Josh Gonzales in the Institute on Community lecture, he states "As the world grew, the spaces between us, as cultural and social groups, diminished." This statement can certainly be interpreted many ways: one must be understanding and tolerant of your neighbors beliefs and cultural practices or the fact that we live in such a densely populated planet we need to part take in a eugenic movement in order to sort out the ineffectual and incompetent individuals or communities. The latter is an extreme choice reminiscent of Nazi holocaust against non-Aryan groups, that I hope never becomes a tragic reality again. Christine pointed out that different communities need to come together from around the world to hear and collect ideas from each other and combine their ideas to maximize their potential and possibly reach "more productive results." Without a cohesive, unified partnership throughout the participating Nations -all other goals will not be achieved. Goal 8 Target 8.A states, "commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction..." in addition to sustaining basic healthy human life for all, the UN Millennium Development Goals can be achieved. The UCP-SAR net leadership group provides a great platform and an outstanding forum to help promote and provide tools to assist in achieving the ultimate goal of accountability for the well being of your fellow human.

In reviewing the author's article I found her comments insightful.  So many of the MDG's are intertwined.  Without improvement in one area, you will not have improvement in another area, creating a domino effect.

I agree that the economic crisis has stunted efforts in eradicating extreme hunger and poverty.  However, I think many are forced into poverty not only from food and oil prices, but other factors as well such as conflict in developing countries, disease and illness, and employment to population ratios.  In her statement regarding child workers, she states that "children need to stop working… and focus on school."  However, many children are forced to work out of necessity for providing food for their families.  Perhaps for these children, school is not a main concern as survival is simply at the forefront.  However, according to the 2011 UN MDG report, poverty rates may fall to 15%, below the 23% goal, but hunger is not following the same trend, unlike the claims in her article.

In regard to MDG 2 (achieve universal primary education), the author seems to imply that gender inequality in education is solely an issue for the poor.  However, women are denied the right to attend school in many levels of socioeconomic status.  Although poor women are the mostly likely to be out of school, according to the UN, I think we should still be aware that lack of education is not only an issue for the poor but encompasses many levels of income.

I agreed with her statements regarding gender equality and empowerment.  Although women are slowly gaining access to parliamentary positions, the ratios of women to men in politics is simply too low.  More women need to be afforded opportunities to represent women in an underrepresented area.  As many political issues affect the prosperity and welfare of women, more women need to be given the opportunity to voice their opinions and views.  Without this, the empowerment of women will not be a reality.  Also, I liked the fact that after exposing the staggering statistics given by the UN in reference to childhood mortality, she made a point to include optimistic details, in particular that the majority of children had received vaccinations.  I believe only including daunting details may hinder some efforts in bringing change.  I found her statements regarding other MDG's to be accurate with the excpeption of the unavailability of contraceptives leading to a risk of unaffordable schooling.  I would have liked to see a bit more elaboration on this subject to clarify her point as it is unclear.  Also, technological innovation is important in reaching the goals and in creating awareness.  However, even with the goals being met, access to these innovations will still be available only to select communities for quite some time.

Christine's statements of the "need to come together" rings true for local and global efforts.  Local community leaders and volunteers need the support of the global community in order to reach their goals.  Perhaps this is where many leaders are failing in reaching their commitment to fulfilling the MGD's.  Are leaders genuinely committed or are they simply adhering to standards presented by the UN?  Are they listening to the people?  On a smaller scale, are volunteers and community organizations dedicated to helping every individual?  Have they committed themselves based on personal guilt in a privileged society and detached themselves from the 'underprivileged?'  I believe many people feel so far removed from a situation or community, for instance individuals from developing countries, that they have become desensitized.  It is 'us' and 'them.'  Public awareness is key in developing communities for change. 

I applaud Christine's efforts in creating awareness within her own community and becoming actively involved in volunteer efforts.  Many people ask themselves, "what can I do?  I am just one person."  We as individuals can make a difference.  Small numbers do add up to larger ones.  If everyone becomes actively involved in pursuing humanitarian goals, we can make a change.  As Christine and many of us have stated in the forums, despite the fact that some goals are not likely to be met, look at how far the MDG's have come in creating change and improving the lives of others.  Percentages may seem dismal on paper, but when you count each individual that the MDG's have helped, the end result is much more optimistic and enlightening.  I believe many of us, in simply choosing to take this course, feel at the very least compelled to make a difference in our communities, locally and/or globally. It is a first step for some and perhaps yet another step for others in building a global partnership for change.  We need not "lose sight of the people community interventions are designed to 'help,'" but rather we need to begin "listening… rather than constructing… and make visible the invisible"  (Nelson, Prilleltensky, pg. 42). 

                I can say that I agree with most of the author's opinions about the MDG's.  I see why she would be hesitant about reaching all of these goals by the year 2015.  I think while some are achievable others are not.

                The first goal she discussed was the goal of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty.  I agree that it is harder to get food especially because the prices have gone up.  Even oil has gone up, so for people who live in rural areas that have to drive to get food now they have to pay more for not only food but also for gas.  I think employment for adults needs to definitely be a focus so people can have money to pay for food or even to start growing their own food.  From this goal she is able to tie it in with a couple others that make sense.  The goal to educate children has made a lot of progress but there is still much more to go.  These two goals definitely tie in with each other especially for our future.  If we are able to educate more children then more jobs will be filled and more money will be made to be able to afford simple things like food, water and shelter.  Achieving this goal will also help other goals like improving the life of children under five.  If we educate more children then more of them can become doctors, nurses, dentist, etc. that can help keep our future children healthy and safe.  This will reduce the number of children under five deaths by so much more.  Even though we have decreased the number of deaths by 7% from 1999 to 2006, there are still 140 million children that are not getting enough food and are undernourished.  I absolutely agree with the author that we need to empower women and educate more women and girls in all countries.  I think the U.S. has come very far in having a woman run for president and even though she did not win she was one of the top four candidates.  I think even that shows a huge improvement.  We also have many women in high power seats and in all ranks of politics too.  I hope that other countries are able to see our improvement and want to follow us.  For some of the other goals such as maternal health and preventing HIV/AIDS, the author talks a lot about contraception and I think this is important for anyone to know about.  Contraception can help to prevent unwanted pregnancies and also from getting HIV/AIDS. 

                I think it is great that this student actually took action in trying to help improve these MDG's by getting people to donate money to charities that need help achieving these goals and also by putting it on her Facebook so it makes more people aware of what is going on, especially if most people here do not know what's happening with the rest of the world.  I know I just learned about the MDG's in this class and I feel like I do need to be doing something about it.  I think Facebook and other social networking places are a great way to start.  Also finding legitimate places to donate your money is another way to help.  I think this author is very admirable and I hope she continues doing this for the world and not just while she was in the class.

There was a very effective and important tie between the two main points of the article.  One point being that each Millenium Development Goal should be treated individually with and that it is not unrealistic to make personal contirbutions to the causes.  The article made a good point to point out that if the goals were not developed at all, regradless if they reached the 2015 deadline or not, that they have helped to allocate resources to areas and issues that have been defined.  Defining the issues makes them more real.  Setting a date to solve issues gives a concept of time to these issues and offering wawys to contribute helps to make the process of helping seem more feasible.  It is important to not be bogged down by a sense of overwhelming pessimism about these issues and instead strive to understand them so that we may better understand how to begin to fix them.  THe author did a good job at portraying a realistic and informed approach to these problems. 

  As mentioned in the Discussion Segment of the Jose Gonzalez lecture, community is defined not just by physical proximity but by ideas and goals. When people can collaborate collectively towards a common goal, the role of the community is optimized. 

  As shown in our textbook, in the U.S., psychological trends seem to go between treating the social environment and celebrating and bullding strenghths and "blaming the victim" and pointing out the problems and deconstructing.  This polarity between approaches to domestic issues may reflect why global issues have not been completely erradicated.  Without clearly defining community and establishing goals and purposes, it will be hard to acknowledge and fix problems on a global scale. 

I found this article inspiring. I definitely agree with the author's assertion that all of the MDG will not be reached by 2015, but substantial progress should indeed be made. It us up to us all to spread the word about humanitarianism by alerting others of both the MDG's and about how we can all be involved in bringing them into fruition. I do not think it would be reasonable to expect that all goals EVER be completed entirely, but if we can keep making continual progress then we can definitely improve the quality of life around the world. In regards to goal #1 (eradicate extreme poverty), i find it difficult to accept that we've increased food production yet poverty has increased. I do believe that we should concern ourselves first and foremost with the quality of the food that we are producing in order to grow healthy bodies and minds. Countries should be encouraged more to harvest and nationalize their natural resources so that the people of the country are all able to reap the reward of the riches that inhabit their land and to improve the country's economy. I do not think it will be possible to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015, but if we can help teach other countries how to harvest their own natural goods we can put lesser developed countries on their way to self sufficiency. I have mixed feelings on universal primary education. I believe that it would be great to have a universal level of knowledge that all people are aware of. I believe there should be international goals that the world at large (much like the MDGs) that all people are aware of and thus are striving to achieve improvement in certain areas, but i do not believe that we should have such universal knowledge that limits or takes away from the rich knowledge/beliefs in any way. I think destroying culture in an attempt to globalize the world would be nothing short of genocide. As far as local education there needs incentive to educate, i do not believe in the mass institutionalization of education, I do believe that all should have access to education, but i do not believe that institutionalized education is the best way to educate people. 

I do believe full heartedly in the empowerment of women. Women and Men are counterparts. We can push for the empowerment of women by illustrating the success that women have here in the western world. Women have proven to be highly competent just as much if not more so than men. Statistically women tend to have more success in education than men, and psychology has also illustrated that women and men tend to think differently. Women tend to use both sides of their brain when solving problems while men tend to use more of 1 side than the other. Together, competent men and women should be able to provide a natural catalyst for one another by nature alone, thus improving the equality of education in women around the world should lead to a better balance of equality in general and in regards to the amount of power in pushing our world to be a better place to live. I definitely agree with the author on her stance on this matter. 

I do disagree with the author in her stance on Child Mortality/Maternal health. I think Child Mortality has not been improving nor do I think it will. These are the only MDGs i see in this light, but I think it is more because of the medicine industry. The average American cannot afford quality healthcare, so it seems unreasonable to believe that countries that are still developing can be much better off. The pharmaceutical industry is notorious for putting potentially dangerous medicines on the market. Also it is ridiculous that so many students in America endure a lifetime of schooling to have their 3.5 GPA be insufficient to enter medical school. With so much disease around the world the idea of turning away reasonably qualified individuals from learning medicine seems ludicrous to me. Couple that with ridiculous rates for treatment and i think the medicine industry has a boatload of issues that need to be addressed before we can consider that medicine industry in a sufficient position to make significant changes to Child mortality or maternal health (MDG #5). Medicine is just too expensive, we should be exploring natural rememdies to the illnesses and conditions that are most common. I also believe that for this reason MDG #6 will also be hard to achieve, but I think the cure for HIV/AIDS (as well as diseases like Diabetes) should be one of our top priorities since so many members of the human family have met their demise by way of this virus. Our children need to be educated about sex and not hidden from it. It is my belief that the United States has not done very well in dealing with teenagers discovering their sexuality. I think gays have not had the counsel that they need discovering themselves as young adults, and i think that straight teenagers have also not been passed down healthy attitudes about sex.

I think environmental sustainability can easily be reached (well not easily), but simply by each country taking a family approach to their countries. Take care of the citizens at home, then make a contribution to the community at large. A microcosm of this idea would be taking care of your family before you help your neighbors. Thinking about it like this it would not make sense for the father to buy his neighbor's shoes children before he has fed his own children first. America and all other countries should first worry about fixing their largest issues at home whether that is poverty, disease, famine, etc, each country's first priority should be to its home citizens first. From there each citizen should be educated that to be a good contributor to the success of your community is the highest form of good achievable. There is nothing better than doing what is right for your family and your extended family which, should be, the community.

I do not think it is possible to reach goal #8 before MDG #7 is reached, but once goal #7 is reached i agree with the author that the sharing of knowledge and information between groups of people is very instrumental to survival and also to forming great societies to live in. I think the first step we should make towards this goal would be to stop producing/investing in weapons and start producing/investing in peace arrangements and partnerships. If the U.S. had of saved all the money from the war in Iraq/Afghanistan/ and on "terrorism," may have had the finances to diplomatically influence whatever changes it is we are looking to undertake in the middle East (whether or not we need to be making changes in a foreign land to begin with is another debate, but assuming we have to i think there better ways to have done this).

In all I'll do my part by spreading the word about the MDG. I think the author of this article has a lot of great ideas and has a very clear perspective and I agree with her for the most part, but there are some minor things I would change ( i have stated them earlier). This is the type of discussion that needs to take place in order to improve our world. Great read.