Millennium Development Goals

Why Millennium Development Goals Are Essential to Our Nation We live in a world that is dangerously out of balance. There are 1.1 billion people living on less than one dollar a day, an additional 1.7 billion people living on less than 2 dollars a day, more than 115 million children uneducated, and over 40 million people are HIV positive. These numbers show that there is great misery and unnecessary death in our world and that billions of people have little opportunity to lead a decent life and fully use their potential to develop as human beings. For the first time in human history there is an extremely powerful consensus in which the global community is attempting to work together in the hopes of ensuring that all people, everywhere, have a decent standard of living. This consensus is known as the Millennium Declaration which was set up in September of 2000 by the 189 member states of the United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were established in this Declaration provide the opportunity for a significant decrease in the dangerous imbalance between developed and developing nations. Committing to these goals is necessary for two reasons: we are all human beings and have inalienable rights to life, and it is in our best interests to create a prospering global society in order to promote a high level of national security.
Principle of Mercy: The Need to Meet Human Rights As human beings we are called to identify ourselves with all other human beings. We have to let ourselves be affected by the struggles that 2.8 billion people experience each day due to inadequate funds, lack of education, and lack of health care. Sobrino speaks of the principle of mercy which requires us to not only become aware of the injustices around the world, but to react to them and do everything possible to eradicate the issues completely. Jesus tells us what it takes to be a complete human being in the narrative of the Good Samaritan and defines it as follows: "the