[Borgen Project] Trade for Good! Day Announced in Financial Markets

One Day of Trading Can Wipe Out Millennium Goals Shortfall

(CSRwire) SEATTLE/LOS ANGELES - Dow Jones MarketWatch columnist Thomas M. Kostigen and Borgen Project founder Clint Borgen are leading an initiative to create A Day of Goodwill in the financial markets through their Trade for Good! campaign.

Approximately 19 billion shares of stock trade throughout the world on a daily basis. There is approximately a $19 billion shortfall to reach the United Nation Millennium Goal of poverty elimination.

“It doesn’t take a math genius to juxtapose the numbers and see the solution,” says Kostigen.

On September 2000, The UN adopted the Millennium Development Goals, and made a formal declaration to: “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.”

There are eight Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, halving those living on less then one dollar per day, by the year 2015.

But the annual shortfall pushes the achievement of those goals back -- indefinitely.

Trade for Good! calls for one day where the global financial industry -- investors, brokerages, exchanges -- joins together to eliminate poverty.

Borgen says, “Trade for Good! isn’t really a capital raising campaign, so much as it’s a capital redirection campaign toward a cause that will not only save lives but will create 4 billion more consumers on the planet. This is in everyone’s best interest. War, conflict, disease -- today’s headlines -- are all poverty-related.”


December is typically the heaviest trading month in the financial markets. The exact date, and the logistics of Trade for Good! capital re-direction campaign will be announced in the coming months.

Meanwhile, exchanges, brokerages, investors and the financial media worldwide are being solicited to join the Trade for Good! campaign.

Major organizations, institutions and associations have already embraced the concept.

Kostigen notes that every one prospers from the Trade for Good! campaign because it will bring more positive attention and people to the financial markets, increasing trading volume and worldwide capital while at the same time helping to eradicate poverty. “It’s good capitalism at work,” he says.

A Presidential Proclamation for A Day of Goodwill in the financial markets is also being sought.

[Global Poverty] Make Poverty History to Gather 100,000 in Pre-G8 Summit Edinburgh Protest

Wednesday, May 4 , 2005, 13:15 (UK)
Christian Today

Details have been released by the Make Poverty History campaign that a huge march is being planned to take place in Edinburgh, Scotland during this summer. The initiative will see about 100,000 people join in a four-day protest before the G8 Summit takes place at Gleneagles.

Make Poverty History is the UK component of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, an international coalition of people and organisations from all sectors and walks of life who are uniting to tackle global poverty in 2005.

The campaign has already received huge publicity due to the backing and support of various celebrities and famous television stars – and the Edinburgh event will follow this similar pattern, as icons gather with others from all walks of life on 2nd July in an attempt to turn the world’s eyes once again to the poverty in the world.

The organisers have told how they are hoping that 100,000 people will gather at the Meadows, and then united walk through the city centre – in a call for immediate action to be taken by the G8 leaders.

Some have voiced their concerns that the sheer number of people gathering and the strong feelings towards the issues could see the march getting disrupted by violent protestors. However, the Make Poverty History campaign representatives have assured people they believe there will not be any such trouble.

The organisers are hoping that the event will be historical and have even asked for all those that attend to wear white so that as the march goes forward they can replicate the Make Poverty History wristband from an aerial view.

Judith Robertson from Make Poverty History said: "They're people from all walks of life, from the Mother's Union, the Girls' Brigade, the Boys' Brigade, from Oxfam, Christian Aid, from the churches, the trade union movement. Over 400 organisations in Britain have joined up to this movement."

[MDGs] UNICEF to halve extreme poverty by 2015

New York (VNA) - The newly-elected chief of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, has promised that the United Nations agency will advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at improving basic services for the poor and halving extreme poverty by 2015.

In a press statement released after she was elected on May 2 as UNICEF chief, Ms Veneman said "The objective of the MDGs reflect the hope of all governments around the world, and because they have a special emphasis on child poverty, the UNICEF will play its role to achieve these goals."

However, she admitted that continued success for UNICEF depends on its cooperation with governments, non-governmental organisations and other UN agencies.

"To strengthen UNICEF cooperation with its partners around the world means to accelerate its goal of reducing poverty, malnutrition, and disease, in addition to protecting the children from violence and abuse," Ann said.