With over 100 million thrown into poverty and unemployment, experts agree we urgently need a global jobs plan to stop the recession. Gordon Brown has appealed to Avaaz for a massive outcry to persuade the G20 group of nations to act - watch Brown's appeal and sign the petition below:
- The global recession has already plunged over 100 million people into poverty and unemployment -- and our governments are making things even worse. Former UK PM Gordon Brown has sent an urgent video appeal to Avaaz to help turn the tide.
- Brown is backing a legion of top economists that have urged key governments to launch a coordinated global investment plan that saves millions from grinding hardship. But governments are doing the opposite -- going it alone, slashing spending, and blaming each other.
- French President Sarkozy is the new chair of the G20 (the group of 20 largest economies), and is setting its agenda right now. Let's raise a massive outcry for a new Jobs and Justice plan, to be personally delivered to Sarkozy when we reach 500,000 voices:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
The global recession has already put 34 million people out of work and thrown 60 million people into poverty, but governments across the world are doing exactly the wrong thing: proposing deep cuts to public services, implementing protectionist policies and reducing global development assistance – plans that destroy still more livelihoods and threaten our social fabric.
This is a familiar story: in the 1930s, amidst the Great Depression, governments sought to "reassure the markets" by slashing services and balancing budgets. But this backfired entirely: the cuts shut more and more of their citizens out of the economy, which only made the economic crisis worse. It's precisely when the markets are failing that governments must step in together to fill the gap.
We have already lost a great deal of ground, but it's not too late. The discredited economists who spurred the old bubble economy are giving way to a new wave of fresh thinkers -- including, surprisingly, the powerful International Monetary Fund, which is finally stepping away from its past insistence that countries in crisis cut their budgets. Brown and other prominent figures are making the rounds to world leaders to encourage this global plan. But they are the first to say that they need a mass movement to make it happen. Let's raise our voices now for leadership to create jobs and protect citizens from poverty:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
Economic collapses can threaten everything we care about. When countries turn inwards, they abandon cooperation on issues like climate change, fighting global poverty and nuclear disarmament. They blame each other and groups of their own citizens -- leading to xenophobia, conflict and, as in the 1930s, the rise of awful political movements like fascism. But cooperation can build success upon success: as we recognize that our destinies are interlinked, a joint recovery can pave the way to the world we all believe in. Let's seize this moment to raise a cry for that greater vision -- of an economy that lifts us all towards a brighter future.
With hope,
FOCUS ON VOCABULARY
-Translate these expressions;
Massive outcry to turn the tide slashing spending to blame each other
to implement protectionist policies governments must step in together to fill in the gap
QUESTIONS;
1- What is the proposal of this organization?
2- Why do we have to send it to President Sarkozy?
3- Who is Brown? (you can watch the video)
4-Why does the article suggest that the governments are doing the wrong thing to tackle the problem? Who or what may be behind the government policies?
5- How was the crisis in the 1930s solved?
6- How has the International Monetary Fund changed its ideas about the crisis?
7- What are the dangers of countries turning inwards?
8- What may be the magic word, according to the text? Choose one.
a stronger leadership cooperation stronger national governments economists
