Endingpoverty
is the passion of former
Oak Parker Jeffley Sachs.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
C
ailing someone a high profile economist
might sound like an oxymoron, but Dr.
Jeffrey D. Sachs, 50, a 1973 graduate of
Oak Park High School, has elevated his profile even
higher with hii new book, The End of Poverty:
Id' Sachs with children in Koraro, Ethiopia, last
February.
Economic Possibilities for Our Time.
www.earth.columbia.edu .
The book is just the latest of Sachs' efforts to tell
They include:
everyone he can about the practicality, morality and
• Fulfilling the U.S. commitment to increase annual
economic benefit of ending poverty in the poorest
aid from $16 billion to about $75 billion.
countries in the world. It seems to be
• Ensuring that funding goes to the peo-
working, as it is the talk of talking
ple, not the bureau-
heads, editorialists, policy-makers and
crats.
pundits.
• Promoting simple
Though not selling as briskly as Jane
solutions: bed nets to
Fonda's new autobiography, a lengthy
stop mosquitoes and
excerpt of the book was featured in the March 14
quinine to treat the malaria they
issue of Time, which called him "a celebrity econo-
spread could save 1-3 million
mist ... a brand name. A player." Six weeks later, it
African children a year.
included him on its list of the 100 most influential
Spreading The Word
people in the world for the second year in a row.
He also has the high-powered help of his pal
In 2002, Sachs was lured away
Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, who
from Harvard University in
has worked with Sachs since 1999. Bono took a
Cambridge, Mass., where he'd
crash course from Sachs when he became deeply
studied, become a tenured pro-
involved in the Jubilee 2000 project'to forgive Third fessor at age 28 and taught for
World debt. That year, they both met with Pope
22 years to become director of
John Paul II. It was Sachs' second visit.
the Earth Institute at Columbia
Sachs returns to Michigan to speak about his
University.
book — and his passion — at the Birmingham
The Institute calls itself the
Temple at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5. His appear-
"world's leading academic center
ance will honor the memory of his father, Theodore
for the integrated study of Earth,
"Ted" Sachs, a prominent labor attorney and leading its environment and society ...
Democratic Party activist who died in 2001. (See
[mobilizing] science and technol-
accompanying story)
ogy to advance sustainable devel-
"It's about the three T's' — people, planet and
opment, while placing special
prosperity," says Dr. Debra Rowe, professor of ener-
emphasis on the needs of the
gy technologies and behavioral science at Oakland
world's poor." It has 19 research
Community College, who serves on the committee
divisions and a $52 million
bringing Sachs to town.
research budget. Bono serves on
She says Sachs' skills and high profile help build the its external advisory board.
constituency needed to get real action on the issues.
Sachs' move to New York came
"We're bringing him to expand the knowledge of
just six months after United
what is possible in terms of making the world a bet-
Nations Secretary-General Kofi
ter place and the important role we can all play,"
Annan appointed him as his spe-
Rowe says. "It's not about listening to him and say-
cial adviser on the U.N.'s
ing, `.Wow!' It's about listening to him and saying,
Millennium Development Goals
`Yes, we can create this."
designed to halve global poverty
Sachs has many specific ideas to end poverty that
by 2015 and end it by 2025.
are detailed on the Web sites of the United Nations
Sachs believes there is a way to
Millennium Project, www.unmillenniumproject.org , end world poverty, just not the
and ongoing research of the Earth Institute at
will. While the resources and
Columbia University in New York City,
know-how are available, in large
part thanks to his efforts, he's the first to admit
there is not yet a constituency in America to do so.
"Americans are not, in general, aware of the
nature of the crisis of the poorest of the poor, how
solvable the crises are and how relatively little we are
doing to solve them," he says.
"The push needs to be in Congress and the execu-
tive branch and, unfortunately, it is not in either
place right now," he says. "It has been a matter of
significant bi-partisan neglect. Frankly, our leaders
aren't doing much of a job to try to find out them-
selves or to explain it to the American people. It's a
mistake of leadership."
COVER STORY
4/28
2005
16
Rock singer Bono
shows his high regard
fbrfillow poverty
fighter Jeff Sachs.