ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Individuals should take the initiative to fight poverty even if it means taking one small step at a time and not look towards external forces for the solution of their problems.

This was the consensus reached at the poverty session on the first day of the international conference on youth and promotion of human development organized by the Society for the Advancement of Community Health, Education and Training (Sachet) here on Sunday.

Expressing her appreciation of the fact that Sachet’s programmes were funded by Pakistanis, Nilofer Bakhtiar, adviser to the prime minister, said we should exploit our own resources instead of looking towards international donor agencies. “Why do we want to teach our children to beg?”

You are not born with your destiny. “Destiny is what you make for yourself,” she added, addressing the youth in the audience.

Dr Najma Sadiq of the Green Economic and Globalization Initiative, Shirkat Gah, said: “I have lost faith in the leaders of the time who have failed us after their half a century of chance.” Our only hope lies in the youth who are the leaders of tomorrow. The underlying causes of our disempowerment must be addressed if we are to protect our sovereignty.

No nation is more powerfully placed for economic development than an agricultural country which forms the base for all industry. Modernization plans encouraged and funded by World Bank and IMF have only increased poverty and inequality. “They should be disbanded because they are propagating colonialization by different means,” she added. Because of the high interest rates, several generations have been trapped in debt, creating the tyranny and monopoly of the rich.

According to the Lugano report, a secret document that leaked out from the West, there are not enough resources to sustain the world population which needs to be halved in the Third World through military intervention and family planning. The North has appropriated 83 per cent of the world’s resources.

The remaining 5 billion people make do with 17 per cent. They want to appropriate the remaining share through their development institutions which are actually commercial banks in disguise.

“Elitism is endowed in our leadership”, said Dr Sadiq. They are born to lead and the majority needs to listen to them only and accept their views. For this the masses have to be kept ignorant because truth will make them free.

“You are in the process of being thrown into a world of free trade, competition and free markets,” she said. This is an illusion as the WTO documents illustrate. Their conditions are a total violation of economic rights which are in essence human rights. They ensure that trade is free only for the West.— Hajra Illahi