A friend recently sent me this quotation from Robert F Kennedy in a speech he made 40 years ago in 1968. It is still fresh today:
 
“Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product… counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts... the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”  University of Kansas March 18th 1968.

Recently French President Sarkozy launched a report he had commissioned to look into more appropriate ways of assessing and measuring quality of life in nations, which go beyond the narrow emphasis on economic growth.  The report, written by Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, recommends a shift of emphasis from a ‘production-oriented’ measurement system to one focused on the well-being of current and future generations.

"Our economy is supposed to increase our well-being; it is not an end in itself," said Stiglitz at the launch of the report. "GDP statistics were introduced to measure market economic activity. But they are increasingly thought of as a measure of societal well-being, which they are not."
For more information see www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/14/sarkozy-attacks-gdp-focus

Some encouraging campaigning initiatives happening around the world this month:

• Over 270 people met with 130 politicians in Canberra, Australia last week. That means over 50% of politicians were visited by Micah Challenge. Six Christian leaders from Pacific and Asian nations were also involved to learn more about advocacy and to contribute their ideas. The Prime Minister spoke in Parliament House about the importance of justice in the Bible. http://www.christiantoday.com/article/australian.pm.backs.poverty.bible/24219.htm.
• Mozambique is the latest country to begin a Micah Challenge campaign (thanks to JP in Portugal for encouraging this new campaign)
• Leaders from Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Timor Leste are interested in developing Micah Challenge campaigns too.
• Welcome to the Swiss German campaign coordinator, Peter Seeberger.  It is good to have him linked in.
• The prayer for 10.10.10 is attached. Other language versions of this are being prepared. We have written to 10 Christian leaders around the world asking them to endorse the prayer. I am working on a children's version with VIVA network and YWAM.

Please keep in touch about what is happening in your campaign. We need you to talk to us! We are finalising the Micah Challenge Case for Support and need your stories to make our funding proposals vibrant and real.

This month for 10.10.10, please try to do the following:

• ask national leaders to endorse the prayer
• contact groups outside your usual networks that you need to liase with eg UNMC, GCAP, Pentecostal groups, Catholic groups, climate action groups
• identify the key dates over the next year

 Amanda Jackson
for Micah Challenge International Team