Jeffrey Sachs: Everybody hates the poors

Princeton's American Whig-Cliosophic Society awarded Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and sustainable development professor Jeffrey Sachs the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service tonight.Sachs, who also serves as a special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told the audience that rich nations need to remember that they have a responsibility to aid developing countries, as well as the less fortunate. It's easy to ignore addressing poverty, Sachs said, and we do it. All of us. Even you. And especially Ronald Reagan and his "welfare queens," a mocking phrase that launched us into what Sachs called a "war on the poor," as opposed to "the war on poverty."

"We need a change of ideas in this country. And I think we got the best hope of that...but we also have absolutely no assurance of fundamental change. We're still stuck in some very very deep ideas in this country. We still have not come to the notion that we have to take care of each other and that's a collective and political responsibility, not just a moral and individual responsibility."

Sachs discussed the lack of aid for poor developing countries and criticized developed countries for ignoring the crucial problems causing instability in volatile areas like Somalia --problems that involve basic needs like water and food.

"Where people are hungry, there's a lot of instability. And that instability turns into violence and it turns into conflict and then it eventually usually turns in to bombing -- by the United States."

Sachs then cited Afghanistani reports of U.S. bombing that killed several civilians yesterday.And our huge environmental impact also needs to be addressed immediately, Sachs says:

"Our impact on the planet is now so pervasive. We're seeing it everywhere. When I go to villages in Africa, we see more varaibility in rainfall, more frequent droughts. We're seeing more loss of biodiversity. We're seeing river flow in many parts of the world significantly reduced."

Fun facts:

• Sachs' "favorite newspaper in the world" is the Financial Times.
• Sachs thinks Obama is the best president in generations! "I love the guy."