Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

§ We intoxicate ourselves with medicines that are supposed to cure us.
§ We intoxicate us with air and water pollution. We intoxicate us with bad intention 
and negative thoughts.
§ We intoxicate ourselves with bad human interactions.
The UN Charter begins with “We The People” and it is we the people that must not 
relinquish the responsibility of our individual and collective actions in resolving, once in 
for all, each and every MDG. We should wait no longer. It is you and me who will 
resolve the problems facing humanity. It is not some sort of organization, or bureaucratic 
entity that will do so, unless the people in themselves, and their policies, self realize, 
embrace, and put into practice the core values that are to lastingly contribute to the reality 
of the have not.
Among those in “We The People”, it is you and me, privileged ones, who are reading this 
book. We are the ones who have the opportunity to speak up for the collective. But, I am 
fully and humbly aware that there are billions who are poor and hungry, and who are not 
here speaking for themselves. We are all masked in obscure statistics.
The other day I was looking at the MDG reports where some countries of Latin America 
have the highest score in terms of the Social Development Indicators, while the number 
of poor people is increasing, the Gini Coefficient is showing significant inequality, and 
when, for example, the poorest 20% consumes an insignificant amount in relation to the 

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Chapter III – Respect for Nature and Sustainable Development | 47 
richest 20%. This distortion of statistics is not only dangerous but it is becoming 
explosive.
There is nothing worst than listening to wonderful statistics when, at the same time, 
everyone on the streets is complaining of a bad and unfair economic and social situation. 
When the people see the economy of a country globalizing but not their own society. 
When there is a major feeling of disempowerment, and the realization that something 
major is wrong despite the statistics.
§ It is not only bad but unacceptable that the MDGs are attained at the exp ense of other 
citizens or other development goals that were not explicitly brought up in The 
Millennium Declaration.
§ It is not acceptable that the attainment of the MDGs is carried out in a moral and 
ethical vacuum, or just responding to economic and financial values.
§ It is unsustainable to attain some of the MDGs via the destruction of any of the 
collectives outlined above. It must benefit all the collectives.
Today, our lives are invaded by so many economic diseases. In some cases, these are the 
causes of great and profound moments of desperation, personal depression, and a 
disconnect between your mind, body and soul. These economic diseases move us towards 
the excessive consumption of pharmaceutical products. Some of these products, as we all 
know, have huge negative secondary effects. A supermarket of material collective goods 
is not going to do it. This crisis will only be resolved: