Members of the World Youth Alliance spoke Tuesday night about reevaluating the way society views people in developing countries to a crowd of about 40 students and community members at the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus.
The World Youth Alliance is a global group that lists promoting human dignity and bringing together young people from developed or developing countries in its mission statement. In 1999 the group formed in protest after 32 teenagers and young adults spoke to the United Nations and demanded that abortion be listed as a human right.
Emily Matich, the World Youth Alliance North American director of operations, said this was a continuation of arguments that had happened at United Nations conferences over the past several years that ignored concerns over basic human rights to discuss population control.
“While those conferences should have been focused on the government corruption that keeps people hungry, they focused on reproductive control,” she said.
Matich said population control through the use of eugenics, forced sterilization that was most commonly used on those with physical or mental disabilities, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along with more recent attempts to enforce birth control methods with cash rewards in countries such as India take the wrong approach to sustainability.
These arguments became more common when the world’s population reached seven billion in October 2011, she said.
“Sustainability is about ensuring both people now and future generations have the resources they need,” she said. “Human beings should be at the center of the concern.”
However, she said western countries take the stance that the best way to conserve resources is by limiting the number of people who would potentially claim them.
Matich said this is flawed because there is enough food and shelter for everyone in the world, but it isn’t distributed correctly.
“Human creativity and human capital are the earth’s greatest resources,” she said.
The Alliance has works to preserve the idea that all people have an inherent worth, said Amanda Pirih, the organization’s North American director.
Pirih encouraged ASU students to join the organization.
“We, as staff members, speak on behalf of young people around the world and it is vitally important that we have youth behind us,” she said.
Global health sophomore Kristina Johnson said she had not known much about the organization before, but was determined to become involved after the presentation.
“It was an eye-opener,” she said. “I knew some about these issues, but not to the extent that they explained them. I feel much better informed now.”
Johnson came to the event to support a friend performing in a slam poetry session before Matich’s speech. Several students performed original poems themed around social issues and finding inspiration or motivation to fix them.
Business management senior Grant Mailo, who came to the seminar after a last minute invitation, prepared a poem on giving during Christmas, because he agreed with most of the organization’s mission.
“Everyone here is fortunate enough that we can give back something,” he said. “It helps you grow as a person and just makes the whole world a better place to live.”
Mailo is part of several campus groups including the Black Artists and Designers, ASU NAACP, the Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Club and Changemaker Central. He said each club provides chances for people to do work with communities they feel comfortable in.
“We’d like a color-blind world, but a lot of people haven’t gotten out of that nutshell yet,” he said. “As long as you’re having fun and making a difference, why not be a part of whatever club?”
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