Overview

This is a highly personal book by a genuine hero, a man who has returned into the most desperate and violent places in the world, who has continually risked his life to negotiate relief efforts and cease fires. Jan Egeland deals with the best and the worst of humanity on journeys to the world's hellholes. He describes in scary detail his meetings with guerrilla leaders, war lords, heads of states and besieged aid workers in Darfur, Eastern Congo, Northern Uganda, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Lebanon, Gaza and Northern Israel.

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9781416560968

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ALike its author, A Billion Lives is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the worldAs most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.AADean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International

ALike its author, A Billion Lives is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the worldAs most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.AADean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International ?Like its author, A Billion Lives is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the world's most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.??Dean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International A veteran peacemaker who has walked both conflict zones and international corridors of power, Jan Egeland is one of the most competent and inspired voices calling for truth and justice in the world today. At once visionary and highly enlightening, Egeland writes from a perspective deeply rooted in decades of personal experience. He reminds us of the magnitude of the crushing needs of our world and the unprecedented opportunities facing the global community in the twenty-first century. Egeland has written a moving testament of human pain and, yet, persistent hope. -- Jim Wallis, author of The Great Awakening and president of Sojourners In this gripping account, global diplomat Jan Egeland speaks to us about our generation's 'power to end massive misery and prevent conflict and disasters.' With his brave leadership and unique experience, Egeland takes us to the front lines. He speaks truth to power, musters the best of the international system, and also bears witness to the worst of the world's inhumanity. He draws wise and bold lessons from these global hotspots as to how we can organize a safer and more prosperous world for all. -- Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on the Millennium Development Goals Like its author, A Billion Lives is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the worlds most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.Dean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International

"ALike its author, ""A Billion Lives"" is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the worldAs most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.AADean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International ?Like its author, ""A Billion Lives"" is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the world's most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.??Dean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International ""A veteran peacemaker who has walked both conflict zones and international corridors of power, Jan Egeland is one of the most competent and inspired voices calling for truth and justice in the world today. At once visionary and highly enlightening, Egeland writes from a perspective deeply rooted in decades of personal experience. He reminds us of the magnitude of the crushing needs of our world and the unprecedented opportunities facing the global community in the twenty-first century. Egeland has written a moving testament of human pain and, yet, persistent hope.""-- Jim Wallis, author of ""The Great Awakening"" and president of Sojourners ""In this gripping account, global diplomat Jan Egeland speaks to us about our generation's 'power to end massive misery and prevent conflict and disasters.' With his brave leadership and unique experience, Egeland takes us to the front lines. He speaks truth to power, musters the best of the international system, and also bears witness to the worst of the world's inhumanity. He draws wise and bold lessons from these global hotspots as to how we can organize a safer and more prosperous world for all.""-- Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on the Millennium Development Goals Like its author, ""A Billion Lives"" is honest, pragmatic, and optimistic. Egeland believes that we have the capacity to end massive global suffering; we only lack the will. Experiencing the journey of one of the worlds most outstanding advocates for the poor can only advance this goal.Dean R. Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of World Vision International"

A former UN official's defensive memoir of serving as the international community's first responder to civil wars and natural disasters. It's hard not to like someone who braved danger in Iraq, Colombia, Darfur, Lebanon, Palestine, the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Uganda as UN undersecretary-general and emergency-relief coordinator from 2003 to 2006. Now director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and UN Special Envoy for Conflict Resolution, Egeland can at last comment freely, he observes. It's true that the author doesn't exactly blow kisses to George W. Bush, to John Bolton, the president's outspoken former ambassador to the UN, or to conservative pundits and bloggers who lambasted his undiplomatic comment at the onset of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami crisis that major Western powers had been stingy with development aid. Yet Egeland squanders readers' sympathy with a largely unreflective, platitudinous narrative. He's content to simply assert that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is principled, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette impressive and chief arms inspector Hans Blix able without ever showing actions that demonstrate these qualities. Other times, he descends to posturing. Our only option is to speak the truth, always, he notes, though if he had criticized tyrants and warlords all the time, they would never have agreed to negotiate with him. In claiming that multilateralism works, Egeland begs the question of why so many nations - not just the United States, but even, he admits, Asian and African countries - forego coalitions. He reproves both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict, but comes down more heavily on Israel's policies in Gaza and the West Bank for derailing the Oslo peace process (in which he participated) than on the PLO's Second Intifada in 2000. Likewise, while claiming that the Oil-for-Food program prevented an Iraqi humanitarian catastrophe, he refuses to acknowledge that some officials, including the former UN head of the program, stole significant amounts of the aid meant for Saddam Hussein's impoverished subjects.Unenlightening and unpersuasive. (Kirkus Reviews)

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