Utviklingsminister Hilde Frafjord Johnson
Åpning av Tusenårsmålet
Norway Cup, Ekebergsletta
31. juli 2002

Som fremført

Kjære fotballspillere, kjære alle sammen – velkommen!

Welcome to all the players and team leaders from many countries who are here at Norway Cup.

Dette blir litt på engelsk og litt på norsk, slik at alle sammen kan følge med.

I’ll be switching between Norwegian and English, if you don’t mind.

I think young people today perhaps understand globalization better than their parents. There are not separate worlds for "us" and "them". There is only one world. We are linked by travel and communications, by the internet and chatting, e-mail and football, by trade, investment and finance. We are also linked in other ways, by disease, by crime, by migration, by a common environment and by terror.

These are not just challenges to us and our country. They are challenges to mankind. We cannot address them alone. They must be solved by mankind, all of us – together.

Poverty is our greatest challenge and our greatest enemy. Poverty is what takes away hope and opportunity from so many young people in the world today. Their dreams are crushed in the struggle for day-to-day survival. Poverty and hopelessness are the sources of so many of our problems – even anger and conflict, and violence. We must give the children and young adults of the developing world something to believe in, hopes, dreams.

All world leaders in the United Nations have agreed to launch a campaign to attack poverty on a number of fronts. Together, we have agreed to fullfill the Millennium Development goals. By 2015, we will: Halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and starvation. We will let all boys and girls go to school. We will drastically reduce the number of children that die of hunger an disease. We will fight and roll back AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. And we will give millions of people access to clean drinking water.

You know football. It is all about teamwork. Working together makes the team stronger. And teamwork makes each member of the team stronger. The same is true for development. No single nation can do it alone. We must work as a team. We must know where the goal is. And we must score. Kicking AIDS out is but one example.

Det er vanskelig å se verdien av det man har før man har sett hva det betyr å ikke ha det. Det gjelder mange av oss. Fattigdommen i store deler av verden er svært dyp. Elendigheten kan være nærmest bunnløs. Urettferdigheten kan være skremmende.

Men det er ikke håpløst. De siste årtiene har vi oppnådd store resultater. Millioner av mennesker har fått en bedre fremtid, en vei ut av håpløsheten, – noe å tro på.

Verdenssamfunnet, FN, har satt opp noen ambisiøse mål. Vi vil halvere den ekstreme fattigdommen. Vi vil at alle barn skal få gå skole. Vi vil kjempe mot sykdommene som forkorter så mange liv i dag. Vi vil skape en bedre og tryggere verden. Vi vil reversere HIV/AIDS-epidemien. Det er det som er tusenårsmålene.

Norway Cup er selv en del av en globalisert verden, og et viktig symbol. Et symbol på at vi hører sammen, og er avhengige av hverandre. Derfor er det så fint at Norway Cup og Fotballforbundet går foran og viser at idrettsarrangementer også kan gi rom for å bry seg om verden rundt oss og skape økt engasjement.

I wish you all great matches and a memorable week in Oslo.

Now, help us score a Millennium Development Goal.

Skyt et tusenårsmål!

Takk.