Fair Start Movement

Category: Racial Equity

Inequality, Philanthropy, Animal Protection, The Letter To Yale

There is a growing conversation happening across the world about justice, inequality and the stories institutions tell about progress.

Not just in climate activism or animal protection, but in universities, nonprofits, philanthropy and social justice movements themselves.

People are beginning to ask a difficult but necessary question:

Are we truly addressing the root causes of suffering and inequality, or are we building narratives of progress while the underlying systems continue producing harm every single day?

That question sits at the heart of the recent Fair Start Movement article discussing Yale and what the organization describes as a “fantasy world of social justice undone daily by birth inequity.” (Fair Start Movement)

Importantly, this conversation should not be framed as an attack on individuals trying to create positive change. Many people working in academia, social justice advocacy and philanthropy genuinely care deeply about equity, human rights and creating a better future. Many dedicate their lives to helping vulnerable communities and challenging injustice.

But the article raises a broader systems-level concern.

It argues that many public-interest institutions may be measuring impact inside incomplete frameworks that fail to fully account for the structural conditions shaping real-world outcomes — particularly inequality at birth, political inequity and the long-term effects of growth-driven systems. (

At the center of Fair Start’s argument is the idea that “downstream” social justice work can be continuously undermined if the “upstream” systems driving inequality remain unchanged.

In simple terms, organizations may celebrate important victories — expanded rights, educational initiatives, diversity programs, environmental reforms or social justice campaigns — while larger structural conditions continue reproducing inequality underneath the surface. According to the movement, this creates a perception of progress that may not fully match the deeper realities experienced by the most vulnerable communities.

The article places particular emphasis on what it calls “birth inequity.”

This refers to the reality that children enter the world under vastly unequal conditions depending on wealth, race, geography, political influence and environmental stability. Fair Start argues that these starting conditions profoundly shape health, opportunity, democratic influence and long-term survival itself, especially as climate instability and ecological degradation intensify globally.

The broader concern being raised is that many institutions discuss justice without fully accounting for these baseline inequalities.

From the Fair Start perspective, if systems continue allowing millions of children to enter conditions of severe inequity, then downstream reforms alone may struggle to produce meaningful net progress over time. The movement argues that many public-facing impact claims fail to fully disclose how structural growth, ecological degradation and political inequality may be undoing the very outcomes organizations publicly celebrate. (Fair Start Movement)

Whether one agrees entirely with Fair Start’s framework or not, the deeper questions being raised are significant.

How should institutions measure progress honestly?

How do we distinguish between symbolic progress and systemic transformation?

And how do we ensure that public trust is grounded in transparency rather than carefully managed narratives?

These are questions that are becoming harder for society to ignore.

Across the world, people are watching ecosystems deteriorate, inequality deepen and political trust erode, even while institutions continue presenting optimistic narratives about sustainability, justice and progress. Increasingly, there is public demand for more honest conversations about whether current systems are truly addressing the root causes of the crises humanity now faces. (Fair Start Movement)

For those of us working directly with animals, conservation and vulnerable communities, these realities are impossible not to see.

We see humans and wildlife increasingly competing for shrinking resources. We see communities struggling under economic and environmental pressure. We see ecosystems under stress. And we see how inequality and ecological collapse are deeply connected.

Because when systems fail people, they also fail nature.

The Fair Start article ultimately calls for something larger than political ideology or institutional branding. It calls for a deeper level of honesty about how we measure impact, how we define justice and whether the systems currently shaping the world are truly capable of delivering a fair future for the next generation.

And perhaps that is the most important part of this conversation.

Not tearing down good people.

Not attacking institutions.

But asking whether humanity is finally willing to confront the deeper structural realities underneath the crises we now face — and whether we have the courage to build systems rooted not only in appearance, but in truth.

May 15, 2026
When Progress Leaves People Behind – Why Honest Baselines Matter in Measuring Equity

Summary “In the end, equity is not only about the results we aim for, it is about how we define, measure, and prove those results. And if people are left out of that process, then even the idea of progress can become unfair”

In development, growth, and social change, stories of progress often sound very convincing. Reports show improving numbers, charts trend upward, and programs are presented as success stories. But behind these polished narratives, there is an important question we don’t always ask: what is missing from the picture?

One of the biggest gaps is the failure to account for the real drivers of harm, especially unequal or unfair growth. When growth benefits only certain groups while others are left behind, it can still look like progress on paper. But in reality, inequality may be getting worse. This kind of selective storytelling can easily create a misleading sense of success

The problem becomes even more serious when the experiences of the most affected communities are not fully included in how progress is measured. This doesn’t just create incomplete data, it creates a distorted sense of accountability. The very people who are experiencing exclusion, hardship, or disadvantage are often the ones least reflected in official reports.

There is growing concern that, in some cases, this can amount to what might be described as illegal baselining or equity fraud especially when the starting point of measurement is designed in a way that leaves out the realities of those most affected. When the baseline itself is incomplete or selective, any conclusions drawn from it become unreliable.

Because of this, any claim about “public benefit” or “improved outcomes” needs to be examined carefully and early. It should not be enough for claims to be made; they must be supported. Those making the claims should be able to clearly explain their baseline, their assumptions, and how they are measuring change. Without this, it is impossible to know whether progress is real or just reported.

A proper baseline is not just a technical requirement, it is a safeguard. It ensures that measurement starts from honesty, includes all relevant groups, and reflects real conditions on the ground. It helps make sure that progress is not defined by what is convenient to measure, but by what is actually happening in people’s lives.

At its core, this is about legitimacy. Authority in development and social change should not come from simply making claims. It should come from inclusion, especially the inclusion of the people whose lives are being measured and affected.

When communities are left out of defining baselines, assessing outcomes, or interpreting results, decision-making becomes disconnected from reality. But when they are included in a meaningful way, measurement becomes more than reporting—it becomes accountability grounded in real experience.

Real progress cannot just be announced from above. It needs to be demonstrated openly, with transparent baselines, honest evaluation, and genuine engagement with those most affected. Without this, even well-intentioned work risks turning into storytelling rather than truth-telling.

In the end, equity is not only about the results we aim for, it is about how we define, measure, and prove those results. And if people are left out of that process, then even the idea of progress can become unfair

May 8, 2026
An Open Letter to United States Black Liberation Organizations. Take Action.
Fair Start reforms offer the most just and effective way to address many of today’s overlapping crises—but only if public-interest claims are evaluated using the right standard. Anyone claiming positive impact should be asked a basic question: How did your cost-benefit model account for children entering the world, and did it meet what those children’s legal rights, political equity, and national legitimacy require? In most cases, the answer is that it did not.

Children are typically treated as economic inputs driving growth, while the ecological, political, and human costs of that growth are ignored or illegally discounted. This produces “free” wealth that depends on worsening conditions – especially for children of color – and contradicts the values advocates claim to hold, such as safety, equality, and sustainability. The result is continued overshoot of ecological and social thresholds that both humans and nonhumans need to survive.

How is such a contradiction possible?

Between 1948 and 1968 world leaders effectively subverted the ongoing decolonial and racial justice movements with a human rights regime premised on a fraudulent standard: Autonomy or self-determination without the necessary condition of measurable political equity or empowerment. That fallacy fundamentally operates through an arbitrary and floating baseline present in almost all private and public cost/benefit modeling that illegally discounts future lives, and a universal but illegitimate reproductive rights regime devoid of children’s rights and political equity standards, which avoids applying limiting values to the birth-creation of power relations, and which has mostly protected long generations and growing concentrations of wealth.

Even a basic review of history will show women “liberated” by the United Nations “separate but equal” standard of treating having and not having children as a matter of personal autonomy (with parents taught to treat their children as means and not ends, generation after generation) now face dying in heat waves fundamentally driven by inequitable growth. Their predicament was worsened by low-impact social justice interventions, like attempts to eliminate greenwashing, that themselves used a definition of “green” and high permissible emissions geared to paltry early childhood development investments all meant to exploit growth and enrich the mostly white children of the funders backing the U.S environmental organizations, at deadly cost to millions of Africans.

The standard treated children, and thus future generations, as means rather than ends, and it ignored that persons not documents constitute nations, and almost inevitably through collective family planning efforts that ensure a minimum threshold of empowerment for all children. That threshold – a real border to replace the fictitious ones nations use today – enables consensual governance, avoiding each person’s loss of self-determination to the billions of others occupying and changing the planet. The real border makes consent possible.

Read more about threshold borders here, and to understand why Trump is a symptom and not the cause of all the harm he has done.

That wealth, which enables a form of white supremacy, was built by not having to be legitimated – by not having to pay the costs of child rights and equity, and thus legitimacy, and by ensuring unsustainable economic growth that has enriched a few at deadly and illegal cost to many, mostly children of color. The reproductive rights regime has lasted less than a few decades before causing catastrophic overshoot and degradation of multiple threshold conditions – ecological, social, and political – vulnerable children and animals need to survive and thrive, and it is impinging on the fundamental right of current and future generations to have children in safe and empowering conditions.

The Illegal Wealth Bubble Driving Outcomes

Today there is a massive wealth bubble at the top of our political and economic systems that derives from the use of a racist and fraudulent family policy, dating back to the standards that were set in human and reproductive rights regimes circa 948-1968. By privatizing reproductive rights, existing concentrations of wealth and power could maintain their entitlements, and could externalize their costs on the most vulnerable, at an existential level instead of legitimating political systems through child rights and equity-based creation of power relations. Instead of using bodily autonomy as the ethical basis of a right not to have children, and child equity as the basis of a right to have children, they used bodily autonomy for both. That eliminated all functional protections in the most influential stage of power relations.

This gutted racial justice and human rights / legitimation efforts – taking the key step out of the process. The move was – at the most fundamental level – illegal because under it there are no legal protections for / obligations to the most vulnerable: children are brought into conditions that violate their rights, with after-the-fact interventions and applications of rights, after adults have already gotten the benefit of exploiting them. This in turn threatens political legitimacy, inserting a false premise in which citizens have been expected to follow the law without actually being empowered by it.

The wealth from that growth now funds a legion of professionals – lawyers, academics (many of whom do not account for birth positionality and thus lose neutrality in their work), reporters/editors, campaigners, and paid fundraisers – who act as decoys creating a fantasy world of social justice undone daily by intergenerational and fundamental injustice

Many of these have tried to sabotage Fair Start reforms, in order to hide liability, and will be outed in the year to come.

These professionals protect and expand the wealth by omitting the countervailing impacts of children entering the world in conditions that violate the children’s rights and disenfranchise them, impacts that contradict the value assessments and public interest impacts the professionals claim.

Many benefit from this high-stakes birth lottery system, and then use their privilege to create the misleading appearance of solving it. Their lives are worth no more than the infants dying in the heat waves caused by the wealth bubble these professionals created.

Taking Action

That omission constitutes legally actionable equity and impact fraud (EIF) – using downstream and micro assessments and reporting to mask upstream and macro forces illegally enriching some at deadly cost to others. There is a preemptive right and cause of action to block EIF because governments authority derives from empowering those subject to it – and governments cannot redefine the object state of what it means to empower subjects just to avoid liability for the climate crisis.

Widespread use of the standard – and the discourse that situates (or constitutes) each of us in the intergenerational body politic – makes it physically impossible to limit the power humans have over one another, so that each person can be self-determining. Fair Start activists have witnessed multiple attempts by this professional class to hide collective liability for the deaths of millions as the climate crisis accelerates.

This is intentional reparations fraud, the attempt to skew the metrics for avoiding, and compensating for, untold climate-related and other deaths caused by illegal birth inequity and the growth it causes.

Use of the fraudulent standard – which derives from the maintenance of the racist “separate but equal” standard of the Twentieth Century, tucked away in reproductive rights regimes as a form of autonomy designed to gut political equity, is preempted by a variety of laws, and can be targeted as unfair competition under state law.

How? Because vulnerable entities and those who represent them, like TruthAlliance.Global – can’t compete with those who use the equity fraud model. Use of that standard constitutes the ongoing subversion of racial justice and other decolonial movements, and the hiding of collective liability for the deaths of millions as the democratic disenfranchisement and climate crisis.

Anyone can spot the standard of private benefit and public costs and its manufactured numbers using an AI-based XYZ analysis where claim X is assessed for how the cost/benefit modeling accounted for what children were owed as they entered the world (high levels of permissible harm v. self-determination, or zero), the largest factor altering the X claim to in fact be Z).

When confronted with these truths by TruthAlliance.global, many have just continued, hiding collective liability for the deaths of millions, and intentionally omitting the impacts of the largest driver.

If anyone used in their business or nonprofit work a valuation model premised on valuing as a benefit not hiring persons of color, they would be subject to civil rights injunction by state government. Using a model that generally enriches mostly white children at deadly climatological and other costs to mostly children of color, and doing so in part by disenfranchising them, is worse than a discriminatory hiring model, and is also illegal.

Constitutional discourse, about what we owe future generations, can bring change. For example, Fair Start is urging Paul Shapiro – an influential animal rights activist who helped defined policy for decades, now turned industrialist, to Tell the Truth about his impacts and to evade what many movement strategists see as the danger of interest convergence activism. Others are changing the world for the better by embracing the primacy of black birth equity.

Our work is having an impact. We pointed out that Wikipedia used the EIF standard in reporting the misleading impact claims of one environmental organization. Wikipedia retaliated by deleting the Fair Start Movement page, hiding liability for low editorial standards that have exacerbated the climate crisis, and that hide editors’ individual conflicts of interests.

But taking our claimed values seriously, ensuring a future defined by them, requires fundamental change and not lying about one’s impacts while quietly undoing them for personal benefit.
- EIF and those who use it can be challenged by grassroots family reforms and demands for equity reparations via coalitions like TruthAlliance.global;
- a universal discourse called Tell the Truth that simply urges those making public impact claims to contextualize those claims around children entering the world;
- the standard can be enjoined in a variety of legal fora under the preemptive right all have to legal and political systems where authority, including the right to entitle wealth, is derived from and contingent on the measurable (measured from a zero harm baseline) empowerment of those subject to such systems;
- and the standard can be ended via a corporate certification programming that ensures businesses avoid the horrific costs of the failed reproductive rights standard.
Total liberation lies not in top-down power, constitutions that do not empower people, and disconnected leaders drawing fictitious borders on maps, but in decentralizing power through collective reproductive rights systems that are based on love – and proven by ensuring measurable political equity for all children and thus national legitimacy.

Fair Start – which now operates mostly as a limitless network of whistleblowers targeting those above them – is intent on showing EIF as the fundamental driver of the crises we face today, and preempting it at the federal level in the United States by 2028 via specific grassroots, legal and corporate reforms to ensure the United States (which has had a disproportionate impact using the standard to undercut freedom around the world) and other nations begin to fundamentally legitimate. This entails moving illegitimate wealth to save countless innocent lives as a fundamental form of universal resistance to oppression.

TAKE ACTION: Back TruthAlliance.global and this simple truth: No Child is Worth More Than Another. For our supporters we urge specific avenues – Take action: 1) Become a whistleblower and grassroots organizer with Truth Alliance, 2) demand truth and reconciliation with our Tell the Truth campaign, 3) urge your attorney general or other law enforcement to seek a “legitimacy injunction” blocking use of the standard, and 4) back legitimacy certification for those who come forward and are willing to change accelerates.

One solution? Ensure a preemptive, legal cause of action for constitutional equity, starting with preempting the state law standard for basic consumer fraud cases, and moving into civil rights and constitutional litigation to elevate the primacy of black birth equity:

We will style the first suit as unfair competition on behalf of the Truth Alliance (TA) coalition. At base that coalition means admitting in truth and reconciliation that not prioritizing political equity as a fundamental norm has done more harm to our world and values than downstream public interest interventions have done good.

While the litigation and policy work will cite positive law and authority, our position is that the fundamental legal authority is a grundnorm that measurably and equitably empowers the constituents of any legal system. Documents, like constitutions, do not constitute political entities. People do. And the authority for courts to set precedent around the “one person, one vote” standard for equal protection derives from and is conditioned in a primary rule of constitutional equity and empowerment, a requirement logically inherent in the phrase “We the people” and similar conditions premising constitutions, treaties, and other legal instruments.

Will you join the TA coalition?

It starts by simply bifurcating those into admit the above, and want change, and those who do not:

A sample engagement question:

_________’s claimed value add does not account for child inequity, and treating children of color as deserving of less, and disenfranchising them. That’s illegal, and a mistake that caused horrible outcomes that are undoing _______’s claimed value add, including allowing our governments to never actually empower the people they claim to represent.

For example______________
December 29, 2025
An Open Letter to the Association of Fundraising Professionals Regarding Equity and Impact Fraud

Dear Roger Ali, MBA, C.Dir., CFRE and the AFP leadership,

The Fair Start movement is a loose network of advocates urging that measurable child equity become the universal and dominant measure of beneficial public interest work and national legitimacy.

Our advocates have worked with several professional fundraisers over the years who systematically use a fraudulent equity and impact standard – claiming beneficial impacts for micro-level public interest work while omitting how the benefits are undone, upstream by macro-level and deeply inequitable growth. Often this is because the omission benefits those funding the work and the fundraisers they pay – e.g., alt-protein investors funding animal rights organizations that ignore the negative impact of growth on animals for example.

The result is the enrichment of some at deadly cost to others, and often at illegal cost given that the assessment and reporting is premised on violating a host of laws.

This fundamental form of fraud explains why the children of so many philanthropists are wealthy and thriving, and the children meant to be protected by the charities they funded are much worse off.

We are writing to begin a dialogue about the urgent need for AFP to initiate policy reforms to prevent equity and impact fraud, so that fundraising is premised on including in value assessments and reporting the largest an increasingly deleterious driver of outcomes across all philanthropic sectors: Growth.

Fair Start reforms

Fair Start reforms offer the most just and effective way to address many of today’s overlapping crises—but only if public-interest claims are evaluated using the right standard. Anyone claiming positive impact should be asked a basic question: How did your cost-benefit model account for children entering the world, and did it meet what those children’s legal rights, political equity, and national legitimacy require? In most cases, the answer is that it did not. There were no functional protections at birth, no value-based limitations of the creation of power relations to favor the vulnerable over the powerful.

Our modeling has been subject to near ten positive peer reviews.

Under current modeling, children are typically treated as economic inputs driving growth, while the ecological, political, and human costs of that growth are ignored or illegally discounted. This constitutes the use of fraudulent equity and impact standards, one that produces “free” wealth that depends on worsening conditions – especially for children of color – and contradicts the values advocates claim to hold, such as safety, equality, and sustainability. The result is continued overshoot of ecological and social thresholds that both humans and nonhumans need to survive. The wealth created by that standard, a massive concentration of mostly white wealth, today funds decoy micro-level public interest interventions that mask upstream undoing by macro growth.

Even a basic review of history will show women “liberated” by the United Nations “separate but equal” standard of treating having and not having children as a matter of personal autonomy (with parents taught to treat their children as means and not ends, generation after generation) now face dying in heat waves fundamentally driven by inequitable growth. Their predicament was worsened by low-impact social justice interventions, like attempts to eliminate greenwashing, that themselves used a definition of “green” and high permissible emissions geared to paltry early childhood development investments all meant to exploit growth and enrich the mostly white children of the funders backing the U.S environmental organizations, at deadly cost to millions of Africans.

Paul Shapiro’s history of moving from someone who influenced what it means to protect animals to a food industrialist benefiting from the growth economics and exploitative #birthpositionality is a an example of how the standard works.

Use of the standard – which derives from the maintenance of the racist “separate but equal” standard of the Twentieth Century, tucked away in reproductive rights regimes as a form of autonomy designed to gut political equity, is preempted by a variety of laws, and can be targeted as unfair competition under state law. How? Because vulnerable entities and those who represent them, like TruthAlliance.Global – can’t compete with those who use the equity fraud model. Use of that standard constitutes the ongoing subversion of racial justice and other decolonial movements, and the hiding of collective liability for the deaths of millions as the democratic disenfranchisement and climate crisis.

Anyone can spot the standard of private benefit and public costs and its manufactured numbers using an AI-based XYZ analysis where claim X is assessed for how the cost/benefit modeling accounted for what children were owed as they entered the world (high levels of permissible harm v. self-determination, or zero), the largest factor altering the X claim to in fact be Z).

When confronted with these truths by TruthAlliance.global, many have just continued, hiding collective liability for the deaths of millions, and intentionally omitting the impacts of the largest driver.

Many others are admitting they benefited from a system of illegal birth inequity, and of systematic omission in assessments and impact reporting hiding that system, that did more harm to our values than we did good. Whistleblowers are coming out around the United States to lock arms with Africans, target the fundamental driver of the climate crisis and Trump himself, using the legal system in the United States to challenge “equity and impact fraud,” or assessments and claims of public impact that ignore birth equity as the key factor, and do so to illegally enrich some children at deadly cost to others.

They target decades of misleading public interest work that assumed that some children were worth much more than others, work that was always being undone by the political inequity of growth.

For our supporters we urge specific avenues – Take action: 1) Become a whistleblower and grassroots organizer with Truth Alliance, 2) demand truth and reconciliation with our Tell the Truth campaign, 3) urge your attorney general or other law enforcement to seek a “legitimacy injunction” blocking use of the standard, and 4) back legitimacy certification for those who come forward and are willing to change accelerates.

Thanks for considering this invitation to open dialogue,

Sincerely,

Suriya Khan and the Fair Start Team.

December 29, 2025
Principles of Birthright Equity, by Bishnu Pathak
Birthright equity is the inherent right that every child deserves from birth. It is a fair and equitable start in life, pursuing fundamental rights and equal opportunities necessary to thrive by virtue of being born. The Convention on the Rights of the Child stresses the importance of giving children a fair and equitable start in life, with parents and society playing a vital role in ensuring their welfare. The objective of this study is to explore the concept of birthright equity, examining the five principles of child rights equity, their origins, and their connection to ancient Vedic texts. Challenges related to these principles are discussed, along with potential solutions. Information was gathered by drawing on experiences and archival literature reviews using the snowball technique from the past (yesterday), understanding the axiomatic truth of birthright equity in the present (today), and fostering hope for the transformation of challenges through dialogue for the future (tomorrow). Key child rights doctrines of birthright equity include non-discrimination, prioritizing the child’s best interests, fostering a healthy environment, and ensuring overall well-being. To comply with the above-mentioned doctrines, the study of the birthright equity principles focuses on concepts like truth, biophilia, reparation, self-determination, and a bottom-up approach. The state-of-the-art paper is grounded on the principle of “I know that I do not know” or “I am simply a student of the principles of birthright equity,” which allows scholars ongoing refinement for future studies.

Introduction

Birthright equity refers to the inalienable, non-derogatory, and inherent rights that every child is born with. It goes beyond legal status to include material needs and social conditions. Birthright equity combines the principles of birthright and birth equity. Birthright pertains to citizenship acquired by being born in a specific nation, while birth equity involves ensuring equal access to maternal and infant healthcare environments, as well as improved social circumstances. Birthright equity emphasizes human rights as equality, liberty, security, and dignity, with peace, freedom, non-violence, and democracy at its core.

Essentially, the concept of birthright equity suggests that true freedom, democracy, and justice require that all individuals have a fair and equitable start in life from birth. This means being free from any avoidable inequalities, disparities, discrimination, and injustices. The goal is to create a world where every child has the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential by progressing through healthy environments and social trust, while avoiding dual-layered equity-fraud and impact-bias prejudices (Afolaranmi et al., September 9, 2025), rather than hindering or preventing the birth process.

In today’s world, there is a growing focus on birthright equity, especially in developed countries where having children is not a top priority for many couples. This study aims to consider all perspectives and analyze equitable growth, healthy environments, and social trust for birthright families, societies, nations, and the global community. The general objective of the research on birthright equality is to highlight the moral and ethical principles related to the birth of every individual. It is essential that everyone has the right to a fair and equal start in life, with the freedom to determine their own path.

The specific objective of this study is to investigate the concept of birthright equity by examining the five principles of child rights equity, their origins, and their link to ancient Vedic texts. It also discusses challenges related to these principles and proposes potential solutions. The study focuses on creating conditions for healthy development, addressing structural and racial inequalities based on birth position and family connections, and exploring ethical responsibilities in the context of climate change and sustainable resource management. The research methodology includes experience-based observation, networking tracking methods, and a literature review.

Theory of Truth

The truth is a crucial element in ensuring justice for all individuals from the start. Birthright equity is a key concept in social justice frameworks, highlighting the significance of honesty, transparency, and recognition of systemic injustices in achieving true equity from birth. This principle is at the core of the Fair Start Movement’s discussions on social justice. Justice is a central argument that cannot begin with a half-truth or lie; truth is absolute. Every birth deserves a fair start in life, growing up in a secure environment with access to healthy socio-economic and physical conditions for achieving true birthright equity (https://fairstartmovement.org/).

In Metaphysics Book VI, Aristotle presents a fundamental concept of truth: “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true” (Cohen, October 8, 2000). “In today’s complex world, the importance of truth is more critical than ever. This principle applies to leaders, corrupt officials, and brokers who often deceive the country and its people. Truth is a fearful word for them. Conversely, those who are honest, loyal, patriotic, and dedicated to the people of the universe are constantly seeking, learning, sharing, and writing about the truth. Pursuing truth is a noble endeavor that shapes a positive history, promotes peace, and ensures the prosperity of future generations. The word “truth” comes from Germanic roots meaning stability and faithfulness. It originally meant loyalty, fidelity, and veracity (https://www.etymonline.com/word/truth).

“Satya” is a Sanskrit word that translates to “truth” in Vedic teachings. It represents the concept of eternal truth encompassing the ultimate truths of Consciousness, Brahman, Atman, and Purusha. Satya is the virtue of truthfulness in all aspects of life, including thought, speech, deed, and action, as an integral part of Dharma, or moral duty. It is a fundamental principle that underlies the cosmic order and natural law, transcending time, space, and individual distinctions (http://veda.wikidot.com/satya). Satya is both a metaphysical and ethical principle of truthfulness (Mukunda, August 5, 2018). In Vedic philosophy, there are two types of truth: Paramarthika Satya (supreme, eternal truth) and Vyavaharika Satya (mundane or relative truth). The Vedic texts emphasize the importance of speaking the truth, stating that it is the most essential quality of a yogin and the supreme virtue. A truthful person is believed to be free from worries and anxieties, possessing a calm mind (https://www.vedanet.com/satya-and-the-eternal-truth/).

The preamble of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) affirms that everyone is entitled to rights and freedoms without discrimination. The Declaration of the Rights of the Child emphasizes the need for special care for children due to their immaturity. Article 7 of the Convention highlights a child’s right to birth registration, a name, nationality, and parental care. Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) ensures equal protection under the law without discrimination. The law must prevent discrimination based on various factors. Similar principles are echoed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone is entitled to fundamental birthrights without distinction based on various factors.

The CRC is an international treaty that aims to protect and promote the rights of children. Equity is a fundamental principle of the CRC, ensuring that all children, regardless of their age, have equal access to rights and opportunities. Non-discrimination, as outlined in Article 2 of the CRC, is a key aspect of equity, ensuring that children are treated equally regardless of their background or status. Articles 3, 6, and 12 of the CRC emphasize the importance of children’s well-being, survival, and participation.

Similarly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) emphasizes the inherent dignity and rights, freedom, and protection of all individuals, without discrimination (Articles 1, 2, & 7). The ICCPR focuses on equality and non-discrimination rather than equity but aims to achieve fair outcomes. The UN Human Rights Committee interprets the concept of equality in the ICCPR as a principle of equity.

The ICESCR directly addresses equality and non-discrimination, with the Committee on ICESCR promoting substantive equality that aligns with the concept of equity. Equity involves fair, inclusive, and non-discriminatory implementation of rights to promote social justice and create inclusive environments. It encompasses social, economic, and educational aspects to ensure that every birth has the opportunity to thrive.

The main challenge to truth in birthright equity is the failure of current systems to provide equal opportunities, which results in a gap between the ideal of universal equity and predetermined life outcomes based on birth circumstances. This marginalizes vulnerable individuals born in disadvantaged areas and highlights the flaws in systems that perpetuate inequality and environmental degradation.

Achieving birthright equity requires addressing systemic injustice and working towards a more equitable society. Overcoming the “truth” challenge involves recognizing and addressing existing inequalities through actions such as promoting transparency, accountability, legal reforms, and policy changes that prioritize disadvantaged birth equity. Resolving the truth challenge requires a holistic approach that includes honesty and systemic efforts to bridge the gap between the moral ideal of equal opportunities and deep-rooted inequality

Theory of Biophilia

Biophilia, love of life, is the inherent and inalienable human need to connect with nature. All individuals should be granted equal access to basic rights and opportunities from birth. It is a natural instinct to seek connections with life-affirming activities, and these opportunities should be accessible to all communities, regardless of socioeconomic status, profession, religion, race, color, or geographical location. Access to nature is a fundamental human need, but not everyone has equal access to health, education, well-being, and natural environments, leading to an injustice that violates this “birthright equity.”

The term “biophilia” was coined independently by German psychologist Erich Fromm and American biologist E.O. Wilson. Fromm used it to describe the psychological attraction to all living and vital things, while Wilson focused on the evolutionary adaptation context (Fromm, 1964 & Wilson, E. O. (1984). The concept behind biophilia originated with different individuals at different times.

The implications of the biophilia concept assert that access to nature is a fundamental human entitlement necessary for health and well-being. It must address systemic inequalities that limit marginalized communities’ access to green spaces and clean environments. Access to nature is crucial for physical, cognitive, and emotional development, ensuring that every child has a fair start. Environmental justice advocacy involves advocating for policies that provide equitable access to nature for all and protecting the climate as a universal birthright for current and future generations (Zhuang et al. 2023).

The Vedic philosophy emphasizes the deep connection between humans and nature (Hemsley, October 30, 2019). In the Vedas, nature is considered divine, with elements like earth, water, fire, air, and space possessing divine qualities. Instead of seeing nature as something to conquer, it is viewed as a manifestation of the divine, inspiring reverence and a holistic approach to life. A profound statement in the Atharva Veda (12.1.12) underscores the bond between humans and the earth, stating, “My mother is earth, and I am her son” (Pokhrel, Undated). The Yajur Veda in 36.18 promotes a friendly and harmonious relationship with all living beings (Balauni, 2023). This philosophy encourages a sense of interconnectedness and respect for the natural world.

Biophilia argues that social justice requires ensuring a connection to nature from birth. It reinforces intergenerational responsibility and the moral duty of current generations to protect the environment and ensure a stable climate for the birthright of future generations (Yang et al. 2022).

The notion of biophilia supports the idea that everyone has a right to nature, but it also highlights the challenges in making this a reality for all. There is a gap between the moral argument for biophilia and the practical implementation of ensuring equal access to nature for everyone, especially in a world marked by systemic inequalities. Despite the universal need for nature, not everyone has equal access to it from birth.

The transition from biophilia to birthright equity involves implementing policies and initiatives that ensure equal access to nature for all individuals, regardless of their background, location, or place of residence. This shift requires a comprehensive approach that emphasizes collective responsibility and is supported by robust policy frameworks, legal measures, and community engagement. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a universal reality where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from a healthy and natural environment from the start of their lives.

Theory of Reparation

The theory of reparative birthright equality suggests that all individuals should have equal access to resources and opportunities from birth. It calls for addressing historical harms and injustices and systemic inequalities, such as slavery, colonization, systemic racism, and environmental degradation, through reparative measures to ensure that everyone begins life on an equitable footing. This theory is commonly used to support policies and practices that aim to rectify past wrongs and establish a fairer and more just society for all (GSDRC, August 2016).

Reparation is a restoration or repair that acts as making amends for an injury or wrongdoing by providing compensation, services, or symbolic gestures. It is often associated with legal or political contexts. Under international human rights law, there is an obligation for a state or responsible party to provide adequate, effective, and prompt reparation to victims of gross human rights violations or serious humanitarian law violations. The United Nations outlines five forms of full reparations. Restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. These demands emphasize national reckoning and structural changes, not just individual payments. Therefore, all victims of human rights violations have a right to reparation (www.ictj.org/reparations).

Reparations for birthright equity is a contemporary moral and ethical argument advocating for compensation for historical and systemic injustices and inequalities. The demand for reparations stems from severe human rights violations such as armed insurgency and slavery, leading to the establishment of organizations like the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) in 1987 (ICJ, 2002). The movement for reparations for Black Americans dates back to the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, with initiatives like General Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 granting land to formerly enslaved families. In modern times, advocacy efforts continue through initiatives like H.R. 40, introduced by Congressman John Conyers in 1989 to study the possibility of reparations for Black Americans (Dybska, 2025). After armed conflict, approximately 90 countries, including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, and Indonesia, have either completed or are in the process of implementing transitional justice and reparation programs (Pathak, July 15, 2019).

Reparation in Vedic literature involves compensating for past wrongs, known as Prayascitta, and repaying debts (Deep, 2017). It is a form of justice that corrects wrongdoing, similar to the idea of social justice in the modern world. Vedic philosophy includes concepts like karma and dharma, which relate to actions, consequences, and moral order. However, the modern sense of reparation as a legal or political term for compensating for past injustices is not a direct or primary meaning of the word “Veda” ( https://vedicheritage.gov.in/introduction/).

Reparation is a critical component of transitional justice. Connecting reparation to birthright equity presents moral, practical, and politico-legal challenges. Balancing the universal goal of equal opportunity with the need to address past wrongs through targeted remedies is the main dilemma. The key challenge lies in reconciling the universal principle of birthright equity with the complexities of implementing reparations. While the moral imperative of birthright equity necessitates addressing historical injustices, the practical considerations of defining, targeting, and gaining political support for reparations present significant obstacles that could hinder the pursuit of universal justice.

To address the challenge of connecting reparations to birthright equity, a comprehensive approach is necessary. This approach should involve targeted historical redress along with universal policies that promote lasting fairness for all individuals. The goal is to acknowledge that while achieving a fair start for everyone is the ultimate aim, certain historical injustices necessitate customized reparations to reach this objective. Reparations should not solely focus on financial compensation but should also address the root causes of ongoing inequality. By combining specific redress for past wrongs with universal policies that guarantee equal opportunities for all, we can overcome the barriers to linking reparations and birthright equity, ultimately advancing genuine justice and fairness in society.

Theory of Self-determination

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a well-known psychological and legal framework that connects human personality and motivations to the choices individuals make. It focuses on individuals’ natural tendencies towards growth, connections, and innate psychological needs. In the early 1970s, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan introduced the concept of self-determination, emphasizing three fundamental human motivation needs: competency, autonomy, and relatedness (1985, 2000, & 2012). President Woodrow Wilson advocated for the self-determination of nations in his 14-point speech to Congress on January 8, 1918 (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp). SDT highlights how social and cultural factors can either support or hinder individuals’ sense of autonomy and motivation for personal growth, well-being, progress, and development.

The concept of birthright equity Self-determination is a synthesized notion that argues for capacity growth as an inherent human entitlement from birth. However, achieving this right universally requires that all individuals be born, grow, live, work, and age into conditions of equity and fairness (Chichian, June 13, 2024). The central concept of self-determination is a fundamental birthright equity that ensures every individual has the necessary resources and opportunities to exercise throughout their lives. Self-determination is the birthright that allows individuals to freely determine their political status and pursue social, cultural, and economic development (Article 3 of UNDRIP, 2006).

The concept of self-determination in the Vedas is primarily explored through the philosophical principles. Such principles include atman (the self), karma (action), yoga (union), sattva (purity), and purushartha (human effort or free will) (Periyandavar & Patil, 2023). The Vedic scriptures emphasize self-realization rather than modern political rights, promoting a profound self-determination that allows individuals to shape their ethical destiny, attain self-knowledge, and achieve liberation through their own efforts, actions, and choices (Tathagatananda, Undated & Philosophical Investigations, October 4, 2008).

The lack of birthright equity hinders self-determination, leading to systemic inequalities and significant disadvantages from birth. This limits an individual’s control over their life, liberty, dignity, and destiny. Without birthright equity, newborns lack essential resources like nutrition, clean-and-green environments, and healthcare needed for meaningful self-determination from infancy to adulthood. This perpetuates a cycle of inequality, as those born into poverty or marginalized communities face lifelong challenges due to entrenched power imbalances and exclusion from decision-making processes. Without proactive efforts to address birthright equity, the promise of the right to self-determination remains unfulfilled for many, constraining their life outcomes and perpetuating disadvantage.

Resolving challenges to birthright equity through self-determination involves addressing both theoretical rights and practical-behavioral barriers. The goal is to ensure that everyone has the resources and opportunities to exercise self-determination from the start. This transformation of society aims to make self-determination a universal reality for all, rather than a privilege for some. Therefore, birthright self-determination is a principle where a pregnant, especially female, individual has the fundamental right to make decisions about their own body, healthcare, and birthing process. They should be fully informed about all procedures, risk factors, time-consuming aspects, and alternatives and have autonomous rights not to introduce immediate, short-term, or life-threatening emergencies.

Theory of Bottom-up Approach

The theory of the bottom-up approach is a model that emphasizes inclusivity, flexibility, and collective action to achieve equity. It involves grassroots participants in decision-making, policy development, information processing, system implementation, and problem-solving. This approach begins at the grassroots level to address issues and then progresses upward to create a comprehensive solution (Eby, June 28, 2018).

The bottom-up approach to birthright equity highlights change initiated by grassroots participation and local mobilization as the main drivers of political and legal change for ordinary individuals and communities, rather than directives from central authorities (https://fiveable.me/key-terms/introduction-comparative-politics/bottom-up-approach). This approach includes grassroots movements that stem from the concerns and desires of marginalized communities, particularly those facing poor birth outcomes and systemic inequality. It also stresses the active involvement of local community members in identifying problems, developing solutions, and implementing programs tailored to specific local needs.

The bottom-up approach is a commonly used methodology in different fields, with specific applications evolving over time. In psychology, Eleanor J. Gibson introduced the formal theory of bottom-up processing in 1966 (Cherry, February 3, 2025). The bottom-up approach to birthright equity is a modern social justice and policy advocacy concept focused on ensuring a fair start for all.

During the Vedic period, especially in its early phase, there were elements of governance and social organization that mirrored principles of community-level input and decentralized decision-making. Following a bottom-up approach, it is suggested to begin by reading the Upanishads and then the Vedas (https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3771/what-order-should-i-read-the-vedas-and-upanishads-in).

Bottom-up efforts can often become fragmented, disorganized, and lose focus on overarching organizational or societal goals. This consensus-building process can significantly slow down project implementation, particularly in time-sensitive situations or crises. Managing and integrating numerous individual inputs, ideas, and departmental plans can be complex and challenging to coordinate, leading to confusion, duplicated efforts, and a lack of consistency. This can make uniform implementation and quality control difficult across different contexts. In large organizations with thousands of employees, a clear hierarchy is often necessary for efficiency, which can make a bottom-up approach less effective. Additionally, bottom-up initiatives may be influenced by local interests or more vocal groups, potentially overlooking the needs of marginalized individuals within the community (Blackmore, March 17, 2025).

Power and decision-making are shared among participants, with leadership emerging from within the community. While recognizing systemic issues, the bottom-up approach often starts with local problems, such as access to quality healthcare and trauma-related needs. Grassroots activism plays a crucial role in mobilizing public support and advocating for political and structural reforms to ensure equitable opportunities for all children.

A bottom-up approach to birthright equity focuses on community-led initiatives, individual actions, and grassroots organizing to promote fairness and equal opportunity from the ground up. It prioritizes local engagement and individual empowerment, believing that meaningful change begins at the grassroots level and can lead to broader systemic changes. By empowering individuals, families, and communities to drive change, this approach aims to create immediate impact and influence larger policy changes in the future. It underscores the importance of local involvement and ownership in addressing inequities and ensuring a fair start for all individuals.

Conclusion

The paper argues for justice from birth, stating that every child should have a healthy environment regardless of their mother’s economic status or background. It stresses equality among children and criticizes the prioritization of power over justice in legal and economic systems. The text supports protecting newborns, ecosystems, and nonhuman species by giving priority to parental autonomy during childbirth. Justice requires holding individuals accountable for past wrongs through fact-checking, impact fraud, and enforceable standards.

Changes in birth and family policy are aimed at ensuring birthright equity, ecological sustainability, and democratic legitimacy. Equity at birthright is crucial for environmental, climate, and racial justice. Legitimate governance should begin with participatory standards from birth to give every embryo a chance to thrive rightfully. Sustainable resource management is vital for achieving environmental equity and justice by providing equal access to a safe environment for all individuals from birth. Fair distribution of benefits to future generations and equitable sharing are necessary for ensuring a habitable planet through intergenerational and intragenerational equity.

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Prof. Bishnu Pathak was a former Senior Commissioner at the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), Nepal who has been a Noble Peace prize nominee 2013-2019 for his noble finding of Peace-Conflict Lifecycle similar to the ecosystem. A Board Member of the TRANSCEND Peace University holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary Conflict Transformation and Human Rights in two decades. Arduous Dr. Pathak who is an author of over 100 international paper-book publications has been used as references in more than 100 countries across the globe. Immense versatile personality Dr. Pathak’s publications belong to Human Rights, Human Security, Peace, Conflict Transformation, and Transitional Justices among others.

He can be reached at ciedpnp@gmail.com.
November 12, 2025
Are Philanthropists Conditioning Funding?

As liability overtakes charity as the primary model for wealth redistribution, we must confront the reality of the philanthroscam. Wealthy funders have positioned themselves as saviors while benefiting from inequitable economic growth that has enriched their own children at the deadly expense of others. Nonprofit leaders, too, have played into this scheme, omitting key details in their reporting that would reveal how this growth has undone their purported progress.

This omission has hidden the largest factor driving the climate crisis: the systemic violation of children’s legal rights.

Wealthy families from nations most responsible for the climate crisis are funding a false narrative to evade liability for their role in perpetuating environmental and social injustices. They employ an equity fraud model, sidestepping accountability for climate reparations. These families support decoy nonprofits that compartmentalize social justice issues into downstream concerns, diverting attention from the structural entitlement and reparations fraud occurring upstream. This deceit allows them to benefit from a system that ultimately reverses the progress they claim to make. The result: privileged children of funders continue to prosper while countless children of color bear the devastating consequences.

Many philanthropic foundations that support sexual health and reproductive rights have profited more from the consumer demand created by population growth than they have invested in contraceptive access and health interventions. This strategy undermines democratic institutions by prioritizing economic growth over birth equity, possibly as a way to protect generational wealth entitlements.

The Contradiction of Reproductive Autonomy

Many funders in the population space refuse to question the UN’s contradictory stance on reproductive autonomy because doing so would expose the nepotistic foundations at the core of their own institutions. Shifting the conversation away from “population” and toward the fundamental right of individuals to self-determine power relations through birth, development, and emancipation would challenge their existing frameworks and economic interests.

Former employees of the Fair Start Movement have witnessed how key facts were deliberately omitted in previous roles to maintain a false sense of progress in social justice and environmental sustainability. This charade continues as children are born without the resources they need, while wealthy families continue to fund misleading nonprofits that obscure the true sources of inequality. These organizations benefit the privileged children of funders while further harming marginalized communities.

Shifting Power: Bottom-Up Empowerment

To create meaningful change and uphold children’s rights, we must implement parenting delay payments, structured inversely to wealth and income. Given the systemic inequities at play, the right to access wealth for these entitlements supersedes the rights of those who currently control wealth—particularly because their fortunes were amassed through unsustainable growth and the externalization of costs that violated children’s birthrights.

A Systemic Analogy

Imagine that all social progress is being built on a crumbling foundation. Some individuals—those born into privilege—insist on continuing as usual, benefiting from their arbitrary birth advantage while others fall through the cracks, dragging many down with them. By refusing to rebuild this foundation, these free riders threaten the sustainability of our entire system. True freedom—true self-determination—requires that we ask fundamental questions about how we ensure that every new generation is empowered equitably, rather than subjected to inherited disparities that perpetuate environmental and social collapse.

Click here to Donate to Fair Start Movement Campaign

March 25, 2025
Six Truths to Tell About Avoiding Equity Fraud

1.

To be free, we have to ask political leaders and the wealthiest among us to derive their legal authority and entitlement to wealth from, and condition it on, a showing of how they are measurably empowering into equity each child / new member of our democracies. We can’t get to justice from injustice and universally deconstitutive language that omits how we benefit from a system of inequitable growth that is harming infants and animals. We can’t ensure obligations to ourselves from others by violating the duties we owe to the most vulnerable in our societies.

What does that violation look like? An extreme example would be animal rights organizations claiming to benefit animals with downstream decoy tactics, while quietly choosing to back inequitable growth that easily undoes the good they claim to do. That requires manufacturing metrics to discount future persons, especially persons of color, and animals.

If we do not require deriving and conditioning, we start all we do from a position of contradicting our own objective values – values like enjoying moderate temperatures and access to food – by benefiting at deadly cost to others.

That’s political equity fraud, and at a fundamentally objective level, that overrides any political or legal authority to define it otherwise. That said, we can use existing legal systems to address it, by urging existing law enforcement agencies to track the impacts on all of our capacities to self-determine as children enter the world each day, contrasting those facts with value and impact claims being made by influential entities—the ones exploiting growth, birth positionality, and illegal levels of influence—in that jurisdiction.

This tracking informs our right to self-defense against undemocratic concentrations of power, those who drive violence by allowing states to use it without having legitimated themselves via child-rights based creation norms first.

2.

Not doing this – and consistently using an illegal assessment and reporting standard that avoids it – does more harm than we do good because it degrades the capacity of the earth to support human health, while treating children of color as deserving less resources and more risk, while politically disenfranchising the average person.

3.

Admitting the use of that illegal standard in our work to date and structuring changes in reproductive rights to incentivize, and fund the assurance, that no child is born below the threshold of conditions that comply with their rights and equity is the most just and effective thing we can do today. Practically, we get there by parental readiness and delay entitlements, which move us towards the qualitative optimality envisioned by those (in more quantitative and less qualitative/normative terms) by Dr. Chris Tucker and Sir Partha Dasguta.

If we do not admit failure, and disclose how much of the value we claimed to add to the world has been undone by political inequity, we cannot be included among those who are constituting legitimate / inclusive obligations and a just future. We are continuing a family law system of getting people to think they’re democratic ends when they’re actually being treated as economic means, then getting them to do that to the next generation. We will be decrying this politician or that leader, and dealing with the symptom and not the existential cause.

4.

If we don’t start with measurable equity for children as they enter the world, and for the animals with whom they will interact, we start with injustice that illegally shifts costs onto and punches down on the most vulnerable.

Without Fair Start reforms, we are operating in a fantasy world where our obligations to others don’t arise from the actual creation of our power relations with them. Instead, they are just dictated from abstract, top-down positions that create the sort of moral inaccuracy that caused the climate crisis.

What does that punching down look like? Coca-Cola and Fairlife LLC do it. In many more legal filings to come, Fair Start will allege they manufacture numbers in their cost/benefit analysis that discount the value of vulnerable entities, who under various laws cannot be discounted.

5.

It is physically impossible to be free, as in self-determining, if we don’t use accurately obligatory language to assure that persons are created, developed, and emancipated in ways that offset equally their capacity to influence political systems, relative to a neutral position or objective standard for evaluation. If we do not invest enough in children to offset their capacity to influence relative to zero, then political representatives and officials are not representative at all, and constituents are not being empowered equally to control the rules under which they must live.

The creation and entry of others does and should fundamentally shift our obligations and freedoms. Without Telling the Truth, without this inversion of obligation in our language, those entering the world are either not empowered, or we all have no choice but to be subjected to their power and influence – including the degradation of the environment around us.

6.

The solution includes using rules to ensure accurate commercial language to slowly democratize and reconstitute what has become an essentially commercialized political system. This can be achieved through a preemptive standard for interpreting domestic constitutions and laws, as well as human rights obligations under instruments like International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to ensure actual and measurable self-determination, through the accurate use of obligatory language ensuring that persons are created, developed, and emancipated in ways that offset equally their capacity to influence political systems equally, relative to a neutral position or objective standard for evaluation.

TAKE ACTION: FOR ANYONE CLAIMING TO DO GOOD IN THE WORLD, ASK THEM THESE QUESTIONS:

How were you accounting for your work being undone, each day, by violations of children’s birthrights as they entered the world? Would you be willing to derive wealth and authority back, and condition it on, ensuring such birthrights? If you could go back and make that change in our political systems, decades ago, to save millions of lives, would you do it? If you claimed to create value that was being undone by basic inequity, would you not be eager to reform that system and align with your claimed values?

Click here to Donate to Fair Start Movement Campaign

March 24, 2025
Urging Financial Support and Reparations for Amboseli School Girls

Dear Supporters,

As part of the Tell the Truth campaign, Fair Start is making a special appeal this week. Amboseli is calling on the United Nations to recognize birth equity as the first human right. Now, we need your help to take action.

From our friend Dickson Lekina:

I write to you with an urgent plea on behalf of the schoolgirls of Amboseli, Kenya. These bright young women face financial barriers that threaten their access to education. Without support, their futures hang in the balance.

We seek immediate funding for school fees to ensure their education continues uninterrupted. Additionally, reparations are needed to address the injustices they have endured, helping them heal and build brighter futures.

By standing with these girls, we uphold the fundamental right to education and gender equality. Your support can break cycles of hardship and empower them to reach their full potential.

Please consider making a contribution through Donate. Together, we can create lasting change to save next generation

With gratitude,
Dickson Lekina

March 10, 2025
Authority and Wealth Must Empower — Not Harm — People

Deal with the cause, not the symptom.

Those who claim to create market value, have an impact upon public interest, and exercise governmental authority must account for the inequity and inequality that exists today. The same way shareholders hold equity in a company, voters and citizens should hold equity in a democracy. Unfortunately, this becomes less true as resources are funneled ever upward and the gulf expands between rich and poor. We see it playing out in real time.

Many of us have had the best intentions. We have made charitable donations to groups we believed in. We have put a portion of our incomes toward causes we felt were necessary to improve life on Earth.

Those of us who believed the internet might build positive coalitions and give humanity common cause have been sorely disappointed and disillusioned. In the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries, leaders have consolidated power and have become increasingly less humane and more authoritarian. They have assumed entitlements they had no right to, which among other factors has fundamentally led to the multitude of crises humankind faces today.

We believe that systems of benefit driven by growth economies are built on direct and indirect violations of the poorest people in the world today. The neoliberal approach taken by the wealthy orchestrators of the consumerist global economy will monetize everything down to the least blade of grass while completely ignoring and lying about homelessness, starvation, torture, and genocide. Let’s build a golf resort in Gaza, shall we?

Without addressing some of these fundamental issues, we cannot reach our ideal of a just future through equity in birth and development. Nonprofit and animal rights organizations need to get honest with themselves. Their actions have hardly backed up their PR campaigns.

It’s time to admit that humans are human and are inclined to hoard resources, but this is a tendency we must curb. Until we recognize and acknowledge that every person born has a fundamental right to a fair and equitable start in life, we will not solve our most desperate and dire issues.

Please consider making a contribution through Donate. Together, we can create lasting change to save next generation

March 1, 2025