i propose that one does not donate money because his peers do not donate money. if your peers donate 5 dollars each to the famine relief fund then you yourself will be under pressure to donate. After all, donating is a good thing and not donating is not a bad thing. supererogatory ftw.
i suggest the United Nations imposes a 5% income tax on all rich nations in its member states, that is transferred without leakage (ie not used to pay for anything else and thus reduce the amount of corruption that takes place) to poor and impoverished nations of the world. if we all spend the same amount of money helping people who cant help themselves, why would anyone mind? After all that 150/3000 bucks wouldnt really go to anything that is a necessity to our lives.
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Tens of millions of people are dying to starvation. A few people are donating billions to charity. 22 billion may sounds like a lot, coming from the 2nd richest man in the world, but the world's population is (1626 hrs +8GMT 27/08/06) estimated to be 6.6 billion. Not counting the perhaps 3 billion people who live in poverty, of which 1.1 billion are subsisting (or not) on less than 1 USD a day, the other half of the world only has to come up with 10 dollars to far exceed that 22b from a single person.
With about 11 million children dying before the age of 5 (2005), from health problems long eradicated in developed countries, we ponder on the concept of medicine, and wonder why despite holding the cure in our hands, we choose to let 11 million human beings die to respiratory infection, malaria, measles and even diarrhea. Instead of waiting for people to pay for the healthcare of other people's children, why cant pharmaceutical companies use their own profits to do some good with their medicine, which in the first place was meant to be a gift of life.
"Bless agriculture and stock raising
Banish all famine and diseases;
Fill the land with good health
And bless it." - part of the S.Africa's National Anthem, "God Bless Africa".
We, the people of the developed nations, have been playing god for so long. with genetically modified food, we have boosted world crop yield multi-fold. we have indeed banished, as mentioned in the previous para, famine and diseases from our own land. What have we done other than that? we have shifted crop yield profits from farmers to those who provide the seeds. some have decided on subsidies to their own farmers to protect markets from others offering the same at lower prices. When supply is too high and threatens to reduce profits (unfortunately reduce prices so that the poor can afford more and live a better life) some choose to burn all the excess. What has this world come to and what has happened to logic and empathy in the face of commercialism? What is stopping us from blessing africa?
"It is poverty to let a child die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Teresa
Sunday, August 27, 2006
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