Inequality?

So I woke up on the 9^th of April (somewhere in the late afternoon), turned on the TV and immediately switched to a news channel; because I normally watch the news in the early morning it felt like I slept for a week and missed out on important news topics, but then again, I knew the world is in mayhem and the only thing I’d miss were death rates, images of people massacred and other disturbing news which makes you think…..where the !#$@ is this world going!?!?

I was right, Libya, Syria, Ivory Coast, Germany (major pile-up) and of course the death toll updates from Japan were the first things I saw. Thinking it was over, they announced a shooting in Alphen a/d Rijn. Some hopeless lunatic sprayed around him killing 6 innocent people and then himself using a full automatic weapon (you don’t have to be from the military to know it’s not a wimpy weapon)…what happened to old fashion suicide?

As bitter as it made me, I had a hard time feeling remorse for what happened in our country… Yes it is a tragedy and incidents occurring closer to home are indeed frightening, but then again, that day; 22,000 children died due to poverty, 4000 died (half of them below the age of 5) due to air pollution, 6000 died due to diseases which ARE curable (2.1 million a year) and another 4000 from lack of access to save drinking water. Adds up to approximately 13 million deaths a year (among children alone!!!)

People act as if nothing happened when something far away from us takes place, just an announcement on the news and a few numbers of deaths and injuries. Many people tell me “we can’t fix everything, a better world starts at home” but it’s not just that…the equality in this world is off-balance because ‘people’ and governments have different priorities and are driven by cuts and greed!

Inequality? Here’s some brain food.

Did you know that; “A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water”

“Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion. Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)”

“Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child ON EARTH into school by the year 2000”

“Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names”

“The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets. In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.”

I’d like to leave you all on a Sunday afternoon with a quote I read just a few minutes ago.

“Children die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death”