There’s so much wrong with the world. With us. As a species. We’re selfish. We consume vast amount of resources with little regard for the world. We take advantage of those in poorer countries for our own comfort. We fight and squabble over who should get to lead us, at times leading to bloodshed. We believe in bizarre things that can’t be proved, ever.
How have we come to this? The current focus on the world is on the ‘crisis’ in the stock market. No matter how complicated this all is, no matter what the impact on the world is, at the end of the day, what we have here is an artificial monetary system that dictates so much in our world. Take us away and the money is nothing but rubbish.
I’ve said this before on my blog, how can we sit by let people die of starvation? How can we stand by and let people die from easily curable disease? By many standards, I’m a well off, well fed Australian. I earn a good income, I don’t want for too much. I buy cheap shit made in China, I buy clothes that are probably made in a sweat shop, I have left overs after a meal that I freeze and eat a week later.
How bad’s that. I have so much food that I can cook and freeze it. And I feel quite happy about it.
While our focus is on the poor banks, diverting our tax money to a private company to help sure up their profits, the vast majority of the world is in a food crisis. Apparently we need the banks to lend them the money to buy the food. Why don’t we just give them the food? You know, because we feel we should, because we believe that everyone has a right to a happy life, because we are all of the same stock and some of us are short and fat and some of us are tall and skinny. I’m this way because I eat and drink too much, others are that way because all they get is a cup of rice a day, that they have to work long and hard to pay for, because our system allows people to trade in futures and that pushes the price of basic food up.
Somewhere, we got all this very wrong. Very very wrong. Too much focus on making money, a worthless commodity that feeds no one, and not enough energy on making food, a necessity of life.
If I can reduce the amount I consume, the amount of food, the amount of energy, the amount of fuel, will that help? What if you did that too? What if we all in the Western world lowered our living standards so that we can help those who have so little. What if we paid for a new shirt, and in doing so knew that the person in the sweat shop who made it got $20 an hour instead of $20 a week? How can I make my vision of the world a reality? I’m going to give it a try, and I invite you to give it a try too. Who knows, perhaps together, we can rid the world of the obsessive greed and move towards a world where no on goes hungry simply because of where they were born.
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