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This will probably rank as the shortest rant I've ever done. Actually, it probably doubles up as a test for whether or not you're suffering from compassion fatigue. Read the statistic below (courtesy of a book called Dead Air by a superb writer named Iain Banks), and see if it makes you feel angry. Or guilty. Or nothing at all. I'd like to think we'd all feel something of the first two but I have a feeling that, in order to ensure that we can satisfy ourselves that today is much the same as yesterday and that we're living a blameless life, we'll probably slip into that 3rd category with barely a whisper of complaint from our conscience.
Are you ready? Ok, here goes...
Remember how horrified you were when you saw the Twin Towers collapsing? And how the idea of those people throwing themselves out of the upper floors to their death gave you an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach? Maybe you even felt a few pangs of unwelcome empathy with the hundreds of people trapped there who knew that death was upon them. Well, let us just put it into perspective:
Every 24 hours, approximately 34 thousand children die in the world from the effects of poverty (chiefly from malnutrition and disease). So that's 34 thousand children (I'm not including the adults here, just the children) dead each day across the world. As I'm sure you're sick of hearing from those well-meaning lefty types (whom none of us really like because they're such doomsayers, and they maybe occasionally remind us of how idealistic we perhaps once were) those deaths are needless. I've been writing this on and off for 2 hours by the way, so that's about 2800 dead since I wrote the first word. And they are dying in a world that could feed and clothe and treat them all, with a workably different allocation of resources, but who'd prefer to allocate resources to more important things. Such as ensuring that enough beef gets to McDonalds, or that our employers can keep their profits nice and large. I may sound smug and self-righteous in saying that, but I'm no better; what do I do to make a difference other than spewing endless words that might make you think but won't make you change anything about the way you live.
Meanwhile the latest estimate is about 2800 people died in the Twin Towers, so it’s like that ghastly, grey-billowing, double barreled fall, repeated twelve times every single day; twenty four towers, one per hour, throughout each day and night. Full of children. But it's okay! We don't need to worry about it! It almost all happens in the 3rd world, South America, and Asia. As such, there is almost no danger of seeing it on our TV screens, so that’s almost the same as it not being real! And it's just as well too; after all, George Bush was so upset by the carnage and loss of innocent life at Ground Zero that he felt the need to declare Police Action on Afghanistan and war on Iraq. If he knew about this daily death toll...well, the armies of the US and UK would never sleep! They'd be invading the countries that allow this to happen (because allowing death on that scale in the name of lining the pockets of a particular government is at least as evil as killing thousands in a tower block, right?) and toppling their governments at the rate of 1 a week!
Except of course, they don't. We have the luxury of not worrying about people dying of Malnutrition. Then we invade countries where that is a very real danger, we chastise them for...well, no one is really sure what we're chastising them for (if it was about weapons of mass destruction, then how come North Korea is getting millions of dollars of aid from America, and not invaded? If it was about flouting UN resolutions then Israel would be equally in the s**t), and we add to the death toll whilst making sure that they stay poor and stay hungry. All in the name of a few more millions being added to a company’s profit margin.
And then we wonder why they hate us. Sometimes, despite my best attempts at optimism, I can't help noticing just how incredibly stupid we all are.
Have a nice weekend!
Are you ready? Ok, here goes...
Remember how horrified you were when you saw the Twin Towers collapsing? And how the idea of those people throwing themselves out of the upper floors to their death gave you an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach? Maybe you even felt a few pangs of unwelcome empathy with the hundreds of people trapped there who knew that death was upon them. Well, let us just put it into perspective:
Every 24 hours, approximately 34 thousand children die in the world from the effects of poverty (chiefly from malnutrition and disease). So that's 34 thousand children (I'm not including the adults here, just the children) dead each day across the world. As I'm sure you're sick of hearing from those well-meaning lefty types (whom none of us really like because they're such doomsayers, and they maybe occasionally remind us of how idealistic we perhaps once were) those deaths are needless. I've been writing this on and off for 2 hours by the way, so that's about 2800 dead since I wrote the first word. And they are dying in a world that could feed and clothe and treat them all, with a workably different allocation of resources, but who'd prefer to allocate resources to more important things. Such as ensuring that enough beef gets to McDonalds, or that our employers can keep their profits nice and large. I may sound smug and self-righteous in saying that, but I'm no better; what do I do to make a difference other than spewing endless words that might make you think but won't make you change anything about the way you live.
Meanwhile the latest estimate is about 2800 people died in the Twin Towers, so it’s like that ghastly, grey-billowing, double barreled fall, repeated twelve times every single day; twenty four towers, one per hour, throughout each day and night. Full of children. But it's okay! We don't need to worry about it! It almost all happens in the 3rd world, South America, and Asia. As such, there is almost no danger of seeing it on our TV screens, so that’s almost the same as it not being real! And it's just as well too; after all, George Bush was so upset by the carnage and loss of innocent life at Ground Zero that he felt the need to declare Police Action on Afghanistan and war on Iraq. If he knew about this daily death toll...well, the armies of the US and UK would never sleep! They'd be invading the countries that allow this to happen (because allowing death on that scale in the name of lining the pockets of a particular government is at least as evil as killing thousands in a tower block, right?) and toppling their governments at the rate of 1 a week!
Except of course, they don't. We have the luxury of not worrying about people dying of Malnutrition. Then we invade countries where that is a very real danger, we chastise them for...well, no one is really sure what we're chastising them for (if it was about weapons of mass destruction, then how come North Korea is getting millions of dollars of aid from America, and not invaded? If it was about flouting UN resolutions then Israel would be equally in the s**t), and we add to the death toll whilst making sure that they stay poor and stay hungry. All in the name of a few more millions being added to a company’s profit margin.
And then we wonder why they hate us. Sometimes, despite my best attempts at optimism, I can't help noticing just how incredibly stupid we all are.
Have a nice weekend!
SHEEPY wrote:
> You should read Fast Food Nation
True. I haven't eaten any fast food at all since I read that book, even though Big Macs are delicious.
The fact about thousands of kids dying every day from hunger is one of those statistics that is so mid-bogglingly horrible that most people choose to ignore it completely. It's similar to the UNICEF one about half a million Iraqi children dying as a result of sanctions that were meant (presumably) to punish Saddam Hussein. You would think that these would be the political issues that we dealt with every single day, but instead we argue about fox hunting. I couldn't give **** about foxes, or the people that hunt them. The rest of the world couldn't give a **** about the thousands of people dying needless deaths every hour of the day.
> You should read Fast Food Nation
True. I haven't eaten any fast food at all since I read that book, even though Big Macs are delicious.
The fact about thousands of kids dying every day from hunger is one of those statistics that is so mid-bogglingly horrible that most people choose to ignore it completely. It's similar to the UNICEF one about half a million Iraqi children dying as a result of sanctions that were meant (presumably) to punish Saddam Hussein. You would think that these would be the political issues that we dealt with every single day, but instead we argue about fox hunting. I couldn't give **** about foxes, or the people that hunt them. The rest of the world couldn't give a **** about the thousands of people dying needless deaths every hour of the day.
Just one fact of many about McDonalds
They gather illegal immigrants from Mexico to employ in the slaughter houses... they're forced to handle dangerous knives without any training and if they injure themselves they get sacked with no support.
People who clean the slaughter houses can't see infront of them due to the steam and their has been countless cases of people being teared apart in machines.
You should read Fast Food Nation
They gather illegal immigrants from Mexico to employ in the slaughter houses... they're forced to handle dangerous knives without any training and if they injure themselves they get sacked with no support.
People who clean the slaughter houses can't see infront of them due to the steam and their has been countless cases of people being teared apart in machines.
You should read Fast Food Nation
FantasyMeister wrote:
> (Am I just easing my conscience by writing that? hmmm...maybe...)
Probably. I don't really trust Iain Banks either. He writes books too quickly. His latest (is that Dead Air?) was written in six weeks. Not that his statistics aren't right. I just don't like him.
> (Am I just easing my conscience by writing that? hmmm...maybe...)
Probably. I don't really trust Iain Banks either. He writes books too quickly. His latest (is that Dead Air?) was written in six weeks. Not that his statistics aren't right. I just don't like him.
(Am I just easing my conscience by writing that? hmmm...maybe...)
Don't forget all the automobile accidents, war, plague, drink/drug related deaths etc., it all adds up.
Factor in the number of lives that are SAVED everyday by organisations like the hospitals, paramedics, Red Cross, UN etc., and you'll discover whilst there is unimaginable horror out there, there's also some nice bits too.
I take offence at Iain Banks choosing as McDonalds as his profit making monolith when discussing the number of children that die each day from hunger. It's unfair on all those people who work for McDonalds, after all, they're only trying to make a buck like the rest of us.
"We have an obligation to give back to the communities that give us so much" - Ray Kroc, McDonald's Founder.
Hence why McD's are involved in things like disaster relief, homes away from home scheme for families of hospitalised children, cash and in-kind contributions to local schools etc.
I'm amazed Iain Banks forgot to mention that McDonalds provided 750,000 free meals around the clock to the rescue workers at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, along with a $2 million contribution from themselves and a further $2 million collected from customers.
Sure, he's trying to raise awareness, but by deliberately pointing out only those facts that aid his purpose, he's also hiding the truth about something equally important, something I would call the "It's not ALL bad" factor.
Factor in the number of lives that are SAVED everyday by organisations like the hospitals, paramedics, Red Cross, UN etc., and you'll discover whilst there is unimaginable horror out there, there's also some nice bits too.
I take offence at Iain Banks choosing as McDonalds as his profit making monolith when discussing the number of children that die each day from hunger. It's unfair on all those people who work for McDonalds, after all, they're only trying to make a buck like the rest of us.
"We have an obligation to give back to the communities that give us so much" - Ray Kroc, McDonald's Founder.
Hence why McD's are involved in things like disaster relief, homes away from home scheme for families of hospitalised children, cash and in-kind contributions to local schools etc.
I'm amazed Iain Banks forgot to mention that McDonalds provided 750,000 free meals around the clock to the rescue workers at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, along with a $2 million contribution from themselves and a further $2 million collected from customers.
Sure, he's trying to raise awareness, but by deliberately pointing out only those facts that aid his purpose, he's also hiding the truth about something equally important, something I would call the "It's not ALL bad" factor.
I wrote an essay in English last year on poverty in the Third World... I gave the same sort of statistics and calculated how many children had died since the time I'd spent writing on it.
People pretend to care, but they don't. Although the average person can only do so much but as long as we don't see children dying on television, people live in their own happy world.
I think it costs like 12p to supply a vitamin pack thing that stops people from dying of dehydration and dihorea (sp).
Terrible thing... they haven't got much hope with a corrupt government and a cripling debt on their country.
People pretend to care, but they don't. Although the average person can only do so much but as long as we don't see children dying on television, people live in their own happy world.
I think it costs like 12p to supply a vitamin pack thing that stops people from dying of dehydration and dihorea (sp).
Terrible thing... they haven't got much hope with a corrupt government and a cripling debt on their country.
This will probably rank as the shortest rant I've ever done. Actually, it probably doubles up as a test for whether or not you're suffering from compassion fatigue. Read the statistic below (courtesy of a book called Dead Air by a superb writer named Iain Banks), and see if it makes you feel angry. Or guilty. Or nothing at all. I'd like to think we'd all feel something of the first two but I have a feeling that, in order to ensure that we can satisfy ourselves that today is much the same as yesterday and that we're living a blameless life, we'll probably slip into that 3rd category with barely a whisper of complaint from our conscience.
Are you ready? Ok, here goes...
Remember how horrified you were when you saw the Twin Towers collapsing? And how the idea of those people throwing themselves out of the upper floors to their death gave you an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach? Maybe you even felt a few pangs of unwelcome empathy with the hundreds of people trapped there who knew that death was upon them. Well, let us just put it into perspective:
Every 24 hours, approximately 34 thousand children die in the world from the effects of poverty (chiefly from malnutrition and disease). So that's 34 thousand children (I'm not including the adults here, just the children) dead each day across the world. As I'm sure you're sick of hearing from those well-meaning lefty types (whom none of us really like because they're such doomsayers, and they maybe occasionally remind us of how idealistic we perhaps once were) those deaths are needless. I've been writing this on and off for 2 hours by the way, so that's about 2800 dead since I wrote the first word. And they are dying in a world that could feed and clothe and treat them all, with a workably different allocation of resources, but who'd prefer to allocate resources to more important things. Such as ensuring that enough beef gets to McDonalds, or that our employers can keep their profits nice and large. I may sound smug and self-righteous in saying that, but I'm no better; what do I do to make a difference other than spewing endless words that might make you think but won't make you change anything about the way you live.
Meanwhile the latest estimate is about 2800 people died in the Twin Towers, so it’s like that ghastly, grey-billowing, double barreled fall, repeated twelve times every single day; twenty four towers, one per hour, throughout each day and night. Full of children. But it's okay! We don't need to worry about it! It almost all happens in the 3rd world, South America, and Asia. As such, there is almost no danger of seeing it on our TV screens, so that’s almost the same as it not being real! And it's just as well too; after all, George Bush was so upset by the carnage and loss of innocent life at Ground Zero that he felt the need to declare Police Action on Afghanistan and war on Iraq. If he knew about this daily death toll...well, the armies of the US and UK would never sleep! They'd be invading the countries that allow this to happen (because allowing death on that scale in the name of lining the pockets of a particular government is at least as evil as killing thousands in a tower block, right?) and toppling their governments at the rate of 1 a week!
Except of course, they don't. We have the luxury of not worrying about people dying of Malnutrition. Then we invade countries where that is a very real danger, we chastise them for...well, no one is really sure what we're chastising them for (if it was about weapons of mass destruction, then how come North Korea is getting millions of dollars of aid from America, and not invaded? If it was about flouting UN resolutions then Israel would be equally in the s**t), and we add to the death toll whilst making sure that they stay poor and stay hungry. All in the name of a few more millions being added to a company’s profit margin.
And then we wonder why they hate us. Sometimes, despite my best attempts at optimism, I can't help noticing just how incredibly stupid we all are.
Have a nice weekend!
Are you ready? Ok, here goes...
Remember how horrified you were when you saw the Twin Towers collapsing? And how the idea of those people throwing themselves out of the upper floors to their death gave you an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach? Maybe you even felt a few pangs of unwelcome empathy with the hundreds of people trapped there who knew that death was upon them. Well, let us just put it into perspective:
Every 24 hours, approximately 34 thousand children die in the world from the effects of poverty (chiefly from malnutrition and disease). So that's 34 thousand children (I'm not including the adults here, just the children) dead each day across the world. As I'm sure you're sick of hearing from those well-meaning lefty types (whom none of us really like because they're such doomsayers, and they maybe occasionally remind us of how idealistic we perhaps once were) those deaths are needless. I've been writing this on and off for 2 hours by the way, so that's about 2800 dead since I wrote the first word. And they are dying in a world that could feed and clothe and treat them all, with a workably different allocation of resources, but who'd prefer to allocate resources to more important things. Such as ensuring that enough beef gets to McDonalds, or that our employers can keep their profits nice and large. I may sound smug and self-righteous in saying that, but I'm no better; what do I do to make a difference other than spewing endless words that might make you think but won't make you change anything about the way you live.
Meanwhile the latest estimate is about 2800 people died in the Twin Towers, so it’s like that ghastly, grey-billowing, double barreled fall, repeated twelve times every single day; twenty four towers, one per hour, throughout each day and night. Full of children. But it's okay! We don't need to worry about it! It almost all happens in the 3rd world, South America, and Asia. As such, there is almost no danger of seeing it on our TV screens, so that’s almost the same as it not being real! And it's just as well too; after all, George Bush was so upset by the carnage and loss of innocent life at Ground Zero that he felt the need to declare Police Action on Afghanistan and war on Iraq. If he knew about this daily death toll...well, the armies of the US and UK would never sleep! They'd be invading the countries that allow this to happen (because allowing death on that scale in the name of lining the pockets of a particular government is at least as evil as killing thousands in a tower block, right?) and toppling their governments at the rate of 1 a week!
Except of course, they don't. We have the luxury of not worrying about people dying of Malnutrition. Then we invade countries where that is a very real danger, we chastise them for...well, no one is really sure what we're chastising them for (if it was about weapons of mass destruction, then how come North Korea is getting millions of dollars of aid from America, and not invaded? If it was about flouting UN resolutions then Israel would be equally in the s**t), and we add to the death toll whilst making sure that they stay poor and stay hungry. All in the name of a few more millions being added to a company’s profit margin.
And then we wonder why they hate us. Sometimes, despite my best attempts at optimism, I can't help noticing just how incredibly stupid we all are.
Have a nice weekend!