Do Something

For this next post, I first want you to reflect on the global news you’ve been watching or hearing about. This could be from the last time you switched from one movie channel to the next and accidently had to pass the news channel, or the last time you skimmed over the online BBC news page just so you didn’t feel like an idiot when others discussed global affairs in everyday conversation (not that that ever happens). Or you could be the type of person who is well versed on current affairs and has an opinion on everything. If you have no idea what is going on in the world, go to some news website-any news website really, biased or unbiased- and find out what’s going on in the world.

The latest headlines that have caught my attention are riots in Greece over austerity measures, a hacking scandal that has engulfed UK media, and generally, governments doing things that their people don’t agree with. In the Middle East and North Africa, we see full out war in Libya (call it what you want), unrest in Syria that has left over 1,700 people dead, the people of Egypt struggling to put their country back together, and another revolution of sorts in Yemen. Also lets not forget Bahrain. Moving further east, we have the very unpopular Afghan War that seems to be dragging on forever with no progress, constant drone strikes in Pakistan that have left 56+ civilians dead in the last 2 days, and bomb blasts in India’s financial capital of Mumbai just yesterday. Clearly things aren’t going too good.

In all of these incidents, civilians like you and I lost their lives. But to us- people who are far away from all the action, sitting in the comfort of our homes-all this news is just news. We pity the state of the world for a bit and then return to our lives. Maybe its because all of that terrible stuff is only happening to 1 million people and since we’re a 7 billion strong species  (yes we are no longer 6 billion), 1 million is insignificant? Maybe its because we just see ourselves as very fortunate and blessed while the others got unlucky? Or maybe we think we are too insignificant as individuals to do anything? Why are we so damn complacent about the state of our world?

How about the drought in the Horn of Africa that affects 10 million people? I was reading one article that said that out of desperation to save some of their kids, mothers were letting the weakest die just so they’d have enough food to feed the stronger ones. While on the topic of children, according to UNICEF, an estimated 22,000 children (defined as below the age of 5) die of poverty each day. And while on the topic of poverty, over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day.How on earth do you and I sleep peacefully at night on our $1000 memory foam mattresses when there are hundreds of millions of people sleeping on dirt, resting their heads on flip flops, and scavenging for food? The “human race” is making huge steps forward but the poorest people, the people that make up the majority of the human race, are being left behind to die in circumstances they had no control over.

Enough ranting about how inhumane and foolish we are. If you’ve read this far and are just wondering why I didn’t cite my sources, or that one phrase of mine was innacurate etc. then you didn’t get the real message. Let me lay it out for you: You and I spend our lives in comfort while others rot away indirectly serving us with our pleasures and we don’t even give them a thought.

Monday, July 18^th, is Nelson Mandela Day and I beg you to give up a minimum of 67 minutes of your comfortable lives to help someone. I don’t know if anyone outside of Southern Africa even knows about it but everyone here is ready to give up 67 minutes to do some good. Mandela gave 67 years of his life for the betterment of his world, so we best be able to give up 67 minutes. And if you don’t like the idea of putting Mandela’s name to it, then just go out and do some service. But make sure you do something. If your dry on ideas, here http://www.mandeladay.com/static/join.

Wake up from your slumber people. We all live in the same world.

Note: This is my personal rant and plea. I don’t mean to offend anyone.