Tuesday, January 02, 2007
END WORLD HUNGER
Of Consumption and Consumerism
… Inequalities in consumption are stark. Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures — the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%. More specifically, the richest fifth:
- Consume 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5%
- Consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4%
- Have 74% of all telephone lines, the poorest fifth 1.5%
- Consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1%
- Own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1%
-Human Development Report 1998 Overview-UNDP
More often than not, we become slaves to consumerism: I'm sorry I dont get excited over an LV bag, or long rebonded hair pimped from excessive expensive chemical-pumped Vidal Sassoon formula, or fancy cars or OPI nail polish, or expensive Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. I'm sorry I can't answer questions hurled at me for not grooming myself to look like some ornament/vase/pretty picture. I wish that people would smarten up and stop adopting this consumer culture. I think those people come off as looking rather fake/pompous than being an elite class.
Eradicate Poverty
- Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
- The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. - 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day)- GlobalIssues.org
Monday, November 13, 2006
About Hope
The first one was from Red (Morgan Freeman) warning Andy (Tim Robbins) about hope:
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
But at the end after escaping, Andy tells Red another quote through his letter:
Andy Dufresne: Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And a good thing never dies.
I believe in the latter. Keep on hoping ;)
- CASh