This isn’t the kind of post I would normally do, but having watched a bit of a documentary on Ethiopia the other night, I think it would be good and proper to write up a few thoughts.
It is not our fault that there are people suffering famine, and I don’t think people should feel guilty about buying things when there are a lot of other people worse off, but, despite all that, there is no doubt that poverty is an issue which most westerners push to the back of their mind and is very overlooked, just like other issues such as mental health problems.
And it is also true that even if loads of money was put into third world charities, it wouldn’t solve the problem overnight. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, the two richest men in the world (I think) have given millions to charity and you would think this would help solve a few more problems, but it hasn’t. There are some people ruling countries such as Robert Mugabe who are evil, and that isn’t really a strong enough word to describe him, and dictators that probably don’t give a shit that millions of people are starving.
I was shocked to find that the population of Ethiopia has doubled within the last 20 years, whether they have access to suitable contraception I don’t know, but that’s another issue which needs looking at.
I don’t really know what the best way to solve the poverty issue is, but I’m sure we could all do our bit, maybe to sponsor a child. We treat the credit crunch as a national crisis but really it pales into insignificance compared to the problems in other countries. At least try and consider the poor a bit more and don’t overlook them.
