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Today, just like most other days, the deaths and needless suffering of millions in the developing world failed to register a blip on the radar of Western media. So, because our commercial media won’t do it’s job, I’m going to do it. Here’s what happened today:
30,000 children died needlessly of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. There is enough food in the world to feed each person.
27,000,000 slaves continued to live in bondage. There are more slaves today than ever before in human history.
300,000 child soldiers continued to fight in wars around the world and were forced to abduct and kill other children. Most are adolescents, although many are 10 years old or younger.
1,000,000,000 people went without safe water. More people die each year from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. In the developing world, contaminated water accounts for 80% of all diseases and claims the lives of 5 million children a year.
2,400,000,000 went without basic sanitation and 1,000,000,000 spent the night without adequate shelter.
27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are still underweight or have stunted growth.
More than 880,000,000 went without medical care or basic health services.
11,400,000 AIDS orphans woke up without a mother or father and worked like a dog to scrape together enough money for just one meal.
35,000,000 people went on living with HIV, 500,000 of them are children.
121,000,000 children never got to sit in a classroom and continued to miss out on basic education.
Between 200,000 and 400,000 women who have been sold into prostitution this year continued to be raped over and over.
So, here’s what I don’t understand. A blonde playboy model with a screwed up family dies, and all of a sudden it captures the attention of the world’s media with front page cover stories and TV headline news. WTF?
I mean, what does this say about our society? Do we not care? What the heck happened? At what point did we decide that this stuff wasn’t important enough to know about? I’m completely and utterly lost! What is it? Somebody tell me how it is that this stuff never gets reported? Either our commercial media outlets are complete and utter failures (which I think they are). Or the media is simply a reflection of society, that simply gives us what we want to see and hear. Both scenarios are screwed up!
I’m angry! If you actually care about half the stuff that I just informed you about, then heck, you should be angry as well. So what do we do? Well, first read my article “Whose Media?” and learn about the new democratisation of media and how you can actually play a role in producing the news. Second, just CHOOSE. Watch SBS instead of the commercial stations. Watch the World News instead of Home and Away. Read Adbusters or New Internationalist instead of Ralph or New Idea. Listen to ABC Radio instead of SeaFM every now and again. Find a good blog, or go to Digg or Delicious. Share this blog. Post it on your friends walls, email it to people. I didn’t make any of this stuff up, it actually happens, every day! Make visible what our media makes invisible.
“Modern society prefers the picture to the object, the counterfeit to the authentic; the reproduction of reality to reality itself; what appears, to what is really there. Delusion is its sanctity, truth is its profanity” – Ludwig Feuerbach
Thanks for doing what your doing, and writing this, Cory!
Thanks for making it blatantly obvious what so many people can’t see. I admire you for telling the sad but true facts.
U r talking about Christianity. Have u read the Bible. God was with Israel, gave them everything and…. they still weren’t happy. Although it is sad what happens in the world, u r not gonna stop it. African Americans were slaves. Do u see them helping Africa. Of course not. Cause human nature is corrupted. It’d be great if we all thought like help thy neighbor. But God said :I know your hearts”. I’ve seen many migrants from war torn countries. They come and enjoy western way of life, say how proud they are of their country. But, but they don’t think about helping to rebuild their country. They r just fine where they r. Because we r all the same. If u don’t believe then swap with someone who is a slave, raped, imprisoned etc and see what’s gonna happen. The problem is u give them what we have and they become just like us. The fact is they don’t need us to help them. What they need is to unite together and fight those that opress them. But another problem is people r afraid too. I’d rather get away cos I might get killed. And that is why a few can rule over many by generating fear. As long as it is my neighbor that’s fine. They just don’t realise they r also someone’s neighbor. u want to fix the world. Good luck. God said it was impossible, so u should listen to Him. We have problems here that we don’t fix and u want people to help those on the other side. We can say white people r racist. So r all the others. There r no good people. Just because u r better than someone else, that doesn’t make u good. God said “There’s none good”. In America u have black people in jails, white too. U have white doctors, black too. Which means in the end we all r the same. Human nature that is sin, is all in us. Good luck in trying to solve the world’s problems. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. Help who u can help but as for the world let them be. Didn’t Jesus say “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. The world is not gonna listen and u r just wasting yr time and energy cos u can’t win. This world is never gonna come even close to perfect. Till Jesus comes we can only do what we can do but u shall not fix the world just like so many before u haven’t.
Sorry Sam,
I don’t agree with some of the stuff you’re saying.
The change we bring to a person who is suffering sure does make a difference to that individual. I fully agree that the world is on a path to total destruction but I cant ignore the words of Jesus that tell me to love my neighbor. If people take a larger approach to bringing change, I say good on them and I don’t think you will hear God complaining.
Maybe you need to have a rethink?
Thanks for your comments guys! In response to Sam, I don’t ever think that I’m going to “fix” the world. But I definitely believe I can play a role in helping to change the world, just like those who have gone before us.
There are over 2000 verses in the bible that relate to justice for the poor and relief of poverty, therefore, I will continue to do everything in my power to end needless suffering.
I disagree with Sam that those who have escaped bad situations settle into the good life and forget where they have come from.
Former refugees that my church have helped are now very active in helping more people escape the situation they were in… who in turn come to Australia and help more people.
Maybe two hundred years from now, their descendents may become like those who are descended from those who came here two hundreds year ago – maybe that is human nature – but just like the story of the old man and the little girl who is throwing back beached starfishes into the sea – just because you can’t save everyone, is no reason not to help those you can.
Hey, Cory is it?
This is a well researched report, I’m not sure if you work in international health or what have you, but I can certainly offer an insight, into why this is overlooked.
In the western world, much more so now than ever before, we’re taught we are have to handle everything, the ones that have to have it all under control. So when things like this come up, people talking about extreme poverty, hunger and abuse in such huge numbers that we can hardly fathom just before pointing the finger squarely at their audience and saying ‘why aren’t you doing something?!’
I must say, as the richer nation/s we should really be looking beyond ourselves a lot more than we do, but how is this motivating in the least? Sure these facts are great but they should hardly be held up as a standard for other to reach unless you plan on reaching it yourself.
Sure we shouldn’t just stand back and do nothing, but why don’t people who bring up these kind of subjects say ‘such and such did this and it made this difference in this village and because of that the village is now like this’ to make people think they can effect change instead of feeling guilty and overwhelmed.
Please take my comments on board. I am very passionate about ending slavery and disgusted it still exists but the reason the media doesn’t want to report about it is because its not going away anytime soon. No matter how many heart warming stories they make it wont change overnight.
That’s where the hard yards start and the rubber really needs to hit the road.
All the best, God bless
Thanks for your comments Rosie. Excuse the irate nature of this post. This was more of an impassioned stab at our commercial media outlets more than anything.
If you read the rest of my posts, you’ll see that most of them are encouraging and provide practical solutions and profile great organisations doing wonderful work.
But hey, you gotta mix it up a bit. This stuff is real, these numbers are actual people, and sometimes we simply need to face that reality despite how it might make us feel.
Sorry I just had to post another comment to Sam.
I can sort of understand what you’re saying, I’ve felt a bit like that at time too. But hey, just stand back and take a deep breath, no one’s attacking you or what you think. Do you realise some of the stuff you said contradicts itself?
You said God said ‘love your neighbor’ and yet your ready to abandon him at first chance? There’s this great passage in Isaiah 58 where Israel is grumbling that God hasn’t seen their fasting & this is what He says:
4-5 “Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-8″This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of INJUSTICE,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
FREE the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the HUNGRY,
inviting the HOMELESS POOR into your homes,
putting clothes on the SHIVERING ILL-CLAD,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.”
Sure we can’t solve all the problems in the world and the good news is WE’RE NOT MEANT TO! Thank God! But He does expect us to do our bit, and however challenging, however difficult to take one small step at a time, moving forward, for love of our neighbor. Hey, you can do it Sam
Cory, u can not end needless suffering. Would be great but can’t happen. This subject has been done so many times and it will be done so many times but we as humans can’t agree on anything. Global warming doesn’t affect one individual or an area or a country. It affects the whole world yet we are still sitting and talking. Well I am sure we’ll do something ‘the day after tomorrow’. Just watch that movie if u haven’t done so already. So if we don’t care about the whole world it should be of no surprise that we can see pretty much nothing but ourselves because in the end we are individuals that think about themselves only. We say community but what we think is what I can get out of it, not what I can give to it. Recession, what is it? it is a man made imagination. It doesn’t exist yet so many people panicked. Money, what is it? A piece of paper that we put value on it. And how we made money so we can unmake it. We put value on things but they r free. How much does it cost to find a cure for cancer? Basically the cost is zero. The Sun gives energy for free. Plants were always there. All u need is to plant seeds, harvest, make food, have two arms to make things and brain to think. So basically all these things cost nothing, yet we still want to belong to this world instead to God’s world.
Rosie, u r wrong. I am not ready to abandon him at first chance. What I am saying is that globally we can not solve problems of this world. I do help to whom I can and I did say help who u can. I don’t give money to Red Cross or other organisations for simple reason that I have seen how much money is wasted. I help personally. We on the other side have given Saddam Hussein everything he wanted in exchange for oil. And who is guilty for that. It would never come to this if we were different. Greed is great. God was with Israel, yet Israel didn’t listen to him. How much so now. It would be nice to solve all these problems but if this world was perfect, there would be no point for Jesus to come then. These problems will stay till the end of the world. As God said, there will be wars, famine…
The media doesn’t report about these things not because it is not going to end anytime soon, it is never going to end but because it doesn’t sell like something about Britney Spears or Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise…
Regardless of your thinking that you can make people think they can effect change it is not going to happen. The fact is majority of people belong to this world and as Jesus said a few will find the way to life. If u were correct then Jesus would be wrong and it can not be. We will never change this world not because we r not meant to but because God said so. And it is not because God said so but because he knows our hearts. Yes we could change this world but for that we first have to have love in our hearts. Something that most don’t have.
This is what u say;
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the HUNGRY,
inviting the HOMELESS POOR into your homes,
putting clothes on the SHIVERING ILL-CLAD,
Even if I was Bill Gates and gave all the money away it would still be a drop in the sea. Even if the whole western world decided to help it would still be a drop in the sea. Why? Because there is more of those in need than those who know God. But then we r back at the beginning. If they knew God in the first place they would need no help. If we all knew God and did what he wanted us to do, then there would be a better world as we would help each other, love, care… But it is not me saying but God, he knows our hearts, there is none good, a few will find the narrow way that leads to life. To me even more important thing is to preach the gospel as Jesus asked us to do than to help the hungry, poor, homeless… cause u may feed someone and they still end up in hell, u can clothe someone but that won’t get them to heaven.
Don’t rely on your own strength, live for things of this world, think how many countries you’ve visited, live for a career… Because God is gonna say: “That’s all nice, but… what did u do for me?”
Life is short and before u know, u will be at the end.
And we don’t need to go far to see suffering. In America u can find plenty. Homelessnes, starvation, prostitution… So much for a western country. And I am sure there r many that need to hear about God. I don’t need to go to Malaysia, Indonesia, India… to tell people about God and to help them. They r right around u. Your family, people u meet on streets, colleagues from work…
Julie, don’t know about your refugees but I have worked with them so would know from experience. Some help but that is minority. And I don’t see much point in helping them escape. That is like a doctor giving u aspirin when u have a headache that is caused by something else, instead of fixing the problem, it is only masked In reality we don’t need to help anyone. The problem is how we perceive things.
If we had love for God, then we would never have this talk. Africa doesn’t need us. All they need is to love thy neighbor. When Israel was with God did they need help from anyone? Of course not. If we did what God told us to do there would be no wars, famine, slaves, rapes… But because we are sinners that’s why we have the world as it is. Noone can say I never lied, I never took something that wasn’t mine, I never thought something bad about someone, I never wanted something that wasn’t mine. The reality is all these things have to happen and it is going to be worse just as God said it would be. This world has to hit the rock bottom before Jesus comes.