So have you ever seen any of those lines or videos or anything where it starts out by stating how much money it would take to stop "poverty" (get clean drinking water or food to eat) and then goes on to try and guilt you by telling you how much North Americans spend on certain things... like christmas or ice cream? Have you ever seen something like this? My guess is you have. I dunno I have thought about it and as much as I am for stopping malnutrition and ending world poverty and all those wonderful things... I think these methods do nothing else but make me angry at them. I can understand that there is a lot of injustice in the world... there are a lot of people without food or clean drinking water every day and but I do not think that gives an excuse to try and make people feel guilty about it. I do not think guilt is the right tactic... now there is a difference between awareness and guilt trips. I think that people need to want to do it otherwise I do not think there is any merit to it. The people that want to do it are going to do it, and try their hardest to stop it... and everyone else is just going to read it feel bad and move on.
The problem is not eating ice cream or christmas, that is not the problem. Now understand I also believe that we do go overboard in North America and maybe should cut back on some things, but still that does not necessarily always mean that people are going to turn around and spend that on clean drinking water wells, or food for people living in these circumastance. I dunno I guess I just have a beef with people showing me facts about people and facts about my life, and trying to show me that somehow if I cut back on eating ice cream that magically that is going to transform into clean drinking water. It's unrealistic. I have no problem with people showing me facts like "eight hundred million people did not eat today"... honestly that should be enough. Unfortunately people don't think it is so they add the amount spent to buy wells and get clean water for everyone, and then compare it and it magically happens to be the same amount people spend on ice cream in a year.
I guess I am saying the people that are going to support these things are going to do it because of the stat that matters. I think it is important that we are aware of the injustice of the world and become aware of how others are living and how we are living... but I think it is going overboard and doing no good by showing these sorts of "comparisons".
Overall I think that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in my life in this area... using my money for things other than myself as well as using what I have and my talents and money and maybe using it for these things like getting clean water for third world countries... etc.
