'Nice ad placement' by Aaron SuggsToday, Jacques Diouf, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, placed part of the blame for rising worldwide food prices, related unrest and famines in developing countries on Western obesity.
"The excess consumption by the world's obese costs $20 billion annually, to which must be added indirect costs of $100 billion resulting from premature death and related diseases," he said.
It makes our fears of paying $1.60 for a litre of petrol seem somewhat petty when we're talking about potentially nearly 1 billion people who won't get enough to eat, in no small part thanks to unfair trade policies of the U.S, Europe and other wealthy nations.
'Reality' by Mike BGMore than 1 in 6 people in the world have no choice but to choose the one on the right.
They don't have access to safe drinking water.
In developing countries, about 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.
Over one-third of the world's population has no access to sanitation facilities.
My question is will individuals, businesses and Governments ever stop to realise how obscene our relative wealth has become? Will we ever become bigger than our own greed and prioritise wealth redistribution to the truly hungry, thirsty and sick people of our world who are dieing in the shadow of our gross wastefulness?
What can you do? Heaps!
- Stop to think about things you don't need to buy for yourself. Save that money and help to lift someone out of the despair of poverty. Eg: Kiva. It will be a lot more rewarding.
- Don't waste food.
- Make Poverty History
- Learn about the Millennium Development Goals
- Throw your weight behind Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign
- Ask your local MP about the Government's timetable to increase our overseas aid contribution to it's own target of 0.5% of GNI and then ultimately the UN target of 0.7% of GNI (currently we're at 0.32% the equivalent of 32cents for every $100 in our economy)
- Join the 'Kevin .7' campaign on Facebook!
We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. - Millennium Declaration
~ Adam.
What a powerful photo of the glasses of water! My husband and I are working to help an organization that is bringing access to clean water to third world countries. Our project is called http://2wheels4water.com. Check it out!
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