I really do get a high from philosphy. Although today it was a bit tempered by the subject matter. 2.4 billion people live on less than $2 US a day. I'd never really got purchasing power paraty before, but now I do. It means that they can buy the equivalent of what $2 can get you in America. Which really isn't very much. Peter Singer believes that we could reach the millenium development goals if each person in adeveloped country gave $100 a year. He also believes you can save a childs life with $200. What upsets me almost as much as these figures is the fact that a lot people don't even realise that this is real. It reminds me of this xkcd comic. Well, if a baby girl or boy dies in the Congo he/she dies in real life. (As an aside why do we put the infront of african country names? Maybe I shouldn't but I want to say the Congo or The Sudan). It worries me that people think not owning an Ipod or something makes you poor. Obviously I am a complete hypocrite. I just complained to T about being "so poor" when my bank balance could save the lives of several african children. This is all very me circa grade 11 when I went through an incredibly self indulgent guilt stage. I know feeling guilty in it self doesn't help and I'm kind of glad I don't as much anymore. Partly for selfish reasons and also because I was all "people are dying so I feel bad, woe for me" which is rather missing the point. But part of me worries that that's what happens to everyone. We get desesitized so much. It's like that George Bernard Shaw quote “A man who is not a communist at the age of twenty is a fool. Any man who is still communist at the age of thirty is an even bigger one.” What if it's not about maturity but rather you just stop caring?
Ok now I'm really depressed. Woe for me.
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2 comments:
So don't stop caring, keep caring, and do something. To save one child a year, you need to give the $200 according to Peter Singer. That's less than $17 a month. Top up by 17% to cover administrative costs (that's a figure taken from MSF) and it's $19.60 a month. That's 65c a day.
It's that simple. So do it!
Or donate to Rotary, 'cause they've got the whole polio thing going on which is pretty cool.
Actually, that's an interesting ethical question: is it right to focus on eradicating polio (fewer than 2000 recorded cases a year) when there are so many other diseases killing more? Should we be trying to eradicate disease or merely reduce it to low infection rates?
Ok, continuing this line of thought will both depress me and make this comment longer than it is. So I stop.
You should post. Also, my exams are from 13-23 june, which is very bad timing i feel. I realise this has nothing to do with your post. Sorry
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