Seventy Seven

When we think about the suffering around the world, it is frustrating.  It is frustrating because much of the suffering is needless and preventable.  Children should not have to perish because their mother cannot afford the 35 pence bus fare to take the child to hospital.  A parent should not die because they don’t have access to Malaria or HIV treatment, which is so readily available in the West.  People in the developing world die because of one thing:  greed.  Drugs companies have the power and the solution to change the lives of these people but making money is more imporant.  Many of those in the developing world suffer because of the decisions of the West.

There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, so why are children dying of hunger?  It is so easy to watch television appeals and to become immune to the images of suffering but what if the child convulsing and gasping for air with no access to oxygen was your child?  What if the woman, lying on the dirty ground, so weak she is unable to make the journey to hospital, was your Mother?  What if the little girl crying in pain because she is so hungry was your daughter?  I don’t think I have ever cried tears of guilt or felt like such a selfish and inadequate person as I have watching Comic Relief this evening.  As we go about our lives, it’s so easy to forget our fellow brothers and sisters around the world.  We feel so powerless:  what can we really do?!  We can care.

Alas, I must now go to bed before I fall asleep on the spot.  I dream of an equal world .
Comic Relief