Food for Thought...

by roybatty 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  roybatty

  The recent events in Asia and the images that are being broadcast indeed are tragic. But how would you have reacted if you had read that a million people had died. Shocked perhaps? Not that I want to make lite of that event but I was shocked when I read this article. I never realized that a million Africans A YEAR die from....no, not AIDS...no not war..but rather MALARIA. Can you believe that? A diese that can be prevented and or cured still kills a million people a year????

  Just makes me wonder what the U.S. could do with the amount of money it spends in one month fighting in Iraq.

  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr33/en/
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  Elsewhere

  I've wondered about the same thing and the best conclusion I have come to is that people are shocked by the deaths of many people who die at the same time by the same cause.

  • Millions of people die from mosquito bites in a year, but you hardly see anything about it in the news.
  • 3,000 people die when two buildings collapse, and all hell breaks loose.
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  Dustin

  Good point. It's crazy how much money is wasted on stuff that doesn't matter, when so many are dying. It's sad. But that's just the theme in this world.
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  SixofNine

  Amazing
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  BrendaCloutier

  Last night, Kev and I were discussing the Billions of dollars spent in "freeing" Iraq, and how, if that had instead been available to spend on S Asia instead, how different the world opinion of the US would be. Then, again, the US has always been criticized and held "hostage" by countries that want us to come in and "save" them, because we're "wealthy". Look at the BS N Korea has tried with nuclear weapons.

  I see the vacationers fleeing as fast as they can. Kev and I agreed that if we were in a similar situation (and moving to Hilo could put us there) that we'd stay on to help in any way we could until our regular flight home was available. Longer if it could be arranged.

  Maleria is a miserable disease, at best. Even Mexico has maleria zones! Just South of Mazatlan is an estuary of hundreds of acres that is also a WHO declared malaria zone. We found out about it when Kev went to give blood this last summer. As I understand it, it is only a couple of types of mosquitos that carries the blood-borne disease. Get out the Gin and Tonic!

  Hugs

  Brenda
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  roybatty

  Last night, Kev and I were discussing the Billions of dollars spent in "freeing" Iraq, and how, if that had instead been available to spend on S Asia instead, how different the world opinion of the US would be. Then, again, the US has always been criticized and held "hostage" by countries that want us to come in and "save" them, because we're "wealthy". Look at the BS N Korea has tried with nuclear weapons.

  Yeah, I have the same feelings. I guess I'm not so much thinking "let's spend less money chasing after the bad guys" as I am "let's remember that there are a lot of people in need."

  I know I for one only give to these funds to help the needy when something like this happens. I need to keep myself more current with other "disaster area" in the world and help with whatever I can. Just so dam frustrating. Seems like one problem gets solved and another follows. I'm thinkink "when was the last time you even saw a story about malaria in African" on the 10 o'clock news?