i was thinking about the devastation caused by the tsunami — 120,000 people dead in a matter of a few days — and i was thinking about what i could do to help using my position as a member of student government

i then realized that — and this is by no means meant to discount the severity of the current disaster — tens of thousands of people, at an average rate of 24,000 (according to the hunger site) people die per day from hunger

that is to say, every five days, 120,000 people die from hunger

tsunamis, earthquakes, fire, floods — these are things that we can never prevent, we can only deal with them after the fact

but things like hunger, malnutrition, lack of clean water, disease– these are all things that can and should be prevented before hand

yes, two people died in somalia because of the tsunami, but odds are they would’ve died from hunger, warfare, disease or polluted water anyway

why does it take some major act of nature for us to focus more on the plight of the poor and misplaced? why must our charity be reactionary in nature? and most importantly, what can we really do?

if we want to live our lives, we can’t constantly fret and be concerned about the people “over there”

it’s all fine and dandy when something like this occurs, then we can turn our attention to it for a few days — it stays on the radar, it stays on the news, because it’s hollywood … a tsunami, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood — these are all things that could very perceivably happen to us, or at least, we can see ourselves as the protagonists in a movie about such things

but can you truly envision yourself dying from hunger? from a second-rate instant-cure disease like malaria?

i know i don’t take the time to think about it, i’m probably more guilty of such behaviour than most people

but it really is something to think about

every five days, 120,000 people die from hunger — it doesn’t take american bombs or south-east asian tsunamis to do it