Save a Life, Maybe Two!
I’ve been wearing a white wristband since July 2, 2005. Wristbands of almost every color are now so prevalent that they risk losing their meaning. Mine still means as much to me today as it did in the summer of 2005, perhaps more.
The white band is imprinted with a single word – ONE. It stands for The ONE Campaign (http://www.one.org/), which is dedicated to “making poverty history”. This campaign is driven by one overarching reality – a child dies every three seconds from the impacts of extreme poverty or AIDS. Extreme poverty is defined as living, if you can call it that, on less than $1 a day. The campaign calls on developed countries around the world to give at least 1% of their GNP to fight poverty in underdeveloped countries; or, preferably, to increase such spending by an amount equal to that 1%.
July 2, 2005, is the day that the Live8 poverty-awareness concerts were held and broadcast around the world. There were concerts in nine cities; one thousand artists performed; more than two million people attended; more than three billion people watched. It was a remarkable gathering that was timed to coincide with the G8 meeting that was being held in Scotland that same week. I think it’s fair to say that it made an impression. It’s hard to ignore the gathering of millions of people.
For me, the inspirational highpoint of Live8 came when a video clip showed a little girl lying in her mother’s arms. She was emaciated and almost lifeless. Flies were landing around her eyes, nose and mouth. She was days, if not just hours from death. But an intervention funded by money raised at a previous poverty-awareness concert program saved her life. This girl, now a young woman, was introduced to the Live8 audience. She is healthy, vibrant, and strikingly beautiful. She has married and completed her university studies. She stood there as the antithesis of the dying child we’d just watched.
A friend loaned me the DVD recording of the Live8 concerts. At the end of the DVD, hidden in the “Extras” section, is a short film that makes a compelling comparison that would not be lost on anyone who watches it. It shows African women and children holding, wearing or doing something that those of us in the developed world would regard as common, everyday things.
Moving from scene to scene the film points out that every year we in the world spend:
§ $900 billion on weapons
§ $600 billion on vacations
§ $300 billion on alcoholic drinks
§ $260 billion on cigarettes
§ $170 billion on fast food
§ $55 billion on denim clothing
§ $50 billion on pornography
§ $50 billion on weight-loss programs
§ $46 billion on sporting goods
§ $45 billion on fashion accessories
§ $40 billion on music sales
§ $40 billion on Barbie dolls
§ $40 billon on getting fit in gyms and spas
§ $40 billion on sneakers
§ $34 billion on toiletries
§ $27 billion on makeup
§ $22 billion on perfume
§ $20 billion on candy
§ $18 billion on pet food
§ $4 billion on souvenir t-shirts
These items total more than $2.75 trillion a year.
The essential point is driven home by the last scene in the film:
$50 billion a year could save 50,000 lives a day
No one is suggesting that we give up any or all of the items listed above. But, accepting the above formula for the sake of discussion, if we gave up only 1% of these things worldwide, much less donating 1% of our GNP, that alone would allow us to redirect more than $25 billion a year toward saving more than 25,000 lives a day. A bold reduction of 10% of the above items would allow us to redirect an astonishing $275 billion dollars a year toward saving a quarter of a million lives each day!
I know that the above formula may be an overstatement or at least an over-simplification. I know that it’s hard to draw a direct line between reduced consumption in the developing world and reduced mortality and increased well being in the underdeveloped world. The redistribution of wealth is fraught with challenges throughout the process. But the above numbers illustrate a principle if not a reality – we can do more; we can make different choices; we can spend less on things that are not essential to sustaining our lives; and we can spend more on providing food, water, clothing, shelter and medicine to the billions of people in our world who cannot sustain their lives. This much is indisputable.
Each of us can do the math. Each of us can examine our choices. Each of us can reassess our priorities. Each of us can make a difference. In fact, each of us can save the life of at least one human being and some of us can save the lives of many. That’s something worth living and spending for.
The white band is imprinted with a single word – ONE. It stands for The ONE Campaign (http://www.one.org/), which is dedicated to “making poverty history”. This campaign is driven by one overarching reality – a child dies every three seconds from the impacts of extreme poverty or AIDS. Extreme poverty is defined as living, if you can call it that, on less than $1 a day. The campaign calls on developed countries around the world to give at least 1% of their GNP to fight poverty in underdeveloped countries; or, preferably, to increase such spending by an amount equal to that 1%.
July 2, 2005, is the day that the Live8 poverty-awareness concerts were held and broadcast around the world. There were concerts in nine cities; one thousand artists performed; more than two million people attended; more than three billion people watched. It was a remarkable gathering that was timed to coincide with the G8 meeting that was being held in Scotland that same week. I think it’s fair to say that it made an impression. It’s hard to ignore the gathering of millions of people.
For me, the inspirational highpoint of Live8 came when a video clip showed a little girl lying in her mother’s arms. She was emaciated and almost lifeless. Flies were landing around her eyes, nose and mouth. She was days, if not just hours from death. But an intervention funded by money raised at a previous poverty-awareness concert program saved her life. This girl, now a young woman, was introduced to the Live8 audience. She is healthy, vibrant, and strikingly beautiful. She has married and completed her university studies. She stood there as the antithesis of the dying child we’d just watched.
A friend loaned me the DVD recording of the Live8 concerts. At the end of the DVD, hidden in the “Extras” section, is a short film that makes a compelling comparison that would not be lost on anyone who watches it. It shows African women and children holding, wearing or doing something that those of us in the developed world would regard as common, everyday things.
Moving from scene to scene the film points out that every year we in the world spend:
§ $900 billion on weapons
§ $600 billion on vacations
§ $300 billion on alcoholic drinks
§ $260 billion on cigarettes
§ $170 billion on fast food
§ $55 billion on denim clothing
§ $50 billion on pornography
§ $50 billion on weight-loss programs
§ $46 billion on sporting goods
§ $45 billion on fashion accessories
§ $40 billion on music sales
§ $40 billion on Barbie dolls
§ $40 billon on getting fit in gyms and spas
§ $40 billion on sneakers
§ $34 billion on toiletries
§ $27 billion on makeup
§ $22 billion on perfume
§ $20 billion on candy
§ $18 billion on pet food
§ $4 billion on souvenir t-shirts
These items total more than $2.75 trillion a year.
The essential point is driven home by the last scene in the film:
$50 billion a year could save 50,000 lives a day
No one is suggesting that we give up any or all of the items listed above. But, accepting the above formula for the sake of discussion, if we gave up only 1% of these things worldwide, much less donating 1% of our GNP, that alone would allow us to redirect more than $25 billion a year toward saving more than 25,000 lives a day. A bold reduction of 10% of the above items would allow us to redirect an astonishing $275 billion dollars a year toward saving a quarter of a million lives each day!
I know that the above formula may be an overstatement or at least an over-simplification. I know that it’s hard to draw a direct line between reduced consumption in the developing world and reduced mortality and increased well being in the underdeveloped world. The redistribution of wealth is fraught with challenges throughout the process. But the above numbers illustrate a principle if not a reality – we can do more; we can make different choices; we can spend less on things that are not essential to sustaining our lives; and we can spend more on providing food, water, clothing, shelter and medicine to the billions of people in our world who cannot sustain their lives. This much is indisputable.
Each of us can do the math. Each of us can examine our choices. Each of us can reassess our priorities. Each of us can make a difference. In fact, each of us can save the life of at least one human being and some of us can save the lives of many. That’s something worth living and spending for.
posted by Jonathan @ 1/20/2007 10:32:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Great post; thank you. There is something painful/ironic (intentional?) about it following that excellent but sad commentary summarizing our current status in the Iraq war, and then being followed by another post on the weekend’s tragic losses in Iraq, a war likely to surpass $1 Trillion. A conservative estimate is that the war costs us at least $200 million a day. What better things could we do with that money?
A long time ago, I realized I was "rich." When my young son died, I was awakened to compassion. I realized that "any mother, anywhere" feels the same pain, the same loss as me when she watches her child die. There is no class or race or national distinction. Pain is pain. Love is love. That learning is one of the greatest gifts to spring from my "Danny loss." No mother or father should watch their child die a preventable death. No country should stand by with the riches and excesses of the west and allow these things to happen on so grand a scale…
What would happen if President Bush made eradicating extreme poverty a higher priority than "spreading democracy?" What if he talked about this kind of sacrifice at the State of the Union Tuesday night?
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