Sunday, August 15, 2010

Misplaced priorities

I have a statistic at the top of the page that says one child dies every five seconds due to hunger. Stop and think about it for a second … in the time it took you to read this post so far, one or maybe two children have died because of hunger. Twelve kids will have died by the time this minute is up.

In 2008, nearly 9 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. 178 million children under 5 are stunted, low height for age. Of all stunted children, 90 percent live in just 36 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Central Asia.

Are the numbers too overwhelming for us? Is that why there is so little action? Is it because we value their lives less than our own? Would it be different if they were white?

Just think, the Canadian government spent ONE BILLION DOLLARS so twenty politicians could meet for a day in Toronto.

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