I heard a great comment on the ABC during the week about the implications of the (impending?) recession for the world’s poor. Tim Costello of World Vision said:
“As we look inwards and we feel really worried about our own super, remember that when we don’t eat out as much, the poor in a financial crisis don’t eat.”
It’s a reminder that as things get tough for us, things have been unbearable for much of the world for much longer. The way we respond in these difficult times has an even greater impact on the world’s poor and marginalised than it ever has.
The global hunger crisis has a number of causes and the statistics are staggering. According to World Vision, 100 million people are hungry on a daily basis and up to 70% of the income of the world’s poor is spent on food. Earlier this year I heard that the price of rice – the staple food for much of the world – had increased by 70% in the last 12 months.
I’m reminded that there are many in the world who are much, much, much worse off than me. I’m challenged to act.
Yet I don’t know where to start – how do we respond to these global tragedies?
This post is tagged
3 Comments
World hunger is a huge issue, and so is this economic crisis, but apparently 4% of the money spend on the bail out for wall street could have ended world hunger. (http://www.ecosalon.com/title/Could_Just_4_of_the_Wall_Street_Bailout_End_World_Hunger)
I wonder if the bail out would have been as effective if they only received 96% of the money they got?
That is an amazing statistic. Why do we find it so easy to find close to a trillion dollars to bail-out the economy, but won’t spend anything near that to bail-out lives? Thanks for sharing this mate.
That 4% is just for one year, and I’m not sure if just throwing money at the problem would solve it entirly.. but yeah, the west (and I do mean us as well) have way more money than the average person on earth.
Incoming Links
Leave a Reply