THE MESSAGE:
THE GREAT HUMAN MYSTERY
Why do so many people make such a fuss over protecting the environment but do not concern themselves with the protection of the human race?
U of London professor emeritus Philip Stott has this to say, “The fundamental point has always been this. Climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables, and the very idea that we can manage climate change predictably, by understanding and manipulating at the margins, one politically selected factor (CO2) is as misguided as it gets.” “It’s scientific nonsense,” Stott added.
The carbon footprint has long dominated the media, politics, protests and public opinion to the point of mostly ignoring real issues such as world hunger, education, poverty, parenting and amity.
THE BLURB:
1) AMITY
It is defined as a mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship among human beings. Amity is certainly lacking when it comes to relationships between the countries of our world. Thinking on a smaller scale, its absence is also apparent between some of the divergent regions and societies within countries. Taking it a step further we can find examples of the lack of amity's existence between communities, neighbourhoods, schools and sometimes even families.
What is left to conclude? Could it be that humans as a species have no intrinsic ability to assimilate, tolerate, empathize or respect each other? What has been left out of our evolutionary development?
2) WORLD HUNGER
The world produces enough food to feed 10 billion people. Poverty and hunger prevail because of economics, not scarcity.
Some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth. The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where 12.9 percent of the population is undernourished. Here are some realities:
WHERE HUNGER IS THE WORST
Sub-Saharan Africa: 214 million
Latin America and the Caribbean: 37 million
Nearly one half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to under-nutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year.
50 percent of pregnant women in developing countries lack proper maternal care, resulting in approximately 300,000 maternal deaths annually from childbirth.
1 out of 6 infants are born with a low birth weight in developing countries.
4) POVERTY
22,000 children die each day due to conditions of poverty.
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering." Friedrich Nietzsche
HIV/AIDS AND OTHER DISEASES
36.9 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.
50 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are women.
88 percent of all children and 60 percent of all women living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa.
6.3 million children died in 2013 mostly from preventable health issues such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
4) POVERTY
About 896 million people in developing countries live on $1.90 a day or less.
22,000 children die each day due to conditions of poverty.
663 million people lack access to clean water.
2.4 billion people do not have adequate sanitation.
Each day, nearly 1,000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoea
5) EDUCATION
Today, education remains inaccessible for millions of children around the world. More than 72 million of primary education age are not in school.
759 million adults are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions and those of their children.
For many children who still do not have access to education, it is notably because of persisting inequality and marginalization. This deficiency is not only restricted to developing countries. Even in developed countries, some children do not have access to basic education because of inequalities that originate in sex, health and cultural identity (ethnic origin, language, religion). These children find themselves on the margins of the education system and do not benefit from the learning that is vital to their intellectual and social development. Factors linked to poverty such as unemployment, illness and the illiteracy of parents, multiply the risk of non-schooling and the drop-out rate of a child.
Undeniably, many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are forced to abandon their education due to health problems related to malnutrition or in order to work and provide support for the family.
Many emerging countries do not or will not appropriate the financial resources necessary to create schools, provide schooling materials, nor recruit and train teachers. Funds pledged by the international community are generally not sufficient enough to allow countries to establish an education system for all children.
Equally, a lack of financial resources has an effect on the quality of teaching. Teachers do not benefit from basic teacher training and schools, of which there are not enough, have oversized classes.
This overflow leads to classes where many different educational levels are forced together which does not allow each individual child to benefit from an education adapted to their needs and abilities. As a result, the drop-out rate and education failure remains high.
As a result of poverty and marginalization, more than 72 million children around the world remain unschooled.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected area with over 32 million children of primary school age remaining uneducated.
Central and Eastern Asia, as well as the Pacific, are also severely affected by this problem with more than 27 million uneducated children.
In Sub-Saharan Africa more than half of children receive an education for less than 4 years.
In certain countries, such as Somalia and Burkina Faso, more than 50% of children receive an education for a period less than 2 years.
The lack of schooling and poor education have negative effects on the population and country. The children leave school without having acquired the basics, which greatly impedes the social and economic development of these countries.
The education of girls is in the most jeopardy. They have the least access to education. Girls make up more than 54% of the non-schooled population in the world.
This problem occurs most frequently in Arab States, in central Asia and in Southern and Western Asia and is principally explained by the cultural and traditional privileged treatment given to males. Girls are destined to work in the family home, whereas boys are entitled to receive an education.
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 million girls are at risk of never receiving an education. In Yemen, it is more than 80% of girls who will never have the opportunity to go to school. Even more alarming, certain countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia make no effort to reduce the gap between girls and boys with regard to education. Although many developing countries may congratulate themselves on dramatically reducing inequality between girls and boys in education, a lot of effort is still needed in order to achieve universal primary education.
6) SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES
15% of children live in single parent households worldwide, and women head approximately 85% of these households. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of single parents are employed. English speaking countries have the highest proportion of single parent households (above 20%). The largest increases in single parent households have been in industrialized countries.
THE QUESTION:
SHOULD WE BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT SAVING THE CURRENT HUMAN RACE THAN THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET?
THE LEMON:
Awarded to the greedy bastards of the world, who place their comfort ahead of so many people who have little or nothing.
THE QUOTE:
THE CLIP:
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