poverty

kind of makes you wish that paris hilton would make more sex tapes and donate the money to the poor...

Did you know…

One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes. That’s 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. (Reality of Aid 2004)

Every year more than 10 million children die of hunger and preventable diseases – that’s over 30,000 per day and one every 3 seconds. (80 Million Lives, 2003 / Bread for the World / UNICEF / World Health Organization)

Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day with nearly half the world’s population (2.8 billion) living on less than $2 a day. (UN HDR, 2003)

600 million children live in absolute poverty. (SCF, Beat Poverty 2003).

The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries. (Source:ChristianAid)

Income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallen by a quarter in the last 20 years. (Source:ChristianAid)

800 million people go to bed hungry every day. (Source:FAO)

Every year nearly 11million children die before their fifth birthday. (Source:UNICEF)

So, while we are sitting around stockpiling drugs for the Asiatic bird flu, worrying that some kid in the midwest shot up his schoolyard, watching Tom Cruise become more of a freak and hanging on the fact that Nicole Richie looks like she is impoverished – some 18 million people are ceasing to exist… makes you feel kind of bad – doesn’t it? And I thought it sucked when Mom used to only give us $2 a day for lunch money.

Millenium Campaign

The sad thing is that I would give more money to these charities if I felt like it wasn’t going to end up in someone else’s pocket like the Tsunami aid and Red Cross. If you see them around, tell them that I want my $200 back and I’m going to fly to Sri Lanka and hand it to someone rather than give to those corrupt dickwads.

poverty

stephanie