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At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. Around 26,500 children (under the age of 5) die each day around the world:
They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death. [here] Nearly a billion people entered the 21st Century unable to read or sign their own name; despite the fact that just one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 – it didn’t happen. Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, whilst 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation. 1.8 billion people use around 20 litres of water a day; here in the UK we use on average 50 litres a day just flushing the toilet (150 litres a day in total – Americans get through 600 litres a day on average).
There are 2.2 billion children in the world; 1 billion of them live in poverty. 1.6 billion – a quarter of humanity – live without electricity. It is estimated that it would cost $6 billion a year to provide all developing countries with basic education for all, $9 billion for water and sanitation for all, $12 billion for reproductive health for all women and $13 billion to provide basic health and nutrition. However, this money is never provided. Instead Americans spend $8 billion on cosmetics, Europe spends $11 billion on Ice cream, Europe and the US spends $12 billion on perfumes and $17 billion on pet foods. Business entertainment in Japan accounts for $35 billion; Europeans spend $50 billion on cigarettes and $105 billion on alcohol. $400 billion is spent around the world on narcotics, and $780 billion is spent on the world’s military [all 1998 figures].
Last year the world’s total military spending was $1.473 trillion, enough to feed and house every single person on earth, no-one excluded, not one person left out, many times over. Yet humanity chose instead to spend it on armies and weapons.
But to the Mail and its readers, all of these things are trivial. The real issues tearing their world apart are the destruction of ‘traditional’ light bulbs, people being asked for ID before purchasing alcohol, the Health and Safety Executive trying to make our day-to-day lives safer, two gay men adopting children, social workers because they are all evil, incompetent child-haters, the nanny state for interfering too much with our lives, the government for not doing enough for us, the BBC for attempting to actually report news, Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand for being horrible to someone, the PC-gone-mad-brigade for stopping us using words we don’t think Pakis should find offensive, foreigners for having the audacity to leave their sweatshops abroad making us stuff on the cheap and actually trying to make a life in the UK. Gordon McBroon and the New Labour loony-left for being terribly right-wing and conservative by bringing in all this legislation on the back of terror laws, eco-loonies talking rubbish about global warming so the government can tax us all (yet its still cold outside!), the internet for turning ALL our children into sex fiends, sex as it is just so ghastly and unpleasant, speed cameras, traffic wardens, young terrifying hoodies who roam EVERY street just waiting to kill us, the Euro, the EU, human rights (how dare they give us all basic, inalienable rights), lack of rights for Mail readers. Liberals, Muslims, single mums, those on benefits, the unemployed, criminals, cyclists, change, not changing, the NHS, education, women, Kate Winslet, the Guardian and its readers, free speech, not being allowed to say what they think due to PC-GONE-MAD. The Mail does a sterling job in providing articles on the above issues almost everyday, but it still finds time to cover the other massive news stories that helps makes Mail readers such all-round informed citizens. Such as: people getting out of cars, old person looks old, an ice-skater accidentally revealing a nipple, celebrities wearing short skirts that can reveal a glimpse of underwear (providing the photographer is lying in the gutter), people getting into taxis, people getting out of taxis, people on holiday, woman with a child, woman being pregnant, woman wearing bikinis, woman has haircut, woman looks untidy, woman looks great, woman wears the wrong things, woman wears the right things, person in rehab, person should be in rehab, woman wears glasses, person buys house, man wears swimming trunks on TWO separate occasions, woman goes out – might buy takeaway, man picks up daughter from school, married couple go out for meal, woman loses weight, someone has pint and McDonalds, woman dances, woman changes clothes, woman has shopping delivered, woman gets drunk, woman buys crisps, woman wears shoes... |
