Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty

A day late but not too late to write a post to participate in blog action day 2008.

The book I am reading at the moment is yet another on the now familiar and alluring theme of family self-sufficiency. ‘Living the Good Life:Changing the world from your own backyard‘is Linda Cockburn’s diary of her young family’s pledge to spend 6 months not spending a dollar. It naturally includes several examinations as to why shunning of ‘normal’consumerist lifestyle is a good exercise including the following shocking list on ‘Consumerism versus Humanitarianism’

Consider the priorities in global spending in 1998

Global Priority (US$ billions)

  • Basic education for everybody in the world (US$6 billion)
  • Cosmetics in the United States ((US$8 billion)
  • Water and sanitation for everyone in the world (US$9 billion)
  • Ice-cream in Europe (US$11 billion)
  • Reproductive health for all women in the world (US$12 billion)
  • Perfumes in Europe and the United States (US$12 billion)
  • Basic heath and nutrition for everyone in the world (US$13 billion)
  • Pet foods in Europe and the United States (US$17 billion)
  • Business entertainment in Japan (US$35 billion)
  • Cigarettes in Europe (US$50 billion)
  • Alcoholic drinks in Europe (US$105 billion)
  • Narcotic drugs in the world (US$400 billion)
  • Military spending in the world (US$780 billion)

Appalling statistics.

This blogpost was written as a contribution to Blog Action Day. More than 9,000 bloggers worldwide have joined together to raise awareness of poverty and the issues related to it.

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2 comments to Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty

  • I know somebody I’m going to quote a couple of those stats to. Nothing else gets through but maybe,just maybe this will.

  • Ackers

    They are quite incredible aren’t they. It makes me feel annoyed that so many people in this country think it is their basic human right to have £200 shoes,multiple foreign holidays,revamped house interiors every five minutes and yet there are many many hundreds of thousands of people trying to get by in their life without a hope.

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