The moment I laid eyes on the tiny bone thin body with the vulture hovering at back*, my blood froze & tears started streaming uncontrollably down my face. I was 14 of age.
That week, I suddenly cried for no apparent reason. My parents figured there was something deeply wrong with me.
For quite a while, the mere word ‘
How could such a thing exist?
We have the technology and know how to send people to the moon, but we can allow a child to starve to death. How can that be??
How many days, weeks, months(!) has this baby girl gone without food? How can I take another bite knowing someone else needed it so much more??
Imagine the amount of energy spent on deceit and lies every day around the world.
Now, imagine re-directing that same energy to feeding the starving kids of
I was surprised when a friend I admired started by saying it was all too hopeless. He is a globe trotter and a soon-to-be-pilot. Very well read and I respected both his knowledge, wisdom and powers of deduction.
His advise,
“I don't know...it is a good cause...but there're just too many problems with
“other than famine, malaria, aids...civil war”
“the reason why people or so poor in
“and if you are going to change anything you should finance a coup to remove the head of state...”
My response,
“so we need good health care”
“we need to bring down the head”
“what else?”
“Stop arms trafficking”
“it's just too much, and all of these contribute to one big prob...”
“even if you try to help out one small group of starving kids, more are being killed in tribal strive/so forth”
“you're suggesting dont start?”
“sounds too hopeless i guess”
“no it is your choice to do what you feel is best”
“u mean no one has started??”
“well, Everyone tries.....and of course everyone is doing something...”
“but?”
“but i'm just saying that the african situation is qutie hopeless...i dunno”
“well .. isn't hopeless just in the mind?”
“cant we break it down and tackle it one by one”
”yeah you're right on that..”
And here’s where the magic unfolds =) . His knowledge sharing starts flowing and I gain more strength from him once again.
“well, oprah is already starting some elite school for africans i read somewhere, so maybe these kids can effect some change.”
”so she has that part taken care of “
“one down”
“whats nxt?”
”bill gates is the largest donor to AIDS research so that's next”
”and Trina WOng will be tackling famine sometime in the near future..”
“hahahah .. u got that right boy!
“can u fly me there?”
“maybe fly some food cargos for me?“
“i wanna teach them to grow their own food .. and cook”
“i loooove cooking!”
”yeah but before you teach them, u better find a way to water yr crops...with all the drought going on...”
”maybe you could fund genetically modified food research”
”yeah ... i hv to think of the most elaborate water irrigation system ever”
“and think of something more advanced then hydroponic foods”
* Source: The death of Kevin Carter and one indelible image
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/08/the_death_of_ke.html
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