The girl in the above picture died a week after she was photographed. She was just 13 years old. Her name was Yana and the place of death was Odessa, Ukraine.
It's completely horrible. But this is only one of several stories around the world. Life's are ruined everery day around the globe. While I or anyone else as a private person could help somehow, just a little, it would infact maybe save a life or two, but on a larger scale - what's needed to be done is that we as a world-community divert our resources from millitary spending to humanitary operations.
If we wanted to, we could save not only thousands, but millions of lives, all over the globe. And it's not enough for ordinary citizens to act. Governments must act.
But it will never happen, because the human race is a greedy race, exploiting both each other and natural resources. Even though perhaps most people are peaceful, it's always those psychopaths going over corpses and doing whatever they see necessary that goes into power positions. Those kind of people would happily pull the trigger and kill a thousand innocent lives in a distant country without thinking twice about it, then going home and eat dinner with their wife and kiss their children goodnight.
If I help a stray dog in Romania, there will be a child left out in Uganda, if I help an orphan in Ukraine, there will be an abandoned chiled left somewhere in China. If I help some elderly couple in Zimbabwe, there will be an aids ridden prostitute woman in Moscow dying and leaving 3 children behind.
The fact is that no matter what I do, it barely helps anything - I cannot save the world, and neither can you. Governments need to act in this regard, and they do - but they could've done a lot more.
The human race as a whole is in a pittyful state. But yet, the world is more peaceful now than it's ever been.
Wars are becoming less frequent. Life expectancy has more than doubled in the past century. More children than ever are going to primary school. The world is better than it has ever been.
Here's some words form Bill Gates:
http://www.wired.com/2013/11/bill-gates-wired-essay/If I were as rich as Bill Gates, I could do something that really had an impact.
Truth is however that most normal people don't have much money at all. Some can't even pay the bills from month to month. And yet they're lucky compared to many other people in the world.
Lets' hope that one day there will be peace everywhere, and everyone will have enough food and resources to have a good life. But it's not going to happen - ever. Unfortunately.
Politics is only about power. And humans lives in that regard is nothing.
Please read this to educate yourself more about Unethical human experimentation in the Unites States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_StatesIt would be naive to think that stuff like this is still not going on several places around the world, not only by the USG, but also conduted by other nations states.
And the sad thing is that even in the most civilized countries, positions of powers are often awarded to friends and goes in the family. In the less cililized countries it's much worse, and no matter who's ruling it's most of the time corruption-time.
As the saying goes:
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I have no idea how it all can be solved. The best thing we can do is to put in place some kind of oversight, and multiple organizations that oversee each other, but no matter what kind of rules and regulations you impose, you cannot have nature of man squashed.
There are many politicians who have one face when talking to the media and public, and another face when doing the real deals.
I think the main dilemma lies in the fact that people seeking to reach top political positions are not 'normal' people. Those people have a certain desire for attention and power, of course there might be some people who are legitimate concerned for the well being of the population, but once they get acclimatized and gets into the churning political mill and see what they can actually have and do, they tend to forget their good intentions and become rather lazy. I'm not saying this goes for everyone, but I've seen plenty of examples of it.
Go to any parliament building in the world and check for yourself if everything is not top notch, nice furniture, art on the walls, nice floors, nice dining area, and over all clean, nice and the best facilities available. And then check the pensions of the top politicians, check their net worth, check their connections and their friends.
What you will find is that those people have both power and money, and they largely look after themselves. Whenever they need attention due to a medical issue, they get first in the que at a specialized hospital for the rich, or flown to another country for treatment if their home country does not have the required expertise and facilities.
While many elderly suffer under bad care, or get no care at all, and while many school children suffer from bad conditions at their schoo, old buildings etc. or no schooling at all, it would be unheard of if any parliament or government would have to suffer from the same conditions.
It's a they vs. us mentality. And US always comes first.
http://www.inquisitr.com/400073/the-worlds-poorest-president-jose-mujica-lives-in-a-shack-with-1800-to-his-name/^This is a man to be followed. He lives in a shack. Not saying that every president should do that, but my question is:
Are you better suited to lead a country if you live in a modest cabin as compared to living in a palace that costs a shitload of money to maintain?
Every time some nation head goes to another country, there's a lot of fuss with lots of police and military involved, and very grandeur ceremonies etc. What does all of this convey to the people in a country? Those in power are das übermench, they're better than you and me, and they deserve much better than you and me.
Let them talk about sustainable development, while they burn fossil fuel fist over hand, fly private jets and in general is very hostile to the environment.
Showing some modesty, and genuinely showing that they care about the people in their country is what I think is needed. On that account, perhaps being a career politician should be banned altogether, as those people often live in a dream world and does not know what life's really about.
At the same time perhaps those very politicians should work on the floor for a couple of years to really see what it's about, and those not wanting to do that really is no fit for an office job. It shows whether they're interested in genuinely sacrificing anything, or if they're just luxury animals, removed from the real world.
In conclusion what I see is that those most cynical will always gravitate towards power positions, and then there's always a lineup of new cynicals eager to take over their position. It's a never ending battle.
How much did the Arab Spring protests really change ? I'm not too familiar with that subject but did it change much at all, isn't it the same as always most places, only with new faces in the old positions?
I can't save the world, and neither can you, but we might of course donate to some cause and feel good about it, and it might actually make a difference as well. Governments however and rich corporations and rich organizations and individuals can do much more, and some are doing great things.
If all acted in concert for the concern of the greater good, it would be a much better world - but too many people are very selfish and greedy, and in a powerful position those people can destroy more than 10 million normal people can do good.
Sorry about the off topic rant.