It shocked me today to hear out of an eight year olds mouth that he didn’t believe in charity. At first I thought he was joking and made the comment that it couldn’t be true only to hear him confirm that he doesn’t believe in charity. He went on to say that he has never seen it, the only charity he has ever seen is one beggar with his mother and they didn’t give anything to him.
I was in a state of shock and then intense sadness at the truth of this world we live in. On one side there is money, more than needed fully stocked cupboards and food a plentiful. On the other side are millions of children who don’t even have safe water to drink, a slice of bread a day without butter and jam if they’re lucky. They don’t know about each other either and if the richer kids find out about the poorer ones they don’t believe it until they see it… in person.
If we were in Africa I’d take this unaware kid that has a big heart to an Orphanage, allow him to hold a baby that is so marked by the ravishes of living that it’s bones stick out. I’d get him to help dish up soup for the lunch lines at the shelter, let him watch the peoples faces change at the prospect of having a full belly. This kid’s had a good life compared to millions of other kids but he can’t comprehend it, he’s never seen it or felt it in his life.
Polar bear differences in one world, the indifference by those that have towards those that have never had a chance is ridiculous, beyond ridiculous. I don’t fault that little boy I fault society, I fault society for not creating awareness or caring. With this recession progressing as it is I don’t think it will be long before “one” beggar becomes thousands worldwide like it is everyday in Africa.
Soon the world won’t be able to ignore Africa because Africa will be the world. The world will not be able to run anymore from the truths and the harsh reality.
Those that had will find themselves without and standing right next to the man they spat at on the side of the road last week when he asked for a few coins to by some bread for his 3 barely clothed children standing on the other side waiting for him.
Those that laughed at the images of family upon family living in shacks in Africa will find themselves encased in a tent on the side of the road in a run down once upon a time happy suburbia.
For many newly homeless, those that used to make statements that the drunk lying in the street should sober up and just get a job will find themselves sharing more than one bottle with the same guy just to drown away his sorrows.
It doesn’t make me happy at all to make these statements but it is the truth and reality of the present day in this world.
It’s happening as we speak.
Sometimes this world makes me sick to my stomach.
Sometimes it makes me sit on the floor in a ball and just cry.
Compassion is free.
Caring is free.
Someone that stands up and says let me help priceless.
vishesh unni raghunathan
•14 years ago
I don’t believe in giving alms… But I do believe in helping another human … But above all I believe in trying to create a future…we are born to live and if only poverty , famine , hunger , terrorism etc can be over come through our understanding…
There is a difference , if I were to see a beggar fully capable of working in front of a temple or going door to door , I would refuse , where as if I were to see a bunch of trans gender who ask for money with some pretext I would give , because this is their only way out…
Money should not be needed to survive but to live…
And I always am not comfie to donate to organizations , I believe it should be given directly so that we know what use it is going to be put to….
Sorrow
•14 years ago
I think that compassion and charity begins at home.
When I take my children to a soup kitchen and they work, when I take them to a food bank where they pack bags of food for the needy, they learn.
They learn how blessed they are and how even the smallest act of kindness makes someone else’s load lighter, day brighter.
I give to charities whose work I believe in, whose efforts i have seen, whose staff and members are caring people I can speak with.
we are all part of something bigger than ourselves. and even if i give a dollar to a beggar on the street and he uses it for alcohol, I have seen him
I HAVE SEEN HIM, and I acknowledge that he is there, and he is my brother.
it is his choice to eat, or drink, it is not mine. I have done what I can for my brother.
If it helps, remember the star fish story, you can not save them all, but you can help a few.
(((HUGS)))
cordieb
•14 years ago
We must teach our children to give and to have compassion. They are the future. The world has become so corrupt with greed, that a turning point must come. The polar difference between the super rich and the super poor is at the highest degrees recorded in history. Unless people as ourselves, who are blessed to be in the middle teach future generations about compassion and love, the polar difference will, no doubt, become greater. Super post, Aud.. As always, Peace, Light and Love, C.
mssc54
•14 years ago
The deapth of some people’s selfishness is almost as great as their false humility.
Mssc54
Leah
•14 years ago
So sad that an 8 year old doesn’t believe in charity. That must come from someone. I love your spirit and am happy to have found your blog through a friend’s blog. 😀
Duma Key
•14 years ago
Wow, really poweful post and so so true. The extremes in society and pure human greed astound me, whilst the rich get richer the poor get poorer, and this has never been so true as now. Easy for people to shut there eyes to the rest of the world, draw there own curtains and ignore the plight spinning the other end of the globe. So many needless lifes are lost simply because of human greed. Just in the UK alone our MP’s have been caught with there fingers in the cookie jar, stealing food from the tables of the poor, whilst at the same time condeming the people that claim benefit, that prehapes they should not, two ends of the same scale, both theft, though one to fill more full grown the bellys of the rich, the other more like a few pence to feed there familys. This world has to change, people have to change, how many more thousands of people must die in the name of progress? How far have we come in reality? There was a time when the land fed us, now if we have no money we can not feed ourselves, yet the food is there? Then the waste… how much food does money buy, that because it can not spurn more money is simply left to rot? when some small child the luxary of which he will never see? And we call this humainty? we call this progress? MP’s who bend rules the write to steal? The supermarkets that waste millions? and this money thing where people starve and struggle to fill the already full cupboards of the rich. This world stinks…..!
cordieb
•14 years ago
Sanity. You know I’m just noticing from my google reader that your title says polar bear…
Mila Arz
•14 years ago
wow…so moving…this was a touchy post but it wasn’t preachy at all. It just stated a sad truth, some bad commentary about our gluttonous society.
SurfaceEarth
•14 years ago
I feel an enormity and grief within me reading this post. I agree as to Society’s fault and recognize, I too am Society.
I know we can all do better, any child without food is a reflection upon all of us.