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Saturday, December 27, 2003
Saturday, December 27, 2003
A physician friend of mine was telling me today about some of the negotiations that have gone on between pharmaceutical companies and the developing countries in order that they might reduce the cost of protease inhibitors to the poor. The drugs can cost upwards of $10,000 annually in the United States, but have been reduced to a figure ten times less than that for some of the poor countries of the world. Approximately 3 million people died of AIDS worldwide last year. At a cost of $1,000 per person, we could have provided each of them with protease inhibitors for $3 billion. Let us say we would need to triple that amount to provide the medical personnel and infrastructure to administer the drugs. That brings it to $9 billion. And let's say we are too optimistic by half. Double the figure then to $18 billion. $18 billion to save the lives of 3 million of the poorest people in the world.
Our national defense budget is $400 billion. Global video game sales in 2002 were $31 billion. In 2002 the U.S. alone spent $137 billion on alcoholic beverages.
If it were to cost $200 billion to save the lives of these people - half of the U.S. defense budget - it would be a moral failing of the greatest proportion that the developed world did not rush to their aid. But the fact that it would cost half the amount of annual global video game sales, or thirteen percent of what Americans spent on alcoholic beverages every year, is beyond a moral failing.
What do you call it when you are drunk on your beer and your video games while other people are dying for simple lack of medicine that costs less than your beer and your video games? What do you call it when 3 million defenseless people die needlessly while you spend $400 billion on something called defense? What do you call turning your back on someone who is dying - before your very eyes - when you have more than the means and ability to save them? What do you call it when these people are children, as many of them are? It seems to me that it falls much closer to the category of a crime than it does a moral failing.
This world of ours is no where close to being on the right track. Our prosperity lulls us into the illusion that we must be doing something right - that we are headed in generally the right direction. But a society that cares more about its entertainment than it does about its children and its neediest fellows is a society on the road to ruin. A society immune to - or worse - disinterested in - the needless death of millions of its neighbors is broken at the most fundamental levels. If you find yourself less interested in the stock market than the masses, don't despair. If you find yourself less interested in consumerism and materialism than the masses, don't despair. If you find yourself dreaming of things like peace and unity and compassion and non-violence in a macho world out hunting down terrorists don't feel like a spineless wimp. You are at odds with a world on a pathological road to destruction, and you may be one of the few sane people left in it.
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Friday, December 26, 2003
Friday, December 26, 2003
I saw two billboards back-to-back on the road this morning. One was for the BMW 5 series, and it said, "Next rest stop: Never." This is actually compelling to this culture - the idea that you will never be able to rest. The next billboard was for the Acura TS. It said, "Re-defines ASAP." Like we needed it re-defined. We've got ASAP down. Happiness is what needs to be re-defined. Wonder why you're exhausted? Because rest is no longer important in this culture and everything must be done as soon as possible. Is it any wonder there is such violence everywhere? The body has no rest. The soul has no peace. Everyobody's in a hurry with no idea where they're going. Part of why they're in a hurry is so they can make enough money to buy these cars that will get them nowhere faster.
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Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Wednesday, December 24th, Thursday December 25th
Happy holidays everyone. Let us pray that one day we will receive the grace and find the lightness to create heaven on earth, as it was intended.
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
The terror alert has been raised to orange in the United States. High risk of terror. This is only second to red - the highest possible terror alert. Severe risk of terror.
The terror alert is on permanent red in Sub-Saharan Africa, where thousands of people are dying of AIDS every day - terrorized, highly and severely, by pneumonia, cancers, shingles, blindness, abandonment, and death every day. The terror alert is on permanent red in India and the poorest parts of Russia, where AIDS is everywhere, severely, and hospitals don't exist. The terror alert is on permanent red for the children of Africa, dying by the thousands every day of hunger and diphtheria and malaria and diarrhea.
One newspaper this morning quotes an American shopper saying of the newly elevated terror alert, "this is going to ruin the holiday. Everyone's worried."
Yes, everyone's worried. But everyone's worried about all the wrong things.
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Monday, December 22, 2003
Monday, December 22, 2003
Have you seen the new ad for Time Warner cable? It features a guy who has been frustrated throughout his life by being called away from the ball game on TV. First his Mom asking him to take the garbage out, then his dad asking him to do his chores, then his wife asking him to pick up the kids. At the end of the ad his problem is solved because he can now record his favorite TV shows and watch them later. The ad ends with the voice-over saying "Time Warner Cable. Now anything's possible." Over and over again you see the culture and the mass marketers limiting the horizons of humanity. Being able to record a TV program means that anything is possible. Excuse me, but being able to dream of the end of hunger on the planet is more my idea of anything being possible.
What the Time Warner ad is really saying is, "now, nothing's possible, so let's figure out better ways to watch TV."
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Sunday, December 21, 2003
"It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting. It is that it has been found difficult and has been left untried." G. K. Chesteron
Click here to read more from G.K. Chesterton - he's great.
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