How would you live if you only had less than 2 dollars a day to spend? If someone asked me this question, it would probably seem like an impossible task for me, because even my morning cup of coffee costs that much. But this really is all the money that billions of people have on a normal day to spend. According to a study made from the data of the year 2011 about 30% of us in the world are living in this situation and that seems like there is something really wrong and injustice in this world of ours. This fact really shook me and it changed the way I look at my life. The big problems such as complaining about my slow internet connection or about the finnish government’s action on alcohol laws or whatever little thing that seemed so frustrating to me just disappeared. Because I realized that my situation could be really much worse… And only then it would be a bad situation for reals.
Luckily there are organisations like The United Nations, whose Millenium Development Goal number 1 was halving poverty and hunger in the world. Well, it really is a noble goal and they are on the right way, but at what cost is this goal achieved? If it means that some self-sufficent farmer looses his chance to provide for himself and his family, is it really worth it? Is it right to possibly take away this farmer’s livelihood for the greater good?
The sad truth of the world is that money makes the world go round. The big companies are the driving force in the world and they are even suggested to be the reason for most wars happening in the world: they just want to make money regardless of the price it costs to the rest of the world. So they are part of this problem because they are taking advantage of the poor countries’ labour and natural resources. And no one does anything about it?! This is the way that the rich get richer and the poor remain poor, which does not seem to be the right path to be on, when talking about improving the life of people in the poor countries.
So, in conclusion: there are literally billions of people in the world living in extreme poverty. They don’t know when or where they will get their next meal and they can’t do anything with their lives except survive. They don’t really have a hope of a better tomorrow. I might really think of this fact for a minute, sometimes even for fifteen minutes or an hour. But hey, at least my iPad is working so I don’t get bored while eating my next meal in the nearest McDonald’s and drinking Coca-cola. So life’s good(?).