World news...things that make me go hmm....
Lazy Sunday morning...okay, not so lazy...recovering from St Patty's debauchery. I'm gonna miss this american college tradition. Everyone dressed in green, loud irish music blaring, and long lines at the bar. Gotta love St Patty's....Im hoping to keep the festivities alive when i get to KL next year this time.Anyway, glanced through the news this morning....saw several things that made me go hmm...
"Hmm" Story ONE: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/10/modern.pets/index.html
CNN report this morning on the evolving relationships between men and animals. There are actually 360 million pet animals in the US right now!
Woah!!! It's 60 million more than the number of Americans inhabiting the northen continent...and just to put things in perspective...if we took all 360 million animals and put them in Singapore, that's 9000% more than the current 4 million homosapiens living on the island. Damn!
According to the report, in 2005, a total of $36.3 billion was spent on pet care alone! That's an incredible amount of money when looked as a whole. And I am as "guilty" of lavishing gifts on my cats as well, and while I am glad to hear that there are doting pet lovers out there (some animals are still subject to cruelty).....this article did make me go hmm... If we can care so much for furry creatures, then why aren't we motivated enough to help people suffering in the developing world? It's just this sense of something being pretty misplaced about the priorities we have in society.
Now I love animals alot (proud owner of eleven cats myself + Moby here in the states), and I am not advocating a reallocation of resources (too many classical economists who have been taught about the concept of limited resources?) but perhaps a mindset shift to expand our options and share what we have with other humans who are in need?
I have to admit being perplexed when I see Britney Spear's chihuahua with a diamond collar or hear the story of how Mariah Carey had her dog driven in a limo across from the West to the East coast when it couldn't be put on a flight.... It's kinda screwed up when you think about the poverty situation in places like Africa and Pakistan....
"Hmm" Story TWO: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/iraq.transition/
Iraq's war is in it's third year anniversary...
Has it been 3 years already? I think I am suffering from war fatigue...sitting in front of the TV or reading news about the war casualties.... What on earth are we doing here? I still remember protesting the war as a freshman....new to college....sitting with the hippies with their drums opposing the war. And now we are in the 3rd year of war?! That's a mighty long time to be fighting.....
Now some might beg to differ and argue that the entry into this war was needed to establish stability in Iraq. I am opposed to the concept of war because of the senseless killing that occurs in war time on both sides. I don't know any Iraqis and can't fathom the situation, but I do remember talking to college students like myself who were enlisted for active duty. If they were not fighting, they would be graduating today.... I don't understand the conflict between the Sunnis and Shia's (Aman has tried to explain it to me).... Why is there a civil war? What is the fight about? All the broken dreams for the parties involved in the war.... and every single day, you can't walk away from media outlets and politicians keeping the war alive and real. The current state of the world really sucks!
"Hmm" Story THREE: http://www.csrwire.com/article.cgi/5180.html
This isn't really a "hmm" story...but just an update about the Coca Cola company. I am tracking what is happening in Coca Cola due to the situation here on campus. Coca Cola was kicked off the U of Michigan campus when it didn't meet deadlines set up by a 3rd party reviewer on it's practices. Now, I favor working with instead of against corporations in adapting their practices to current expectations of a corporation. There is a growing demand for responsible behavior...although the extent of that responsibility is debatable. Anyhow, they signed the UN Global Compact, and in my opinion, that is one step forward for Coca Cola and the activists. Yay!
1 Comments:
Li'er said "Im hoping to keep the festivities alive when i get to KL next year this time."
Li'er - are you frickin kidding me?
Mike and I will most certainly keep the Michigan party tradition alive when you get to KL. There's a reason every major AIESEC Michigan party from 1996 - 1999 was held in our former house, "the Globe", on East Ann St. :-).
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