Unappreciative Americans
Imagine
that you are a grandmother responsible for four starving grandchildren. Imagine
that all of your grandchildren are suffering from severe stages of protein deficiency
illness and malnutrition. One of your grandchildren is a mere eleven months old
and weighs only fourteen pounds. Your family is frequently forced to go without
meals or resort to eating nutrient poor boiled palm tree seeds when they can be
found. This hypothetical situation is real life for a woman named Eyangan, a
grandmother living in Kenya today.
Experiences
such as this are nothing like any typical life experience here in the United
States. Essentially all American children live within a short drive, if not
walking distance, of a fast food restaurant in which an entire meal can be bought
for less than 5 dollars. Since minimum wage in this country is $7.25 an hour,
this meal costs no one even an hour of their life’s work. We Americans take for
granted how fortunate we are with the ready availability of food, education,
and in many other bountiful aspects of our lives. In order to become a more realistic,
grounded, and appreciative society, Americans should embrace a duty to
volunteer, live with and help the less fortunate living abroad, as well as within
the United States.
In
developing countries, malnutrition contributes to 5 million
deaths of children under five each year. This is
not a quick or humane way to die. They are dying very slowly, from extreme
hunger. On the other hand, we are dying of extreme obesity. Standing in sharp contrast to food supplies
in Kenya, America has supermarkets where foods densely filled with high calories
are stacked up high and deep upon the shelves. Before the 20th century, obesity was
rare. In 2009, 68.8% of American adults were overweight or obese1.
The rates of morbid obesity, already more than 1 in 20, are climbing. These
extremely large and depressing percentages show no sign of abating.
In other, less
fortunate countries people are regularly presented with many other true threats
to survival that are unimaginable to the average American. In some areas they
have to worry about the simple matter of safe water to drink. The average
American individual uses up to 175 gallons of water every day, while the
average African family uses five gallons a day. In the world almost one billion people
are estimated to not have reliable access to basic water supplies. Two billion
do not have access to appropriate sanitation. 80% of the cases of diseases in
the developing world are due to contaminated water. These illnesses intensify the
risks of malnutrition because of nutrients lost to diarrhea. In parts of northern India, for
instance, the water table is falling by 6 meters every year. In some areas 95%
of water wells have run dry. There is no major city anywhere in India that can
claim a continuous supply of drinking water2.
American children have the unrestricted ability
to go to school every day, and to learn. However, many children exhibit
attitudes that they do not care about the opportunities which school provides
for them, and for better futures. Many appear to regard this benefit of their
birthright as an unimportant waste of time. There are innumerable children in
other countries throughout the world who can only dream of going to school who
will never have the opportunity. In some cases it is because of their gender.
In many countries, girls are forbidden from going to school. Malala Yousufzai, for
example, is a fifteen year old girl who this year was shot in the head by
Taliban men because she promotes the concept of education for girls. Furthermore,
worries about such militant threats are not confined to the Middle East. Try to
imagine life in places like the Congo and Sierra Leone, where a parent might
send a child for water, or to school, only to have them never return because
they have been forcibly taken as child soldiers3.
In America, we worry
about whether or not we have the latest iPhone, or the trendiest pair of shoes.
Others on Earth at this same moment are terrified about more real issues, such
as those listed above. So how does one
encourage Americans to appreciate what they have in good conscience? Mission
trips are a particularly instructive option. Mission trips can be made to
Africa, or to other struggling parts of the world. Closer to home, Americans could go help after
a natural disaster, such as Super storm Sandy, which has recently struck part of
the United States. There are even pockets of abject poverty within the US. Soup
kitchens and other volunteer organizations working with the homeless and poor
within our own state could be meaningful ways to volunteer.
While the latter
examples are not of starving African children, they would still allow Americans
to see what having to live on just about nothing looks like. Until each American has an accurate
understanding of how life can be and of the relative importance of each
“necessity” in his or her own life then far too many opportunities will be
frittered away that could have helped our fellow humans and the future that we will
all share together.
Sources:
3.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/childrensrights/childrenofconflict/soldier.shtml
4.
http://www2.worldvision.org/news/drought-hunger-malnutrition-kenya?open&lpos=ctr_txt_story-1-title
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