8-17-20-83-50
No folks, this is no Saturday Tombola bundling. These numbers mean
much more than luck at the end of the week’s draw;
8 – A Live Aid Concert taking place all over the World to sensitise the
Group of the 8 most industrialised countries in the World to help not only
by relieving Africa of its debts but also by providing a political way
forward. What the organisers hanker after is not charitable contributions
and hampers but solidarity and commonality.
17 – 17 million people a year die from curable diseases! Yes, if the
medicines weren’t so expensive, if the research would not stall (because it
isn’t a Western Hemisphere problem), than we can be avoiding so many
deaths a year.
20 and 83 – 20% of the World possess 83% of the World resources! Simple
mathematics will help us quantify the magnitude of the problem that this
Planet is faced with.
50 – This number is of unbelievable proportions! 35 people a minute or
over 2000 people an hour or 50,000 people a day, yes a day, die of
causes related to poverty. No comment!
The World according to Desmond Morris is a Tribe. With the modern
technology that sits pretty in our homes (thanks to Gates and his
farsightedness) we now have a situation where the World is no longer
distanced by oceans and boundaries and frontiers – but we know what is
happening at the end of the World with just a hit on the keyboard.
Quoting Morris (1969), we are all in this “20 by 20 mile piece of land”. We
are the World (remember the first edition of Live Aid!?) – our problem
becomes my neighbour’s problem and vice versa. But, how are we to be
rest assured that these staggering statistics I have just quoted, and so
many more to mention, will dwindle. We are turning out to be a Society
that has self-mutilating characteristics. This is how I would define ‘modern’
Society. We are undulating ourselves into an abyss of individualism,
chronic fear, and isolation. The more we get close the more we shutter
ourselves into an instinctive possession of what we have. It is a culture of
‘draw-bridges’. Space is in short supply. We are getting closer but yet so
distinctly frosty with each other.
The human animal appears to have adapted
brilliantly to his extraordinary new condition, but
he has not had time to change biologically, to
evolve into a new, genetically civilised species.
This civilising process has been accomplished
entirely by learning and condition. Biologically
he is still the simple tribal animal…..the pressures
of survival were great and they moulded him….
(Morris, 1969, p. 1)
‘What can I do ?’, some people would say. Let us first of all keep in mind
that we are engrossed in a Country that has its own experiences of
poverty. People in need are much closer to us than we think.
Case Scenario 1: A widow with seven kids. She is trying hard to hang on
to her unemployed son, depressed daughter and disabled offspring
amongst others. All the kids are in the 10-25 age bracket. She cannot
cope with the bills. Her ‘power’ will be stopped soon. She is desperate.
Once she came to the office and told me that she hasn’t got any money
left to buy a loaf for her daughter’s lunch. I just stared at her incredulously.
Case Scenario 2: A disabled young man trying desperately to make a life.
He hasn’t got a job, he’s in chronic pain and he has no family. He’s been
literally thrown out of hospital because according to a ‘thoughtful review’,
he can make it in the community! Now he is less sick but more depressed,
less ailing but so alone and lonely. He spends his day waiting for his next
dose of medicine. Watching DVD’s fills his day. He awaits the meter-man
– if the light goes, the TV goes and probably his life goes to. He lives on a
miserable non-contributory pension.
Case Scenario 3: A young woman, 18 years of age. She has been given
to prostitution by her own mother. Now she spends most of the days on
the streets. She’s had the courage to leave her mother, and ‘nomad’s’
her way into life, but more prone to abuse, no money, no fun, no life – just
lonesomeness.
Case Scenario 4: A disabled young mother, with a kid and an abusive
husband. They have ended up without any money to buy the basic
services. 8 days or more without water and electricity was the latest
tragedy. No where to go – she had to go back and live with her parents,
after it took so much of her to make life choices. She didn’t manage to
make it with the costs.
Poverty lies slapdash, all over. This is not only about 8-17-20-83-50. As we
sip our granita in the scorching heat, poverty is strong around us. You can
be doing something in your own little way, because Live 8 can be a wake
up call for us all.
Dr. Andrew Azzopardi
Private Information:
Address:
28, ‘Cheval’, Flat 2, Gorg Borg Street, B’Kara – BKR 14
Telephone:
79266344
E-Mail:
drew@waldonet.net.mt