First world problems

Have you noticed a trend toward what I lovingly refer to as "first world problem bashing". No? Well I have. I have seen it a few times on MSN news feeds, facebook, and heard people talking about their silly first world problems.

Yes I often find myself 'judging' those who have no idea how lucky they "have it". We mock ourselves when we complain our internet isn't fast enough, or that we have to drive to the store, or that we don't have the latest i-phone. We call those first world problems. Problems of the privileged. I beg to say those are not true problems. Those are nuances. Not problems.

I want to give problems a name. Yes we live in a privileged society. BUT plenty of problems exist. We are not as spoiled as we are led to believe. Don't agree... open your eyes, drive around.. compare the cost of gas and housing compare with the minimum wage. Then think about it. How many pay checks are you away from homelessness? IF you lost your job now, where would you be?

First world problems don't equal less painful or less real. They just look different.  Yes we in America have it great. And then we don't.  We pride ourselves on "American exceptionalism". Yet we really are not that different. The US stand apart from many nations in the idea that we believe we are some of the greatest promoters of human rights, yet we enable some of the largest human rights violations ever. (did you know the US did not sign the UN bill regarding human rights?? interesting...right?).

If you wonder what rights violations we break consider the following:
Slave labor exists in the united states. Don't believe me? look at privately ran prisons.

Where were your clothes made? Who were they made by? American products are often made in the few countries left that allow child labor. YES you endorse a four and five year old to work long grueling hours... whats that you say.. at least they are making an income... would you be satisfied with working 18 hours and making enough to barely feed yourself for the day??

Human trafficking... its a serious issue. The buying and selling of human beings. Don't want to be sold right? Well why allow others? Did you know Seattle, my beloved city, is the number one spot in the US for the purchase of human beings.

Homelessness and poverty- They exist and are very real. Our country keeps cutting budgets and our vulnerable people are falling through the cracks. These people are our mentally ill, homeless, our vets, our youth, and women. With less and less funding , less jobs, more costly education, expensive housing... our "privileged" country experiences a great deal of underprivileged individuals.

The basic right to health care: We still debate this. Why I do not know. Every human being deserves the right to health care with out the fear that being sick for e few days will cost them more than they could ever make in their entire life. Evey person. 

So if you find yourself saying you have a first world problem. Look around. Find a true first world problem and do something about it.

What you ask. That is up to you. Get creative. But I guarantee you don't need the next i-phone or another mac air computer. Give your extra time you would spend watching your favorite shows up, get out of your "world" and look around your community. There are many real needs. Its your job to do something. Stop waiting on someone else.

Whats bad is good?

I've just got done reading the Hunger game series by suzanne collins(good reads.. fyi.. some spoilers as well below read with caution),when it hit me, I was a capitol citizen.

What does that mean, one may ask. Simpley this. A person who lives life greatly unaware of the world around them. I live in a world were everything I want is a simple click of a button, flick of a switch, or accessable by the movement of my finger tips. I order food that I don't finish, throw out spoiled food, clothes that are no longer in style I dismiss. I waste my time concerned with what I should wear and what romance might fall my way. I don't really spend to much time thinking outside of myself.





In suzanne collins second book of hunger games series, catching fire, the main character is at a party were the guests of this party engage in gorging themselves full of food. These guest then vomit up the food so that they can re-gorge .. simply put just for the sheer joy of having a full belly. So much waste. So ridiculous, right,?, when in these stories people are starving to death.
These citizens celebrate the main charachter for her ability to kill others and survive. They watch killings every year and praise the contestants as if they are Gods.. wrong right??

If I think that was ridiculous (along with the many uneducated acts of the capitol citizens) how can I not find my own daily living ridiculous?

Is it excusable to waste so much of my time on entertainment excess when people around the world die from starvation, curable diseases, or are forced into slavery every day? Every day I decide to buy a peice of clothing not made in the US, or I watch a show that advertises abuse and ignores the harms, I am making that excuse.

I am a capitol citizen. I will watch the hunger games no matter how wrong I think they are. No matter how awful it is to see. Its mere entertainment. I waste my time reading the gossip of the Kardashians, buying ashton kutchers clothing line, all for mere entertainment (yet I am supporting what they stand for.. unfaithfulness, lying, selfishness, ego-centrism... and so on.)I buy products that were made by little hands (god forbid that my daughter ever have to work 16 hour shifts in a factory to make10 dollars) as long as I can have that shirt.


So here I sit. On my computer. Feeling like I am solving my own issue. I'm a better person than those of the capitol, because I write about it, because I'm recognizing it... right?

What can I do? How can I change what I am, what is acceptable. What is really bad that I see as good... how can I change my perception and no longer be a capitol citizen?
I can watch the minature earth youtube video (http://youtu.be/drSDhlnm0e0) over and over and over, and still I have no idea how to change me. If I can change me maybe I can really make a difference. Maybe I will do something. Maybe something will get better for someone else. Maybe.
I wrote this poem today after obsessing about this idea.
So here it is for all the world to share:

On the edge of what once was
No one thing is the same
Taking a plunge to be free

To the edge of what will be
Seeking the expected
No wings there to guide me

Every choice and every chance
has mercies evil glance
Life just a false romance
can we really even dance

To the brink of what is
Its familiar now
Shackled just trying to be

Every choice and every chance
has mercies evil glance
Life just a false romance
can we really even dance

What do you deserve?

Ask yourself.. what is it you deserve? Do you deserve the current situation you are in? Yes the choices we make land us in some crazy messes, but other peoples choices effect us as well. If your parents are drug addicts and homeless you and you are too.. was it your choice? Do you deserve that? If your born into a rich family and you do nothing with your life but spend, do you deserve that? If you are born in Africa and starve to death, did you deserve that?

I ask this because it is a serious issue in many peoples hearts and thoughts. Many people believe we deserve the situation we are in.. poor earned the right to be poor and rich the right to be wealthy.
If you are born in another country, one that women are not allowed to pursue an education, do you desrerve that?

We are taugth from the moment we come out to pursue the job that makes us happy, yet makes us money. So if I truely pursued the job I wanted, I'd be one broke woman. I love to study and talk Egypt. There is no money in this. Some jobs by nature make more money, ie doctors, but not everyone can be a doctor. We need Cops, we need nurses, we need janitors, we need garbage men. Yet if we are not Doctors and garbage men instead we make just 1/10th the amount they do. We have chosen to be poor.

What I don't understand is why we label one job more important than another. Why we put a price on a job. A police mans job is highly important. S/He protects the road, my home, and my family. When I am in danger s/he puts their life on the line for me. Yet his max average pay is $85,000 per year. Even with an education. The doctor saves lives. He works long hours and endures stress. His max pay is almost undefinable, but rarely over 2 mil a year. Both these jobs are important. We need both of these jobs. So why is one deemed worth more than the other?

I don't believe anyone deserves more than another. Yes we make choices. But what we do for a living and what we make financially shouldn't mean we deserve to not eat or have health care or shelter over our heads.

Sigh. Jesus wanted us to be equal to care for one another. To share. His darn ideals were closer to socialism and communism. (NOW MY FELLOW READERS LOOK UP THESE IDEAOLOGIES AND THEIR DEFINITIONS B4 JUDGING ME. COMMUNISM IS A BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT. YES PEOPLE ARE TO GREEDY.. BUT MAYBE SOME FORM COULD WORK. THE NEXT SOCIAL MOVEMENT SHOULD BE CALLED JESUSISM.)

So yet again, here I am frustrated at the worlds view point. Wanting to wash worldy thoughts from my brain, and think for the world not with it.

Take a stand

Take a stand. DO SOMETHING. This is what I frequently tell myself.

As a Christian... and a blessed individual, I should do what I can for those who can not do for themselves.

Many people ask.. why should I do anything at all. I ask why not? Why should we not do what GOD has called us to do.. HELP our FELLOW man out. ITs wrong to ignore the many issues the world is facing. Animal cruelty, animal extinction, and global warming, pollution. God Gave us this place... he commanded we care for it... and here we are trashing it. It is also wrong to ignore the HUMAN CONDITION. Poverty, starvation, illnesses that can be prevented, dehydration, malnutrition, lack of education, homelessness.. and so many other things.

Why do I, and so many others ignore the realities of this place. Why do I pretend that since I don't see the suffering its not truely going on. Can I really sit here and just rant and do nothing. Can I sit here and see it occur and do nothing! I know its going on.. maybe I don't see it.. but its real. I think its a sin to do nothing. God didn't just sit around, he took action. I believe that he wants us to take action as well.!

There is only one planet.. EARTH and there is only one people.. GODs people.


So I got to thinking... what issues effect my heart most. Poverty and homelessness. So todays lesson is about Poverty.

Thanks for reading.

So I got the following information from DOSOMETHING.Org

11 Facts about Global Poverty

1. Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day.
2. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty – that’s 18 children dying every minute, a child every three seconds.
3. About 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
4. For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world: 640 million are without adequate shelter, 400 million do not have access to safe water, 270 million do not have access to health services.
5. About 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized.
6. About 1.6 billion people – a quarter of humanity – live without electricity.
7. Over nine million people, of which five million are children, die worldwide each year because of hunger and malnutrition.
8. Over 11 million children die each year from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
9. About 20% of the population in the developed nations consume 86% of the world’s goods.
10. The poorest 40% of the world’s population accounts for 5% of the global income. The richest 20% accounts for three-quarters of world income.
11. Around 27-28% of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted.

Background on Poverty

There are plenty of statistics and data about global poverty--these are just a few:

• Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive.
• Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 800 million go hungry each day.
• Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school.

Nearly 3 billion people—half of the world's population—are considered poor. Lots of men, women and children endure unimaginable obstacles that prevent them from receiving their basic human rights.

When the UN created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the signers proclaimed that all people have the right to education, work, health and well-being. Today, however, millions around the world are too crippled by poverty to fulfill these basic rights. Millions continue to go hungry. Scores of children never step inside a classroom. Families watch their loved ones die from largely preventable causes because they do not have access to adequate medical care. In essence, poverty is a denial of human rights.

SO lets do something Fellow readers get involved.! Go to dosomething.org or

Take a Stand Against Poverty

Take a Stand Against Poverty - join the 43.7 million people who've demanded a more urgent political reponse to global poverty.

Over 43.7 million people, in 127 countries have broken the Guinness World Record – set last year at 23.5 million – for the largest number of people to “STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY AND FOR THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS” in 24 hours.

In 127 countries, millions stood and spoke out to demand a more urgent political response to the growing crisis of global poverty and inequality. They called on their world leaders to keep their commitments made in the Millennium Development Goals.

Add your voice today! -- http://standagainstpoverty.org/report/2