Hunger..

         It always surprises me why we tolerate a world where millions die of poverty and starvation while others live in unearned opulence. I say unearned deliberately, because it is not hard work that makes you a millionaire/billionaire, it is your ability to exploit others for your own personal gain, and this is always possible under the present system of capitalism, that is the aim of the system, get rich at others expense.
         This figures paints a horrifying picture, 45% of all child deaths worldwide are from causes related to under-nutrition (World Health Organization, 2018).
That itself should shame the world into righteous anger and bring the existing system down, but it doesn't. Some other figures that should bring us onto the streets to vent are anger and disgust, all this taking place in a world where there is enough food to feed everyone, but profit dictates that this will not happen.

Harrowing details of the unfair, unequal, unjust system we tolerate.

       780 million people, 11 percent of the world's population, live in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 per day.
        At least 14 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition around the world. Severe acute malnutrition is the direct cause of death for 2 million children every year.
       Every day, 1,000 children under 5 die from illnesses like diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera caused by contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.

Source 1: United Nations, Source 2 and 3: UNICEF

         In the year 2000 our esteemed world leaders agreed to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015, the above figures are proof that they failed miserably, either they are incapable of solving this scar on the face of humanity or they don't wish to, as it might upset the economic system of greed and profit, from which they do very well thank you.
       The answer to this crime against vast swaths of humanity is to destroy the corporate/state economic system of capitalism, it is designed for the few to gather abundance around them at the expense of the majority. There is no point in tinkering with the workings of the system, it was never intended to bring about equality or justice, and appealing to those who manage this cancer that blights humanity is pointless, they stand to lose too much of their power, wealth and privileges, and they will fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo.
      I penned the following lines more than 20 years ago, they could be written tomorrow and still be a true picture of our world.

Eighteen Hungry Children

Eighteen hungry children die
every minute of every day

 

eighteen of tomorrow's people
cruelly thrown away.

When pandering to a fashion
gratifying our greed

think, theirs is no desire
but a basic need.

Envisage a familiar face
a child that calls your name,

try to be the parent
try to place the blame.

Eighteen hungry children die
every minute of every day,

eighteen little faces
that never learnt to play.

Walk past your local school
listen to the shrill

stand and count to sixty
imagine hunger start to kill.

Fingers must be pointed
at decisions made on high,

questions must be asked
loudly asked by you and I.

 

Eighteen hungry children die
every minute of every day,

eighteen preciuos lives
the claws of hunger slay.

WHY? 

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

Thoughts.

Some random thoughts: 

A Bloody Game Of Chess.

Every brick, every bullet, each bomb and tank
by our labouring hands is fashioned
We build the prisons that cage our neighbours
man the guns that kill our brothers and sisters
we drive the tanks that smash their homes
fly the planes that bomb their villages
spreading the blood of innocence across the land
we seldom know or ask the reason why
nor question the orders given
this a tragic game of savagery
played by unseen powerful hands
we their pawns wait to be pushed
into their desired position
the prize
blood soaked gold for the few. 

Compassion.

Sometimes our strength breaks
not because of the burdens in our life
but because of our compassion
As year in year out we bear witness
to the savage claws of poverty
rip into the hearts of a legion of children
watch our green Earth stained red
with the blood of innocents in endless wars
standing silently by an see the young and old
die slowly from avoidable disease
and tragedy of human created disasters
compassion a necessary component
of that better world we all crave
but a crushing burden in this world
fashioned by greed power and privilege.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

In Despair, I Repeat Myself.

 

      Maybe I'm a depressing sort of guy, and I see the world different from lots of others, but I can't help looking at the world we have created, and getting a sickening feeling in my stomach. We have taken a planet that had the potential for a paradise for all, and turned it into a savage nightmare of grotesque brutality.

    No matter how convenient your mobile phone, no matter the amount of movies you can stream, no  matter how comfortable your home, we are living an illusion. That real world, that place where the vast majority live, is a cruel vicious and very often deadly place.

      I wrote the following article about nine years ago and have posted it once since then, and I post it again, for the simple reason that I think it is still a picture of the unjust savage reality in which billions of people have to survive. If anything, in the passing nine years or so since first posting this, I believe things have got worse. How and when do we change things?

    It is difficult to grasp the state of the world that we have created. A world where there is an abundance of almost everything conceivable and yet to the vast majority of the world’s population it is all out of reach. A world where a small elite live a life of obscene and wasteful wealth while millions die of starvation and millions of children die from the lack of clean drinking water. In this capitalist made world there are small enclaves where the rich, in safety, play games with their expensive toys, private jets, luxury cars, yachts and several holiday homes in “exotic” locations. While just over that financial apartheid wall there is the stench of squalor and death for countless millions living in total deprivation and endless wars,
        In this capitalist created world, 8 million people die every year from poverty, One billion children live in abject poverty, 640 million do not have access to appropriate shelter, 140 million have never attended school, 400 million do not have access to clean uncontaminated water, 500 million do not have basic sanitation, 270 million have no access to health care, and 90 million are severely food deprived. Approximately 12.3 million people worldwide live in conditions of “modern slavery,” while over one billion people live on less than one dollar of income per day and over three billion live on less than two dollars per day. Then there is the strata in between, that manage to scrape a reasonable existence that seems to keep them from revolt.
        All this misery in spite of the fact that the world economy actually produces one and a half times the amount of food necessary to provide the entire human population with adequate and nutritious meals. The fact that the capitalist system will not allow this to be shared out to those in need tells us that it is not a natural problem but a political problem. Perhaps the words of Derrick Jensen come close to capturing something of that world.
       “We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity ... What this means is that corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have...I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that they can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host ... For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”

Eighteen Hungry Children

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day

eighteen of tomorrow’s people

cruelly thrown away.

When pandering to a fashion

gratifying our greed,

think, theirs is no desire

but a basic need.

Envisage a familiar face

a child that calls your name,

try to be the parent

try to place the blame.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen little faces

that never learnt to play.

Walk past your local school

listen to the shrill,

stand and count to sixty

imagine hunger start to kill.

Fingers must be pointed

at decisions made on high,

questions must be asked

loudly asked by you and I.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen precious lives

the claws of hunger slay.

WHY?

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

"Progress"

        The cabal of pampered parasites and political ballerinas that support this insane economic system, always spout about "progress". However the only "progress" I see, is in the production of ever more sophisticated playthings and trinkets for the well off, and ever more destructive devices for wars of plunder. Sadly, in "progress" in the field of well-being for the human population of this planet, I struggle to find any.

     The following piece is an accurate picture of our world today, however, sadly I wrote this post around 8 years ago, where is the "progress"?

          It is difficult to grasp the state of the world that we have created. A world where there is an abundance of almost everything conceivable and yet to the vast majority of the world’s population it is all out of reach. A world where a small elite live a life of obscene and wasteful wealth while millions die of starvation and millions of children die from the lack of clean drinking water. In this capitalist made world there are small enclaves where the rich, in safety, play games with their expensive toys, private jets, luxury cars, yachts and several holiday homes in “exotic” locations. While just over that financial apartheid wall there is the stench of squalor and death for countless millions living in total deprivation and endless wars,
        In this capitalist created world, 8 million people die every year from poverty, One billion children live in abject poverty, 640 million do not have access to appropriate shelter, 140 million have never attended school, 400 million do not have access to clean uncontaminated water, 500 million do not have basic sanitation, 270 million have no access to health care, and 90 million are severely food deprived. Approximately 12.3 million people worldwide live in conditions of “modern slavery,”while over one billion people live on less than one dollar of income per day and over three billion live on less than two dollars per day. Then there is the strata in between that manage to scrape a reasonable existence that seems to keep them from revolt.
        All this misery in spite of the fact that the world economy actually produces one and a half times the amount of food necessary to provide the entire human population with adequate and nutritious meals. The fact that the capitalist system will not allow this to be shared out to those in need tells us that it is not a natural problem but a political problem. Perhaps the words of Derrick Jensen come close to capturing something of that world.
       “We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity ... What this means is that corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have...I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that they can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host ... For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”

Eighteen Hungry Children

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day

eighteen of tomorrow’s people

cruelly thrown away.

When pandering to a fashion

gratifying our greed,

think, theirs is no desire

but a basic need.

Envisage a familiar face

a child that calls your name,

try to be the parent

try to place the blame.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen little faces

that never learnt to play.

Walk past your local school

listen to the shrill,

stand and count to sixty

imagine hunger start to kill.

Fingers must be pointed

at decisions made on high,

questions must be asked

loudly asked by you and I.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen precious lives

the claws of hunger slay.

WHY?

annarky's home.

The Resources Are Already There.

    We all know that the world's wealth is very unfairly distributed, and that's putting it mildly. However although most of us are aware of this “unfair” distribution, it is difficult to grasp the extent. The world's population is approximately 7 billion and at the bottom end of this catastrophic unjust distribution of resources, vast swathes of this population live in unimaginable deprivation. While at the top end there is a small group of individuals with wealth that outstrips that of some nations.

    Let's look at the mass that struggle daily for survival and on numerous occasions don't make it beyond childhood. Approximately 1,000 people die from hunger over hour, mostly children or young people. Every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger related diseases, more than 11 million children die each year from preventable health issues such as, pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea. In this rich and varied world approximately 1.4 billion people in the developing countries have to live on $1.25 a day or less, and it is estimated that 22,000 children die every single day due to poverty.

     At the top end of this unjust greed driven system we have individuals awash in wealth, wealth of unimaginable proportions. The world's GDP is approximately $70 trillion, while 0.1% of the world's population control $42 trillion and 0.001% control $14.6 trillion. There are 100,000 individuals with assets of $30 million or more and we have 11 million individuals with assets of $1 million or more. The top 20% of the world's population control 82.8% of the world's wealth, while the bottom 20% have less that 1%.

     Not by any stretch of the imagination could this be called an endorsement for capitalism, on the contrary it is an indictment against the system. What could you do with that $42 trillion controlled by that 1%? Well for starters it could pay off the entire debt of Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Portugal ten times over. It could fund 187 years of universal primary and secondary education. Or an even greater achievement, it could fund the UN millennium goal for clean water 1,400 times over. It could also fund 250 years of climate change adaptation.

    So what does this tell us? It tells us that we have sufficient wealth and resources to see to the needs of all the people of this world. It is already there, we don't have to dream up where it will come from. The real problem is just that it is in the hands of a very few extremely greedy individuals, and it is the system of capitalism that has brought this about and will perpetuate this unnecessary unjust divide. To solve the problem of deprivation and early death from preventable disease, capitalism has to go and a society based on mutual aid, co-operation created in its place. It is not rocket science, it is common humanity taking place of greed driven profit. 

Most of these figures were gleaned from TNI.org.

ann arky's home.