Holy Shit, Man

I just saw this kid with his skin peeling off die, and an infant with yellow patches on his face not make it through the night.

Ok, I saw it on TV. It happened in Africa.

I understand, intellectually, for the most part, why this is possible in this world. It just amazes me ... sometimes ... how well off the Western world is compared to AN ENTIRE CONTINENT of shit blowing up and people being raped and dying from starvation AND HAVING THEIR SKIN BEING PEELED OFF while folks somewhere are just complaining about ... like ... their welfare check, while they're totally fat and eat at McDonald's.

It makes me feel completely selfish and ashamed of myself for complaining about not having a completely flat stomach. HEY, MAYBE I SHOULD MOVE TO AFRICA!

I understand that sometimes this seems a completely naive way of digesting information that sucks. It's emotional, it's from the heart, it's not smart, not worldly.

However, it also made me wonder about --

Ok, you can disensitize yourself from something -- and discuss it intellectually -- and say, "THOSE POLITICIANS REALLY SUCK AND STUFF" and smoke your damn cigarettes and complain about the toilet not working and key your SUVs. Hey, I'm not saying that all your complaints aren't valid. I also know that there is also, er, a context issue.

I have a cable Internet connection (why is Internet always capitalized? Is there a reason for this?). I eat frozen pizzas (after heating them up in my new microwave oven that my brother gave me). I'm not sure how I'm going to pay my electricity bill. Actually, said cable connection is currently threatening to damn my soul to hell if I don't pay them soon. Life totally sucks but hey, I don't have yellow patches on my face, and my ribs don't show (OH MY GOD I'M NOT SKINNY LIKE NICOLE RITCHIE SHOOT ME NOW PLEASE).

My ultimate point is, I have no point. I need a blog. Life's not fair but there are 5 billion people here on earth (most of 'em in China and India and hey, their life sucks too) and most of them don't have television.

I'd sure like to know an organization that isn't corporate and hasn't sent most of their earnings to their organizers. Suggestions would be nice here.

Hi Lo!

Internet (capital I) refers to *The* Internet, while internet (lowercase i) refers to an internet - an inter-connected network of intranets. ^.^ hope that clears things up.

most of the same mentality that leeches from their charity to buy that spralling ranch in montana is the same mentality that takes the scraps of money intended to releive the suffering of their ppl to buy a solid gold codpeice or their 16th maybach

what can you do short of going over there and try to participate in a revolution

This is always sad to hear. I remember when I was growing up my Dad always yelling atme "You better finish all the food on your plate. Don't you know there are people starving overseas." And I would think, gosh I'm not all that hungry, shouldn't we send the food over there. How was my gluttony supposed to make them feel any better. I would stare at my plate in confusion and it really messed me up. Maybe we should build McDonalds cuz we all know that will fatten them up and provide low-paying and low-self esteem jobs. You're right, sending money will fall into the wrong hands and little gets done to help. I can't think of any organization that doesn't skim huge amounts off the top for "expenses" which are always greater than the service they provide. There's no solution unless you want to start your own non-profit org that actually does what intended to do.