Beneath a Baobab: Stories from Sénégal

Some food for thought: The injustice in our world

I guess this was bound to happen at some point, that I break down and essentially complain, or rather express my discontent and confusion, about the injustice in our world. I just watched the movie, "Darwin's Nightmare," a documentary about the fish export industry, prostitution, and poverty in Tanzania. I won't get too much into the film, but it reveals the unfair relationship between the Global North and South. 500 tonnes of fish filets are flown out of Tanzania to feed 2 million Europeans, but then there are 8-year-olds beating one another up in order to get one handful of rice for lunch.

The movie had interesting timing for me personally, because last night I went to a Superbowl party at the US Marine's house in Dakar. (I felt obligated to go cheer on the Bears. Too bad they lost.) Anyway, not only was it bizarre to be surrounded by over 100 tubaabs again, but it was shocking to see the extravagance of the Superbowl itself. I don't know how much money is spent on it between the millions spent on each ad, the 150-$5000 superbowl rings, the tickets, concessions, the half-time show, the players' salaries, the energy required to light the stadium, etc etc etc. If it is not a multi-billion dollar production, it definitely scores way up there in the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars range just for one football game. And you can point to SO MANY THINGS in American society that are like this. (And on this note, why are professional athletes and artists being paid so much when teachers are being paid so little?)

It is so hard for me to reconcile the money being spent on the Superbowl when there are 8-year-olds fist-fighting for a handful of rice.

I mean, how can there be such injustice in the world? How and why does this happen? And then, more importantly, what can be done to change this? I'm not suggesting that the money spent on the Superbowl would be better spent sending food aide to Tanzania, because that is NOT a solution and is only a very temporary band-aide for a very big wound. And I'm not suggesting that the rich members of the world need to give up everything they enjoy in order to level the playing field. But I do want to figure out how this can begin to be changed. How can the structures in our world be altered so that these two extremes do not occur? ...so that everyone can have access to food, potable water, clothing, and a safe place to sleep. And what can I personally do in my life?, -- what can we all do in our own lives? -- to make this change happen.

Any thoughts?

Pensive, frustrated, and confused,
Hannah

posted by Hannah Gelder @ 11:36 AM