Today is Blog Action Day, the idea being for bloggers the world over to think about and discuss this year's theme: poverty.
I admit to being a bit of a lightweight when it comes to charity. There are two or three causes I give small amounts to regularly, and now and then I've been involved in various sporadic fundraising events. Should I feel guilty? Is this Blog Action Day about spurring ourselves and others to do more to end poverty?
According to The Campaign to End Child Poverty, one in three children in the UK lives in poverty. Now the last thing I want to do is cause offence out of ignorance, but when I see these kind of statistics I can't help feeling that 'poverty' is a relative rather than an absolute term. For example, when I read that '12% of lone parents cannot afford celebrations with presents at special occasions', of course that's a sad thing, but does it really compare to living in a country where children have no choice but to play by open sewers, as Sam McArthur describes in her blog post?
We have a long way to go before we see that level of poverty in the UK, and for that reason I'd like to turn this issue on its head and say why not also have a 'wealth & privilege awareness' day for those of us living in countries where washing machines, TVs, cars, shoes and clean drinking water are taken for granted, where the prevailing culture causes children to aspire to nothing more than making money or becoming famous, and where we seem to have lost the moral connection between our actions, their outcomes and our responsibilities to others. Then perhaps we'll really start to become aware of poverty, our role in its cause, and what we might do about it.
I think you’re absolutely right. We take what we have very much for granted and it’s so easy to forget about those who have practically nothing – ‘out of sight, out of mind’. We do need a reminder as to how lucky we are and appreciate what we have which would perhaps make more people help those living in absolute poverty.