I had a comment on my blog yesterday saying that someone was disappointed that my blog was too serious and not amusing. I thought about this and then what I really consider serious. I know the fact that I loathe Mondays is not the lightest bit serious. It’s just one of those things. Also the fact that the phrase ‘But it’s all good’ is just a phrase that annoys me but it’s not important or serious. Or whether an author gets a ‘good’ cover or not, is again, not serious. Whether our computers work or we can’t buy something we want or whether we are having a bad hair day – all again - not serious.
The following to me is serious…stop reading now if you do not want to read about serious stuff. None of it’s funny. Read the links to find out more.
Poverty is serious…
Every day 30,000 children die as a result of extreme poverty. This shameful situation must end. If we have the will to act we can Make Poverty History.
http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/ 
Female Genital Mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
Honor killings
Over 5000 women and girls are killed every year by family members in so-called 'honour killings', according to the UN. These crimes occur where cultures believe that a woman's unsanctioned sexual behaviour brings such shame on the family that any female accused or suspected must be murdered. Reasons for these murders can be as trivial as talking to a man, or as innocent as suffering rape.
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/
Child rescue
Child Rescue is a program that reaches out to children who are struggling to survive in appalling situations.
These children are beyond the reach of child sponsorship. Some have no parents. Some have just escaped from a brothel or factory. Many are homeless and trying to survive on the streets.
http://www.worldvision.com.au/childrescue/
Burma – Myanmar
Unofficial UN estimates put the death toll at 216,000, with 2.4 million affected, around 2 million homeless and 220,000 missing.
http://www.savethechildren.org.au/australia/
what_we_do_programs/emergencies/
burma_cyclone_appeal.html
China
As of Thursday 22 May afternoon, Xinhua quotes government’s statistic of the nation-wide impacts of the earthquake with 51,151 deaths, 288,431 injured, and 29,328 missing. Media reports up to 5 million people are homeless. http://www.savethechildren.org.au/australia/what_we_do_programs/emergencies/china_earthquake_appeal.html
Hate crimes
Hate crimes (also known as bias motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation.[1]
Hate crime can take many forms. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or offensive graffiti or letters.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime
Aids
Since 1981 when HIV/AIDS was first described, an estimated 60 million people have been infected with HIV, of whom some 20 million have died. UNAIDS reports that, globally, less than one person in five at risk of HIV has access to basic HIV prevention services. Only 28% of people who needed HIV treatment had access to it by end-2006.
http://www.who.int/hiv/universalaccess2010/en/index.html
Of course this is just the tip of the ‘serious’ iceberg – cancer, mental illness, substance abuse, war, any form of discrimination…I could go on and on. I think we forget, I certainly do, that many of us are incredibly fortunate. We have food, warmth and safety and the things that we think of as ‘unlucky‘ or ‘terrible’ for us are generally nothing in the scheme of things. Yeah, most of us will not be able to save the world. And yes, being silly and flippant is sometimes the way to cope with the crap that may be around us. Nothing wrong with that. Or maybe we just need to pull our heads in every so often and realize the petty trivializations of our lives are just that. So what’s serious to you?www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?
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7 comments:
"Most of us will not be able to save the world." True but that shouldn't prevent us from improving what we can. Think what good we might do if we all worked together to try.
Hard hitting blog. Well said.
About the non amusing:
Your blogs always have humor floating through them. Its often times acerbic, but that's what makes it great.
Personally, I love your blogs.
Now I'm off to work. sigh.
I take credit for being the commentator who loves your humor. Today's blog has interesting subjects that touch our heart.
Poverty in the world: each one can help through wonderful organization such Christian Children Fund that let you adopt and feed children in the third world.
Female Genital Mutilation: unfortunately, although condemned by the government in Egypt it's still endemic in Upper Egypt and it's performed by women, mothers and aunts, to protect their daughters from temptation. Have you read, Princess, by Jean Sasson, a true story of life behind the veil in Saudi Arabia?
Myanma: the American aid had trouble reaching the area for many days.
Hate crime: we see that, way to much in the news.
What a great blog AJ that makes us appreciate we live in a pampered world.
Thank you for posting about my first contest.
Blessings on you for reminding us that we really are blessed.
Thanks for reminding us of all the things we might concentrate upon to help others. Most of us are so fortunate in our lives. We should do more to help.
Obviously someone doesn't understand our dry Aussie humour ;)
Sometimes we do need to be reminded of the serious stuff so we can appreciate the not so serious stuff.
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