I have a yearning for a place worlds away with strangers I have never seen, yet I hold an unexplainable love for.Africa holds an attraction I can neither convey to you, nor myself. Passion, some people strive for it, some feel they have it, but few hold it in their hearts. I never knew true passion until I discovered my attraction to Africa. Without knowing why or how I developed an unexplained love for both the people and ideas Africa holds. I'm not naive, I know I won't be able to solve all their problems but I do know that my impact, no matter how big or small, will make a difference. There will always be sickness and disease, hungry children and desperate mothers. Though things like these will never be eliminated, conditions can be improved. In order to improve their lives you have to awaken awareness in the lives of people here, in America. Initially I thought " Hey no big deal, people will see the suffering and be compelled to help." None the less after presenting the story and not receiving the "How can I help?" attitude I was left with a sobering reality.
Helen Kellar once said "It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing." Never again will I question the truth in those words. Although there was some response to my plea it often would die out after a week or two, some even by dinner time. I simply could not grasp watching people's eyes spark with change and then seeing it fade just as quickly as it came. Though this happened time after time every now and then just as my heart began to question those around me I would hear what has become my favorite words, "How can I help?" These four words have instilled enough faith in me to last a lifetime.
Though the tragedy of Africa disgusts, it also inspires. Behind despair lies an overwhelming sense of resilience throughout the people. In having nothing they have have gained, what I feel, is everything.
This passion they hold for living has compelled me to find a passion that has changed the course of my entire life. A passion worth leaving everything I have ever known for, and a passion that has shown me more love than I ever felt possible.
There will always be sickness and disease, hungry children and desperate mothers. Though things like these will never be eliminated, conditions can be improved.
I am fifty years old and all my life (and longer) we have been trying to improve conditions in Africa. And the result of our efforts is that conditions are TREMENDOUSLY WORSE and in many respects the horror can be traced directly to our aid,
I've reached the conclusion that any help we provide to Africa that is not aimed at helping them to stabilize and then reduce their population which is greatly out of harmony with the carrying capacity of their continent is not only badly misguided and counter-productive but profoundly immoral. Every life we save now condemns literally thousand to grim death in the future. I want no part of it.
I wrote a blog on this topic:
Hunger and Tough Love
There does not always need to be sickness, disease , hungry children and desperate mothers but we will never reach that point so long as we keep treating the symptoms of the problem with remedies that aggrevate the root cause of the problem. Providing aid is exactly the wrong thing to do and the inevitable result is that there will be a far greater problem in the future. The problem with Africa is that it is horribly over populated and mother nature is doing everything possible to bring things back into balance. Everytime we interfere with this natural balancing process we ensure that down the road mother nature is going to throw them an even worse and more horric catastrophe.
I'm sure you have the best intentions but you should take a hard look at the bitter unintended consequences.
I have to somewhat agree here with jackbenimble. Perhaps the tough love approach is admirable. If we want to help, we could be the helping hand to show countries in need how to do things on their own.
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I need some more input from y'all here in this forum topic: A ProgressiveU Radio Show/Podcast
I think this is an idea that can improve the ProgressiveU community.
Last summer I visited northern uganda. You will never know how great it feels to help these people until you see a little boy smile over clean water and cry over new shoes. Its life altering and no one could ever make me rethink being a part in helping to make these peoples lives better. There comes a point in time when you realize "its not about me," and only then have you started to help solve a problem.
Last summer I visited northern uganda. You will never know how great it feels to help these people until you see a little boy smile over clean water and cry over new shoes. Its life altering and no one could ever make me rethink being a part in helping to make these peoples lives better. There comes a point in time when you realize "its not about me," and only then have you started to help solve a problem.