Rich

A thought popped in my head the other day when I started getting excited about the Invisible Children Legacy Tour. We have it made out here in USA. We don’t have to wake up in fear of armies coming to our cities and killing or kidnapping us, we don’t have to worry about hurting our feet due to the lack of shoes, and we obviously aren’t worrying about being unable to access what’s going on around the world (internet, television, etc.) I know that the biggest worry for me is choosing which v-neck I want to wear with my shoes. I have it made and I am so fortunate.

I was stuck on the freeway and I started noticing all these billboards that try to sell products to people. There was this one advertisement that got me to thinking, thinking, and thinking some more. It read “Lap Band” with the image of an overweight person’s foot on a scale. Sure, some people are more fortunate than others with good metabolism, but we are one selfish country. 67 percent of America is overweight, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are an estimated 307 million people in America according to the World Factbook, which means 206 million Americans are overweight. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Americans spend $40 billion a year on weight loss programs and products. If a majority of these overweight people paid for these programs that would be $380 a year spent on these diets by one person. That upset me, there are third world countries out there that barely survive off of a dollar a day and here in America the average person spends up to $140 a day. In Timor-Leste, a third-world In South-East Asia the average family must survive on 400 dollars a year. I just can’t imagine what the pot-bellied starving children would think when they would see these advertisements for diets and surgeries for weight-loss. They would be confused and would wonder where all this food came from and how ridiculously lucky we are to be able to stock up groceries for a full month on half a paycheck or even less.

We are so spoiled and we don’t even know it. Some people have a pair of shoes for each outfit and some of those pairs don’t get worn more than five times. Some families in poor countries have only one pair of shoes for the children to share, some children even have to miss out on education because schools require students to wear shoes. In some cases, each child in a family is able to attend school twice a week if they are lucky.

We are blessed with freedom. In Uganda, children hide every night in order to stay hidden from the rebel group and forced to join. Almost 90 percent of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), the most feared rebel group in Uganda, are abducted children that are forced to join or are killed. After being abducted, they terrorize any civilized areas and abduct more children into their army.

We don’t know how great we have it, or we don’t show our appreciation enough. Compared to other places in the world, each and every one of us with a five-dollar bill in our pockets are rich. So start looking at what you have, start appreciating, and realize that you have it better than a majority of the people in the world today.

Footsteps

So I have had this account for some time now and I really haven't had anything that I have REALLY wanted to blog about, nothing that I wanted you all to know. If you know somewhat about me, you might know about my passion for non-profits (or companies thats sole purpose is to help others) and what they stand for. I am REALLY into TOMS Shoes, and guess what?!?! They have an event coming up! I am thrilled to the max that I can help out such great organizations by doing something so simple. You can also participate, it would actually be great if you did. TOMS got this crazy idea by asking people throughout the country to go barefoot this Thursday, 4/08/10, if you can't do all day (for some weird reason), try it out for 10 minutes at least. What's the reason for this? To simply raise awareness about people who aren't as fortunate as us, people (yes, even little children!) who have to do their daily deeds barefoot. Remember, they are even as fortunate to have cars, so they must walk everywhere, through mud, rocks, banks. Here are just a FEW examples of what those people go through by something we take for granted, or don't nearly appreciate as much as we should.

1) Nearly a million people in Ethiopia are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
2) Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.
3) In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, clean water and to seek medical help.
4)Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
5)Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.

I hope you can go barefoot for one day and raise awareness. Maybe someone will ask you why you are doing what you're doing, there is a perfect opportunity to educate them, then perhaps they will join. Join me and go barefoot on April 8th, 2010.