And if you feel like you need reasons to do so, read on (examples taken from article):
1. Political assassinations
In the Philippines 2010 election year, over 100 people were killed due to political violence. VICE follows this terrifying cycle of violence as politicians, businessmen, church groups, and everyday citizens are stockpiling weapons to take the law into their own hands.
2. Contaminated water
30,000 deaths occur every week from unsafe water an unhygienic living conditions; and 90 percent of those deaths are children. Here, a resident of Mabvuku fetches water from unprotected sources in Harare.
3. Human trafficking
According to recent crime data, 14 children go missing in New Delhi every day, at least six of whom are victims of human trafficking. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says around 1.2 million children are victims of child trafficking across the world every year.
4. Child soldiers
Here, a child soldier points his gun at a photographer in Liberia. The use of children for the military is a worldwide issue. VICE covers the story from Afghanistan where Taliban leaders are manipulating children and teenagers into carrying out their suicide bombings.
5. Severe drought
Brazil’s northeast is suffering its worst drought in five decades. Lack of rain has hurt corn and cotton crops, left cattle and goats to starve in dry pastures, and affected 30 percent of sugar cane production in the region responsible for 10 percent of Brazil’s cane output.
6. Electronic waste
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), e-waste is the fastest growing commodity in the waste stream. Guiyu, China may be the largest electronic waste site on earth, with 80 percent of it coming from overseas.
7. Education inequality
Pakistani school children gather under a poster of injured classmate Malala Yousafzai who the Taliban attempted to assassinate for her outspoken insistence on girls’ education. She has since returned to school and is now the youngest nominee of a Nobel Peace Prize.
8. Hunger in Mauritania
In this African country, half of the population lives below the poverty line and faces chronic food shortages due to lack of rain.
9. Poverty in India
Mumbai is the center of India’s struggle for twenty-first century economic ascendance. In a place where more than half its people live in slums sprawled in the shadow of billion-dollar, single-family skyscrapers, VICE looks in on just how surreal this collision of caste and future can be.
I fully agree. While to each person, their own problem may be their own prison, it still is great to put everything into perspective. Not for a comparative analysis, but rather for an appreciation for what we do have rather than focusing on what we don't.
Human trafficking is the saddest thing ever. We really are so blessed to live in a country where everything is basically handed to us.
All of these are so awful!
Complaing less & appreciating more are each things I try to be mindful of, but this puts it in a whole new perspective. Sometimes we get so worked up in our little schedules and "necessities" that we forget about a whole other "world" really, that exists and is real. It is great to put everything in perspective, and this leads me to want to really donate so much more..meaning get rid of all this stuff we acculumate and focus on the basics. These are awful realizations of this world we live in, it's a great reminder for all of us that get caught up in trivial manners. I'm thankful for this life we have in America, and my heart aches for those less fourtonate.