The Bloggers With The Most To Say
How far will you go?
How far will you go for something you believe in? That's the question I pose in my latest blog entry, and I wanted to post it here, too.
A friend of mine is proving he's willing to go to the point of death to see justice happen. He's starving himself. He's refusing to eat until $15,500 is raised to provide de-worming medicine that will help save the lives of 1,000,000 children.
He's tired of hearing that 30,000 kids die every day, and so he took action.
It's been 6 days. He's raised $7000... and he's pretty hungry.
Is this going too far? Is this the kind of extremism that hinders causes? Or is it precisely the kind of extremism we should see more of these days: extremism that opposes taking any life but one's own.
I would love to know your thoughts.
To donate or track Brandt Russo's progress, click the link to my blog.
To follow Brandt Russo's Operation Starvation blog, click here.
A friend of mine is proving he's willing to go to the point of death to see justice happen. He's starving himself. He's refusing to eat until $15,500 is raised to provide de-worming medicine that will help save the lives of 1,000,000 children.
He's tired of hearing that 30,000 kids die every day, and so he took action.
It's been 6 days. He's raised $7000... and he's pretty hungry.
Is this going too far? Is this the kind of extremism that hinders causes? Or is it precisely the kind of extremism we should see more of these days: extremism that opposes taking any life but one's own.
I would love to know your thoughts.
To donate or track Brandt Russo's progress, click the link to my blog.
To follow Brandt Russo's Operation Starvation blog, click here.
Tags: Activism, Awareness, Operation, Poverty, Starvation
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kanriah on -
On one hand, I think it's great when there are people who Really Care so much that they go to such extremes.
On the other, the practical side of me says that if he really does let it go that far that it severely impacts his health or life, he may be limiting his long range contribution.
Mostly, I think that people should Care and Help in the way that they can. If you can do the extreme methods and feel that is what you should do... then by all means do it. As long as you aren't hurting anyone with your actions of course (to me that includes someone who does that sort of thing with dependant children at home, that's wrong). If you feel like you should donate a percentage of your pay or your time, or Something that is less extreme, then do that. As long as we're all doing Something, that is better than the nothing that most people give.
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Permalink Reply by Chase on -
Great points, Kandace.
But that brings me (personally) to the question, "Am I doing enough?"
The fact is, my lifestyle fuels many of those injustices in the third world. Mineral Trade for my cell phone promotes guerrilla war. Fijian people are without clean water so that Fiji Water can be shipped to my local stores. And we've all heard of Nike sweatshop scandals.
So how much is "enough"? How closely are my actions of buying the newest cellphone related to the murder and rape of innocence in the Congo?
My guess? It's more closely related than me and some of my Facebook "Friends" ...and quite frankly that leaves me a bit uneasy...
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Permalink Reply by Kanriah on
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It definately is a personal question. I think when people start asking themselves if they are doing enough is when they start to give more.
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Permalink Reply by Julz on -
Although I admit to lameness/wussiness and that I won't be able to do the same, I appreciate the efforts (and will power!) of your friend to empathize and realize through his own experience the hunger that is being experienced by others. We all know how to be hungry, and I think that is why attempts like this are so magical-- we know how it is to be hungry (although not that hungry), and we know in ourselves that this should not be happening to the rest of the world.
But I think that just helping with the crumbs of our fortune to raise some money will not be able to 'end' hunger. I think that it's a problem with the ethos of the world. I think that the solution to injustice and even 'inequality' lies in whether people will ever realize that we are all thrown, beings in this world together and each of our individual acts and lifestyle affects someone somewhere else, leagues away from our comfortable existence (or if we look close enough, they may be just right beside us but we refuse to see). We may raise a billion dollars but there will still be a few who have too much while others hunger. I don't want to think that the only hope for the hungry people in third world countries are charitable rich people who would come once in a while to help them. I'd like to think that they can someday be comfortable through their own efforts.
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Permalink Reply by Chase on
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I agree that the problem won't be solved until the poorest of poor are self-sustainable. It's a complex and difficult problem, so saying it like that is not that simple. We (the rich in the West) have a direct link to the poverty in the third world.
If we are ever to see poverty change, we need to change our lifestyle dramatically.
That's what I appreciate most about my friend Brandt. He's obviously willing to do that. Yeah, it's awesome when Bradgelina can step in and save the children, but it's going to take a lot more than a handful of rich humanitarians. Our society as a whole continues the cycle.
Did you know Americans spend $450 Billion on the Christmas Season?
Did you know $10 Billion of that would solve the clean water crisis...globally?
We are the ones that can make it stop.
We buy the coffee
We buy the cellphones and the diamond rings
We buy the sweatshop clothing and shoes
You said it right when you noted we are all "in this world together..." Our actions do effect someone else. It's going to have to go past throwing money at the problem; we're going to have to change.
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