(In)Human Suffering

There are at least 27 Live Conflicts now. 

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

We know what is happening almost as soon as it happens through the press, TV & social media. Ukraine is in every news broadcast. There is war in Afghanistan, political instability in Lebanon, war in Yemen, the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, and the conflict in Ethiopia. The war in Syria has lasted 11 years. Conflict & violence are rising worldwide. A quarter of the entire global population lives in conflict-affected areas. People suffer unimaginable hardship & pain. Famine is rampant. A child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen. Millions are displaced from their homes. Repressive dictatorships & military rulers remove any semblance of human rights. Ethnic cleansing is the harshest of discriminatory tactics. Violence against women is rampant. Desperate people sell their children & organs to be able to live.

The cost of this in human & economic terms is unimaginable.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/facts-about-world-conflicts/

Closer to home, in the UK in 2021/22, approximately 2.17 million people used a foodbank. There are 1,172 independent food banks across the UK in addition to food banks in the Trussell Trust network, Salvation Army, and school-based food banks. That's more than the number of branches of McDonalds! More than a third (37%) of Britons say that, when it is very cold outside, they cannot afford to heat their home to a level where they are comfortably warm. The UK is the 6th largest economy in the world by GDP. (China is now the wealthiest country in the world, having overtaken America).

The Climate Emergency means that people everywhere are suffering from unique weather conditions - drought, heat waves, crop failure, storms, floods, rising sea levels, melting glaciers & warming oceans. This has a knock on effect on wildlife & sensitive, complex, bio systems.

Human suffering is reaching epidemic proportions not just due to the Covid pandemic.

Unless the world is led by people who have the intelligence & will to solve the dire problems that beset us today, rather than accrue money & power to themselves, the human race will drive itself to destruction.

We have a choice. We need to choose wisely & put the right people in power.