Untitled #2

Rich men cry money,
Sad men cry tears,
Mad men cry blood
of others.

Looked for a picture to match this poem and I found this with the description of the poem:

My close friends know that I love Africa -- the entire continent. In fact, I'm going to Uganda for three weeks in just a few days and when people ask me why I am going, I am just left speechless. There are so many atrocities, problems, and reasons, I want to look at them and ask them why they are not going.

In our society, we claim ignorance as a valid reason to ignoring things like genocide, rape, mass murders, poverty, malnutrition, kidnapping, etc. We hear about it on the nightly news while eating our dinners and feel sad for about 30 minutes until the next big sitcom airs.

Here is a list of problems that I am putting up so that you can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse:
- 315,000,000 people in Africa survive on less than 1 US dollar per day. (Per capita income of the US is over $40,000. Average personal income is significantly less, but not so small that we can't spare a dollar a day.)
- 184,000,000 Africans (that is 33% of the entire continent) suffer from malnutrition.
- As recently as 2000, over 300,000,000 did not have access to safe drinking water.
- Average African life expectancy is 41 years old. (That is less than 66% of the most pessimistic life expectancy numbers for the average American.)
- 1 out of 6 African kids never make it past the age of 5.
- 50% of civilian causalities in African wars (and there are always multiple African wars going on at any given moment) are children under the age of 13.
- Of 1,000 Africans, statistically, only 200 have any electricity at all, only 15 have access to a telephone, and only 7 can use the internet.
- 3,000 children under the age of 5 die from malaria EVERYDAY in Africa -- that's over a million CHILDREN a year. (Only 8 people -- all together -- in the US died from malaria last year.)
- 12,000,000 children have lost their parents to AIDS.
- At least 25,000,000 people in Africa are HIV-positive.
There are plenty more facts like this. Educate yourself.

Know the facts. Stop ignorance. Support Africa. Spread the love.

I think he wants you to check out his photostream, maybe. He has some pretty thoughtful photographs.

Peace'

Untitled

Sorry just couldn't think up a proper title, spent about 3 mins thinking. There is so much I have to communicate yet I have little to say. Overall, I think we are all very lucky to live where we live.

We tend to overlook what we have in the present moment and seek distraction in the illusionary, how bad our life is at the moment, how lonely we are, how we could have been somewhere else, I'm sure one can add numerous words that all mean the same thing. When we do these things we are no longer in spirit, like zombies. This is ultimately the source of our unhappiness or if we look at it the other way we can say that the ultimate source of happiness is being in tune with our presence.

If we dissect some aspects of my life,

How many teenagers have the freedom that I have?

How many can say they can hop in a car whenever they want and go where ever they want?

How many can say they have decent food?

How many can say they have clean water?

How many can say they have family and friends that love them?

Etc...

Lets enjoy the time left in school and/or with each other.

MISSING YOU GUYS IN CHCH!!!! ='(

Anger

See if you feel this,

So mad, But why? Because I feel that I could be doing so much better, failing to remember that each experience in life is meant to maximise our spiritual growth.

I'm angry. At what? At who? Myself, always frustrated at the endless missed opportunities, forgiving others but I have never forgiven myself. I dwell in the past and imagine how my life situation would have turned out if I been even slightly less lazy or incompetent, while developing a venomous jealousy and contempt of this illusionary destiny.

After being told to forgive others and not to blame others, I have forgotten not to blame and to forgive the person closest to me, the one that is with me until the end for his failures and short comings. What a critical double standard.

Stuck in a rut as I (stupidly) try and dig myself out of a hole, that began as a small depression in the earth now I stand, dwarfed in a crater, thus realizing that all I needed to do was to step up. However I find myself so deep, that I must climb to escape. As I release the ink onto this page, I'm climbing back up to a beautiful reality.

Peace~