so whose life on the line?...

End of day three... Food consumed:

- More oatbran for breakfast (slowly getting used to the taste...)
- Green tea :D
- More rice and lentils for dinner
- Aaaaand who couldn't finish the day with some more green tea to help me feel fuller, and to help me get myself motivated to study... (have been studying muscles at the moment, which can be slightly.... very tedious).

I was talking to a friend today, and the topic of Gap Minder came up (http://www.gapminder.org/) --- brilliant concept. It maps out different variables, like average life expectancy, GDP per capita, prevalence of HIV/AIDS, etc, on a graph, comparitive to other countries, over time!!! Wow... a mouthful there... But seriously, go check it out, and you will see what I mean. It definitely puts life in perspective for the developed world, seeing how the developing world is lagging in comparison!

For those of you who have never heard of TED before, it is simply amazing! There are TED conferences in different places around the world a couple of times a year, where people gather to hear short speeches by people who are experts in their field, talks that incorporate technology, entertainment and design (hence the TED, etc). Anyway, all of the talks are available on ted.com and most of them are really good and worth listening to (this is teh website which reels in my procrastinatory hours...). Anyway, Hans Rosling, the guy who came up with the concept of Gap Minder, gave a talk at a TED conference, and I have added the video below for you to watch :)




So really, when we talk about living below a line, who is it living below the line? And whose life is "on the line"?

I want to share a story - I spent last December (2009) in Kolkata, in the state of West Bengal in India. Kolkata is one of the poorest and congested cities you will ever see (over 25 million people crammed into one city), with beggers on most street corners, and people living in makeshift slums on the side of the road, even on the foot path... Wherever there is a small amount of space to qualify their "non existant" existence. These people survive off the petty income they receive, doing any jobs they can - rickshaw drivers, offering to direct you around places, carry your bags (not the best idea...), etc. Many of them have no job. There is a small village South of Kolkata called Dhaki, a village on a water way, where many people earn an existence through fishing. One of my favourite photos from my India trip was taken in this village - a little boy boarding a boat carrying his suitcase:

Anyway, one Saturday at the Dhaki medical clinic where I was volunteering, a distraught parent bought her 2 year old son in, Suraj. Suraj was in an appalling condition, a condition you would NEVER see in the developed world, but in this tiny, poverty stricken corner of India, here it was. He had a retinoblastoma - a cancer of the eye, on top of which was a secondary infection. His right eye was so infected that it was protruding out of his eye socket. We knew that he needed immediate attention, so we sent him and his family in our mobile clinic (a converted bus) to Kolkata - a four hour journey.

On Monday, we raced around various hospitals in the Kolkata metro area, trying to get Suraj admitted, but no one would take him, as most hospitals were not advanced enough to treat his condition. Finally, after four hospitals and five hours, we managed to get him into the paediatrics department at Kolkata Medical Hospital. By this time, Suraj was listless - we was so sick that he couldn't move, couldn't talk, not even whimper or cry out in pain. Nothing.

Over the next couple of days, we visited him, paid for his treatment, took him for x-rays and CT scans, and provided support for the family. We couldn't communicate with Suraj's mum, as we didn't speak the language competently enough, but somehow we managed. The hospital was jam packed with sick people, and sick children. I was approached by a mum, whose young bub (under one year) was in intensive care, alongside Suraj. She told me that the doctors said that there was nothing more they could do for her baby, and that it would soon die. The bluntness with which she told me broke my heart - she had obviously cried and been distraught til she could cry no more. She looked at me with resigned eyes, and I had to leave the intensive care unit to cry.

When I went to see Suraj the day after Christmas, I was told that he had been discharged. Appalled that he should be discharged in such condition, I hassled the intensive care doctor. Suraj had been sent home to die. There was nothing more that could be done. I talked to the coordinator of my project a couple of days later, and he informed me that around the date of December 28th, Suraj had died back in Dhaki. Only two years old, and practically destined to die because of poverty. And the sad thing is - this is one case out of millions more - thousands of children (and adults) die everyday from diseases and illness that could be prevented, and would be if they lived in a developed country, or were not living in poverty.

The attitude of the affluent is appalling. I was speaking to one of my friends that I made in India, Shashank, and he couldn't care less about the poor and dying. It is an attitude shared among the upper class in India - it is as if the poor deserve to be poor and live in poverty, as if they are lazy, etc. The poor are by no means lazy - I have seen them work harder than anyone to sustain their families, doing all the jobs that no one else wants to do.

So it is Suraj, and the millions of other children represented by Suraj, that we are Living Below the Line, and raising money so that other children can get an education, and get out of poverty, and not have to suffer the harsh consequences of poverty like Suraj did.

Uber long post, enough said. Talk tomorrow :)

|| pip ||