Obesity & Starvation

I was donating plasma the other day and the television on the wall was showing a promotion by World Vision. They were visiting villages in Africa and the closed captioning was giving details of the children and people being highlighted. Two year old children without enough to eat. We all know the stories, we see the pictures, we hear the pleas for help.

Here in North America, the news stories tell us that the prevalence of diabetes has doubled in the last 30 years - to 357 million people. Mostly due to increasing obesity. And that is only for the adults who start to see diabetes showing up in middle age. Let's not talk about the increasing number of obese children and teenagers who are still headed for the obesity bandwagon.

Which makes me wonder... how can these two stark contrasts exist in the same world? How can we have starvation in one country and obesity in another country? And be OK with that?? Because let's face it, we are essentially "OK" with it. We don't rise up against our governments and demand an end to Carbon emissions which are altering the climate and exacerbating desertification in sub-Saharan Africa which forces people to become climatic refugees. We don't stand up and demand an end to the deforestation of Amazonian rainforests. We don't stand up really... as long as it is NIMBY (not in my back yard), we are content with our lives. Oh sure, we have twinges of guilt but... really...

Maybe all obese and overweight people should be forced to sponsor a malnourished or starving child? Maybe the junk food companies should be forced to sponsor poor countries like Haiti? Because in the great circle of life... what goes around... comes around... We might do well to think of that for our future.