One up! One up! One up! The world thrives on the competition of which country can one up the rest. Dubai's Emaar properties spent a whopping 73 Billion AED, equivalent to $20 Billion dollars building Downtown Dubai, also known as the 'Centre of Now'. Located in Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in Hunan Province, China, lies the world’s longest glass-bottomed walkway. The bridge was Designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan. According to China's CCTV, the bridge cost about $3.4 Million dollars to build.The problem however doesn't lie in the One upping one another, it lies in what we view as norms within society. It lies in the concepts that are accepted by the general public.
Ever wonder what the cost would be to end world hunger? According to The Borgen Project the cost to end world hunger is approximately $30 Billion Dollars a year. Wow, sounds like a lot huh? However compared to the millions, and billions of dollars spent throughout the world building the next biggest, or highest, or longest whatever, it sounds insane.
I really couldn't believe my eyes when I first came upon this information, I figured there must be some mistake; There is no way we have the money to end world hunger yet every day people die of starvation all over the world. Everything I found out after that just made me more and more furious. For example, did you know that the U.S. defense budget in 2012 was estimated to be $737 billion dollars! I then stumbled on the final fact that made me livid! Did you know that the cost of food America alone throws away every year is estimated by The Huffington Post to be about $165 Billion dollars a year! That's 5.5 times the cost to end world hunger. So the question then lies in if we have the money to end world hunger why haven't we yet?
Unfortunately that's not a simple question to answer, because there is no justified answer. It all goes back to the whole idea of "One upping" each other, the belief within a global network of individuals is that rich is good and poor is bad. So in order for the rich to get richer the poor must get poorer. Even if it means 795 million people a year will be unable to lead healthy active lives due to poor nutrition, or that 12.9 percent of the world would be undernourished. Even if it means dashing for the remote and changing the channel quickly when the poor hungry African boy appears in a non-profit commercial, in efforts to advocate for world hunger; or even quickly scrolling past the numerous videos and ads on the lives taken in Syria, Palestine, Burma, Haiti, Turkey, France, and all over the world. It becomes easier that way because not acknowledging there is a crucial issue within our world allows for better sound sleep.
Forgetting that they are human beings like us, advocates the very numbness society has become so accustomed to. Wake up, world! It's time to stop this now, for the sake of our humanity, for the sake of our children, for our future, for the generations to come after us! A life is a life no matter what societal identity, race, religion, gender, sexuality, or differences they may have. Every life matters!
