But are the people truly aware of the hardships, and are they truly aware that it’s a crime against humanity? That it’s a crime against humanity needs to be made as a public statement. As things stand now, people are saying to themselves: “If nobody else is that concerned with extreme poverty, then neither am I.”
You really think that we’re all so DUMB that decades of TV ads for Feed the Children, countless broadcasts, articles, speeches, sociology classes, etc. etc. etc. weren’t enough to make people ‘truly aware’ that people in the world are suffering? Robert, Robert. . . You seem to have the idea that on the one hand people are so ‘smart’ that they manage to get away with crimes and keep people in poverty for their own selfish ways, and they aren’t getting ‘caught’. . .and on the other, that people are so DUMB that they can see, hear, and experience information and yet not truly know what the heck is going on. . .
And certainly extreme poverty is often due to criminal misuse of resources by some due to the exploitation of others, but being poor is not ‘criminal’ (or I’d be behind bars according to the standards of many in the U.S. who have arbitrarily decided that a person “must” possess a certain monetary ‘worth’ in order to say, raise children, and that lacking such means that my children will always be lesser than those who have that ‘monetary worth’).
And exactly WHO is saying to themselves, “If nobody else is that concerned with extreme poverty, then neither am I”.? The only person we KNOW saying that is YOU. You’re assuming that ‘most people’ in the U.S. are somehow not ‘educated’ by ‘the media’ and that this is the reason that the poverty exists.
Robert, how do you suggest that we go about and remove from power those who are through the use of force, or through ‘legal elections’, or through military coups, are keeping people in extreme poverty?
Because I am not, and most Americans are not, the ones who are keeping people in extreme poverty. We are in fact working pretty darn hard to keep ourselves treading water, AND also to help others are much as we can. . .but it’s not OUR ‘greed’ which is taking food from the mouths of others. Even ‘buying cell phones from China’ (phones made by people under terrible conditions) isn’t forcing these people into poverty because of our greed. . .The leadership in these countries is doing that, and if we aren’t buying those phones, they’ll take their money and food and power etc. out of the people even so, and the people will have even LESS than they do now.
If every person in the U.S. suddenly stopped buying new cell phones and demanded that China institute fair wages etc (things which let’s face it we don’t have OURSELVES in the U.S. in many places), this would not bring the people food and shelter and plenty. If it could, most people in America, in fact, most people anywhere, would do it, because it’s not something that really puts US in poverty, and it helps others.
BUT sanctions and boycotts and criticisms don’t seem to be working, so I don’t know why people seem to think that if only somebody (like the media, or the Pope) just MADE IT PLAIN HOW 'SINFUL" this is, then suddenly the leaders and the thieves and the oppressors would just have a complete change of heart. . .
So, would have them not air the Holy Father? Mass? Catechism? Prayers and inspiration? Jesus said we will always have the poor. We need more than just more photos of malnurishment. We need hope.
Your screen name, gracepoole, seems more like it could be a real name-- Grace Poole-- so I thought it might be more likely you were a woman. Sorry to have made this mistake and i will try to remember in the future 
), and built-in obsolescence means we end up spending money for a new thing which could be used for other things, among which are repairing a church or helping the poor.
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