Prioritizing Basic Needs

Today I was talking to my friend about plastic surgery; especially how society views beauty and how "normal" has changed over the years. It's interesting because without other people's opinions, without the media and influence from societies, many things that seem to be problems wouldn't have been problems. No one would care that you didn't have double eyelids, for example. No one would care if you didn't have a six pack or if you had a uni-brow. The sad reality is that developed countries such as the North American ones care more about physical beauty, money, and ourselves than anything.

If our society didn't have a standardized view of what physical beauty should look like, then everyone involved in the beauty industry (whether they be plastic surgeons, cosmetic companies, make up artists) could divert their skills and resources toward more pressing issues, such as helping developing countries grow their economy and help their citizens sustain themselves. I've realized how selfish our society has become. I take a lot of things for granted - fresh water, clean air, food, shelter; I can pick and choose what I want to do, how I want to dress, what to eat.

Our society spends so much time focusing on problems like which smartphone to get, complain about how the luxurious things we have aren't up to par and we only think about ourselves. We only want to improve our own quality of life. We want the best of everything and we're ok with letting people starve and be without basic necessities as long as we can't see them or don't have to interact with them.

There is such a big gap between well-developed countries and the developing ones. Studies have shown that right now we have all the resources we need to be able to feed everyone living on the planet - but still, there are so many people who go without on a daily basis. Why? Because our culture, the people who live in abundance and luxury don't care about anyone other than themselves and their friends. We just want to have better things and at what cost? The more we focus on ourselves and better ourselves, we are only furthering ourselves from reaching that idealistic view of fairness and equity between countries throughout the earth. Shouldn't everyone on earth be able to have access to clean drinking water, to food, shelter, clothing, and comfort? Why are we so concerned over ourselves when there are bigger issues at stake? Are we really making the most out of our time and resources?

It seems that our society has different priorities. It seems that we are more concerned about our physical appearances than the life of someone who has no home. This makes me sad. My friend pointed out that perhaps sometime in the future people will have to start paying for air. Think about it for a bit. The basic necessities for human life are food, clean water, shelter, clothing and love. But we failed to mention that air is also a basic necessity for human life. This is something that has been taken for granted. We sometimes don't recognize air as a basic necessity because we simply can not see it and because it is free.

Water used to be free. It used to be that you could just fetch water from a well and drink it without needing to pay anybody. But now people have become convinced that tap and fountain water isn't clean. People started buying and selling water.  What about air? Well at the rate that we are polluting the earth with all the technological trinkets that humans have managed to develop over the years, it wouldn't be shocking for me to predict that perhaps some 1000 years down the road, the air would be too polluted to breathe. People would start designing air purification systems and selling air in tanks. It would become normal for humans to walk around with an oxygen tank trailing behind them. People would pay to stay alive.

Basic necessities that everyone should have rights to are becoming things that come at a cost. Nobody should have to pay to stay alive (and I mean minimum requirements). So if the time comes that people will have to pay for air, what are the poor and developing countries going to do? Will they die out because they can not afford to pay for air and technology to purify air?


If you're into environmental issues, I've been told to check out this movie: The Lorax, it's about the extinction of trees. I haven't watched it yet but I will when exams are over!

Let it Grow (from the Lorax)




Reading week is coming soon. This is my last week of classes before I get two weeks off; one to study and the second for exam week. I think I already know that I'm going to be studying really hard all week next week that no part of me wants to study right now. This is so bad. I am so behind and idealistically, I could lighten my load for reading week if I just buckle down and study now.

Philippians 1 today