Poverty

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the lowly of birth.
Raise your glass to the good and the evil,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier,
Spare a thought for his back breaking work.
Say a prayer for his wife and his children,
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth.

And when I search a faceless crowd,
A swirling mass of gray and black and white.
They don't look real to me,
In fact, they look so strange.

Raise your glass to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the uncounted heads.
Lets think of the wandering millions,
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead.

Spare a thought for the stay at home voter,
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows.
And a parade of the gray suited grafters,
A choice of cancer or polio.

And when I search a faceless crowd,
A swirling mass of gray and black and white.
They don't look real to me,
In fact, they look so strange.

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets think of the lowly of birth.
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.
Lets think of the two thousand million,
Lets think of the humble of birth.

Hippy-Faggot-Punk-Rocker:

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the lowly of birth.
Raise your glass to the good and the evil,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier,
Spare a thought for his back breaking work.
Say a prayer for his wife and his children,
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth.

And when I search a faceless crowd,
A swirling mass of gray and black and white.
They don't look real to me,
In fact, they look so strange.

Raise your glass to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the uncounted heads.
Lets think of the wandering millions,
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead.

Spare a thought for the stay at home voter,
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows.
And a parade of the gray suited grafters,
A choice of cancer or polio.

And when I search a faceless crowd,
A swirling mass of gray and black and white.
They don't look real to me,
In fact, they look so strange.

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets think of the lowly of birth.
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.

Lets drink to the hard working people,
Lets drink to the salt of the earth.
Lets think of the two thousand million,
Lets think of the humble of birth.

Wooah.

17:

Egypt, first place that come to mind. Sry if I offended you in any way.

Naw, I was just pointing it out.

i think they should help those people cuz i was one of them and still am. i live in a little 1 bedroom house with my mom dad and little brother and we are in the worst part of town. i hope the goverment does help people like us because we have hardly enough to eat

colo(u)r me stupid:

i think they should help those people cuz i was one of them and still am. i live in a little 1 bedroom house with my mom dad and little brother and we are in the worst part of town. i hope the goverment does help people like us because we have hardly enough to eat

Sorry if this sound nasty but...you don't have enough to eat yet you have the internet?

Incubus:

colo(u)r me stupid:

i think they should help those people cuz i was one of them and still am. i live in a little 1 bedroom house with my mom dad and little brother and we are in the worst part of town. i hope the goverment does help people like us because we have hardly enough to eat

Sorry if this sound nasty but...you don't have enough to eat yet you have the internet?

That thought crossed my mind too.

Surely, the the fact that you're speaking to us means you either have a computer or you are paying for internet access in a cafe or something.

colo(u)r me stupid:

i think they should help those people cuz i was one of them and still am. i live in a little 1 bedroom house with my mom dad and little brother and we are in the worst part of town. i hope the goverment does help people like us because we have hardly enough to eat

Yeah, you guys could stop internet and get about $25-$30 a month, or stop going to a coffie shop.

Bloodraine:

Incubus:

colo(u)r me stupid:

i think they should help those people cuz i was one of them and still am. i live in a little 1 bedroom house with my mom dad and little brother and we are in the worst part of town. i hope the goverment does help people like us because we have hardly enough to eat

Sorry if this sound nasty but...you don't have enough to eat yet you have the internet?

That thought crossed my mind too.

Surely, the the fact that you're speaking to us means you either have a computer or you are paying for internet access in a cafe or something.

Yes, and besides that, there are people who are far poorer. There are people who don't have a house at all, and can't even afford shoes in the winter. Maybe this is mean, but think before who ask for help for your glamorous by comparison life.

*pulls out of the cobwebs*

What sickens me is that people are so judgmental about the homeless.

Think about it.

You're walking down the dark street and you see a gruff, awakened hobo, slouched on the park bench. Most likely you'll want to back away in fear of them, thinking they'll rob you.

Just because they've hit the skids and they're experiencing poverty doesn't mean they've become monsters. They're exactly like you. Put away the rough exterior and the lack of money and shelter, and you're looking at yourself.

Yes poverty discusts me. I didn't really understand how shocking the world was, until I went to Egypt when I was 16. Now I know there are countries out there, even worse off than Egypt, but thats where I saw the bitter side of life.

Kids running the streets naked, trying to sell anything to tourists, and the worst of it was, the police where chasing them off like cattle. People sitting in the streets begging for food (not drunkerds begging for money) but begging for a scape of food.
Horrible.

The govenments in the rich countries of the world are to blame, the money they spend on rediculous things is getting out of hand.
They build weapons when they should be making some kind of foundation for people in these countries to help themselves.

As for us as individuals, I dont believe we should give up all our luxurys. What your born into is what your used to, so taking everything away from people can be just as dangerous as poverty.

What people should definately do is donate, what they can.

Sending all your junk to an Oxfam store instead of selling it on ebay is a start!!!

Poverty.. hmm.. that's a really big problem in other countries..

i think we all know that

Because I said it before, I'll say it again:

So today I was in this UNDP Stand Up, Against Poverty thing as an attempt to set the Guiness World Record for most people to stand up for one cause (So far the number is...*Drumroll.*..........1,680,230 people.) because some year 12's were doing it for CAS hours, and the presentation they had on it was really amazing. There are some staggering figures and nice animations.

Here is a photo of a school my friend goes to, NIST (Nice basketball courts.), standing up.

The advertising of the event was globally phenomenal though, it really approached everyone in the world. Bery appealing as well to the youth.

http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/
This is a link to the homepage.

This is the Pledge: "We stand here proudly as members of the generation that intends to defeat extreme poverty.

We cannot stay seated when a child born in a poor country today will die 30 years earlier than a child born in a wealthy one: when tens of thousands of people die unnecessarily every day.

And we stand up because we are asking not for charity but justice – we know, that in our names, world leaders have made mighty promises to bring this to an end – they are called the Millennium Development Goals. What is needed is the political will to achieve and exceed these goals - so we are on our feet to say -

To the leaders of the wealthy countries – be great - fight to keep your promises – debt cancellation, more and better aid, and trade rules that help fight poverty – you know what needs to be done – do it.

We also stand before the leaders of poorer countries to say – be great – make it your first responsibility to save the lives of your poorest citizens. We ask you to achieve real transparency and accountability in how money is spent, to tackle inequality, to root out corruption. You know what needs to be done. Do it.

We wish to set a record today of the number of people standing up to demand action on poverty – but the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and just ignoring the poor. We don’t want record numbers of people dying of poverty every year for the rest of our lives.

(Insert local message here)

We are six billion Voices. We want justice now. No more excuses. We will not stand for them."

The goal is basically to cut the number of people below the poverty line of $1 a day down to 10% by 2015. I think the current trend is at 26%.

I can't find the nice visulisations right now, but when I find them, I'll show you cause they are flash.

Anyway, so can this goal be achieved? And can poverty be abolished?

I think that the goal is well on target. The amount of people below the poverty line in th 1970's is a lot higher than now. Also because of HIV/AIDS, many people are dying and the population is decreasing, and it is a sad thing to think about, but it's true that this means there's more for the rest of us. Also more children are being educated and are getting better jobs than working in rice patties. Awareness is also spreading and many countries are chipping in to help. I'm just worried it's one of those things which is improving now, but gets forgotten later.

And here are the current, final figures!!! *Drummroll...* Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, DUUUUUUUUHHH DUM!!!

Official Guinness Verification:
The world record for the most people to 'Stand Up Against Poverty' in 24 hours was set on 15 - 16 October 2006 for the United Nation's Millennium Campaign and involved a massive total of 23,542,614 participants in 11,646 events around the globe.

Africa - 3,624,381
Arab Region - 516,949
Asia - 18,195,126
Europe - 894,854
Latin America & the Caribbean - 54,901
North America - 163,066
Oceania - 93,337

Yeah, I'm 1/18,195,126 of the Asia people.

poverty sucks, wish it never exsisted cos its an excuse for ma mum to make me eat ma tea.!!! unit and fight!!!!!

beans:

poverty sucks, wish it never exsisted cos its an excuse for ma mum to make me eat ma tea.!!! unit and fight!!!!!

...Can someone translate this?

Of course 'poverty sucks'. It's blatantly obvious...no wiat..nooo it's a never ending party.

Living on benefit cheques:

beans:

poverty sucks, wish it never exsisted cos its an excuse for ma mum to make me eat ma tea.!!! unit and fight!!!!!

...Can someone translate this?

Sure.
"Poverty is a bad thing. I wish it didn't exist because my mother uses it as an excuse to make me eat my meals. Unite and fight!"


Well, at least you have meals to be forced to eat