Michael Meegan lectures on poverty and suffering

The Founder of ICROSS Dr Michael Meegan gave a series of talks recently on global health and the changes in World poverty. Here are some extracts from a lecture on “ the rise of poverty in a rich world “

“We are divided just think about this for a moment the 200 richest people in the World own more than the 400 million poorest and 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4% of global exports. Worse still According to the World bank the 500 richest people in the world own more than 50% of humanity.

50,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the conscience of the world. Being powerless and vulnerable in life makes these dying people even more invisible in death. That is about 210,000 children each week, or almost 11,000,000 children under age 5, each year. “

“ Its easy to get lost in the numbers the figures are overwhelming. 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; over a third of the planet have no access to electricity.”

“Think about our priorities here , 12% of the world's population uses 85% of its water. These 12% do not live in the Third World.”
This is why ICROSS and our partners remain committed to fighting poverty and the engines that drive the causes of poverty and suffering . unless we understand the forces and realities behind the numbers we simply observe the inevitable cycles and patterns that generate inequality. Unless the numbers become real people in our hearts we will watch them die. “

We will be sharing more extracts from lectures by Dr Michael Meegan throughout 2011.