Do you care?

The following is a rant, brought you by the makers of the DVD rant.

If you've been living with your head in the sand and two fingers up your proverbial butt, you probably have still heard of the ONE Campaign. It is the campaign to end poverty, specifically focusing on developing countries. It is an admirable goal with thousands (if not millions) of supporters.

Apparently, however, not everyone is interested in freeing developing countries from debt. It appears that governments are selling off the debt owed to them by developing countries to companies. These companies are then taking to court and suing them for the full amount of their debt, plus interest.

Prior to the debt being sold off, these countries have had no accruing interest in their debt, (thanks mainly to the ONE campaign). Suddenly when big business takes over, they've got their full debt back, plus interest. This is essentially a death sentence for many of the people who live in these countries. Yet Vulture Funds still exist and seem to be legal, thanks to governments all over the globe.

It seems that governments are happy to appear charitable with the debt collecting and companies are happy to point to all their charitable works which account for a minor percent of their total profits. Between the two of them, they are putting on a front that appears noble and THE PEOPLE BUY IT!

If people were seriously interested in stopping poverty, they wouldn't allow their governments do to this, they'd vote them out of office. They wouldn't buy from companies who extorted from the poor, no matter how cheap their products are. If world poverty was really an issue that was cared about, our personal comfort wouldn't be our first priority.

In a world where we can access a multitude of information, we still rely heavily on corporate news (which lets face it goes through a bit of a spin before production). We allow fashion and gossip magazines to be the prominent form of "news" we buy. We are more interested in the clothes we wear than the true price for which the clothes came. We are hypocrites and proud hypocrites at that.

As our middles expand, our fists get tighter. In the end, it is our greed that will keep us from ever being truly rich.