Thank you for bringing this up. I see this as the real terrorism. Can you imagine watching your children die and not being able to change the outcome. This need not happen, it is due to thoughtless greed and an economic sysytem that takes from whose with little and gives it to those with abundance. It must stop. Another source of terror is Russia's action in Chechnya and China's actions in Tibet. Once again the commercial benefits of the few take precidence.

What an eye opener of the state of the world and strategies to combat it. Until we see our world as part of us we will continue to be narrowly focussed on our own wants.Tim's vision of addressing the needs of the other half is to be commended. The other half cannot be ignored. We are all responsible for the other half. We neglect the other half to our own peril. We need to take stock before its too late to do anything about it. Let us do our part to heal the world. Poverty is a curse. Only the rich nations has the cure.

As much as I would like to feed all the staving kids and the pictures are certainly heart wrenching, that is not the answer to the problem.

If by some miricle, we adequatley fed all the starving what happens when all we saved start to breed, the their kids and then grandkids.

Over population thats what! Some claim the world is over populated now. The reality is that the better fed people are, the more they breed. What is the answer? No one will stop fornication, so do we have massive abortions or sterilizations, or birth control drugs in drinking water.

The sooner Tim and his ilk start looking at the basic problem and begin to find ways to solve that, the better off we will be.

I do know the answer is not improved feeding of the worlds population. That is simply compounding the problem.

Agree with Banjo, except the bit about being better fed producing more kids.

I think levels of education and access to birth control is probably much more of a factor.

Maybe a question to ask is 'so what'? There are too many people in the world already. As Banjo says, maybe we should start by encouraging population control as a means to control overconsumption of scarce resources.

cheers,

gw

Tim,
How can you and your brother have such opposite views, you are trying to help the poor, while your brother is making low income Australians poorer every day. You have compassion, he has none. If only "the rich" not rich countries because the wealth is concerntrated to a small portion of our population, began to see an opportunity in terms of global wealth, and treat these people as an asset instead of a liability. I also agree they have to be given the confidence to breed knowing that their child will survive, a basic human right, I believe they continue to produce children in the hope that one may survive. Good luck in your endeavours Tim.

BOILING BLOOD!
The particular phrases of this (and similar)article(s) makes my blood boil...

Tim begins with a heartrending account NOT of poverty but of CHILD EXPLOITATION and if you follow the chain of value adding down to the final destination, it must inevitably reach YOU AND ME ? (or those of us who see some great value in little chunks of hard stone dangling from their person.)

Then..he goes further by pointing out this: "injustices of poverty'

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Tim, its not the injustices OF poverty it is the INJUSTICE WHICH CAUSES the poverty!(how the blazes did your wierd logic get you incharge of World Vision? or is it your skillful use of that (ill)logic to raise funds which did it?)

Its the child exploitation ! get it? SO.. lets see how we can approach this problem.

1/ We can make a big noise about how many children die each year because of 'Poverty' (rather than the true cause EXPLOITATION)
2/ We can then run various public spectacles which have the main result of making US feel good, and do NOTHING to remove the source of the problem EXPLOITATION by GREEDY AMORAL PEOPLE.
3/ We can then throw millions of dollars at the 'poor' making them a bit healthier and then more PRODUCTIVE for their exploiters.
4/ We can throw a lot of money at educating the 'poor' but what do we do about job creation for them ? and by 'them' I mean the 10.95 MILLION each year who, now that we are feeding and educating them, are no longer dying. Rather they are now producing MORE children.

OR.... we can invade them ourselves and 'fix' it. (DO for others etc.... wouldn't you want a well meaning country to get rid of your oppressors and liberate you?)

OR.... we can beg TEAM AMERICA to go an fix their countries so we then have someone to further blame for all the worlds problems.

OR... We can have 'world socialism'? hah! what a joke.
OR... the UN will help ? *cough*