Does anyone remember the good old days ( pun) not so very long ago when we'd hear about one million people ( in Ethopia or the Sudan perhaps ) starving? Reading today's Toronto Star that the number of children has sky rocketed to 59 million I can scarcely believe my eyes. 59 milion is a huge number and I can only suspect it continues to grow larger.
What is happening to our world? Where are we going? What are we doing? When I read statistics like this I find it quite frightening. Unicef says this is something they have never seen before in Unicef's history. I don't really believe in the end times but on a day like this I am inclined to wonder. Its not very pleasurable right now watching the luxury of the Olympics.
Toronto Star quote:
Children are the canaries in the coal mines of the world’s disaster zones.
So news that 59 million children — nearly twice the population of Canada — are now at risk from war, hunger, exploitation, disease and natural disasters is a painful pointer to the state of the world and those who will soon inherit it.
On Friday the UN children’s agency UNICEF launched an unprecedented appeal for $2.2 billion, the largest emergency campaign on record. The spike in humanitarian needs from $1.4 billion last year is mainly due to the worsening crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries that are taking in hundreds of thousands of new refugees.
But that flood of desperate families came at the same time as other extreme catastrophes, said UNICEF Canada’s president, David Morley.
“There are three levels of humanitarian response, and Level 3 is the worst,” he said. “Now we have four at that level: Syria, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Philippines.
It’s like nothing we have ever seen in UNICEF’s history.”
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Comments
naman
Posted on: 02/24/2014 07:54
Hi Stardust. When I was a young adult, Canada had chosen a leader named Lester B Pearson who, it seemed to me, was quite a humiatrian, and also a very effective one and made me proud to be a Canadian.
Alas, today's generation seem to have a new set of values.
However, I am not much of an authority, and I am not in a position to say very much.
Kimmio
Posted on: 02/24/2014 08:03
It's awful.
Kimmio
Posted on: 02/24/2014 08:08
I started to say more, but that's all I can say. I'm inclined to think if we can quell the wars, nations can cooperate, and stop creating more man made disaster maybe we could start turning it around. That's my hope, anyway.
Arminius
Posted on: 02/28/2014 07:33
Well, we can start locally.
The mayor of New York just promised free high quality daycare for every child, paid for by a tax levied against the super rich. Maybe other jurisdictions will follow suit. Think globally, act locally.
The city of Ingolstadt, Germany, subsidizes high quality daycare, early childhood education, and other child friendly policies, not only in their own city but also in a town they sponsor in Africa. For this, UNICEF pronounced them "The most child-friendly city in the world."
Jim Kenney
Posted on: 02/24/2014 15:29
It is unfortunate that UNICEF has a mixed record for effectively helping children with exorbitant salaries for its management. I hope that people who become aware of this will seek out other agencies that are much more efficient and effective at getting long-term and short-term assistance to where it is needed.
There are close to a million children in Canada living in poverty, a large number living in violent situations (either family or community), and a huge number being drugged to try to make them compliant rather than being given the caring and respectful adult attention they need.
Kimmio
Posted on: 02/28/2014 04:51
Jim, UNICEF has corrected misleading information. The Exec. Director is a UN Under-Secretary General, and earns (net) between $131,000 to $146,000 US per year ($189,349 gross). If you compare that, for example, to Canadian Tire's CEO at 3.6 Million/ year (which is at the lower end for Canada's top business CEOs) and consider the huge scope of the organization all over the world, and it's good work- that's not all that high, IMO.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23587482-Canadas-Top-CEO-Salaries-not-c...
http://www.unicef.ca/en/discover/unicef-canada-addresses-misleading-emails
Jim Kenney
Posted on: 02/28/2014 20:58
Thank you Kimmio for the correction. I will try to share this information elsewhere.