Awful fact: by 2030, half a billion people will be practicing open defecation. That’s an improvement.
The current numbers are staggering: 2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitary facilities; 849 million practice open defecation.
In Southeast Asia, that means 38 percent of the population; in sub-Saharan Africa, 25 percent meet their needs without safety and privacy.
More people have mobile phones than toilets.
Half of them are female.
The United Nations presented its Millennial Development Goals in 2000. A recently released UNICEF report, “Progress for Children,” surveys successes and failures in meeting those goals. It is a pretty dismal read.
For example: Despite all efforts, 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, nearly half under the age of 18; female youths are almost twice as likely to be illiterate as their male counterparts; girls account for nearly two-thirds of adolescent HIV/AIDS infections.
These statistics show improvement. Things may be getting better, but things are getting worse for the poorest, especially for women and girls.
So as madmen wander around beheading and blowing up people in their demented search for both world domination and the blessings of their God, little girls in simple villages have no bathrooms, no education, and exponential chances of dying of AIDS.
Every culture has its priorities. The developed West is beginning to understand it must respect the planet. But it is one thing to “go green” and quite another to respect the human person.
Apparently, it is even more difficult to respect the female human person. The stupidities of the developed world — the noise that masquerades as music, the intense interest in epicurean delights, the unending search for pleasures of every description — turn eyes and minds from the needs of people, real people, who are suffering.
Facts of life: There are just too many people living in absolute poverty. There are just too many people lacking education, lacking shelter, lacking water. Continue reading
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