It brought it home to me yesterday. I helped out with a spot of timekeeping at our local athletics track. It was beautiful Sunday morning. Dozens of children neatly kitted out in shorts and singlets. Many of the little ones wore track spikes and a few had tempted fate by wearing spikes of contrasting colours – you’d better be good to wear those.
The competition was hard but friendly. In a morning of four events the losers on the track had a chance to make up points with a good throw or jump. Smiles and chat all around. Parents manned the tea room whilst others cheered the young athletes on in their endeavours – not a pushy parent in sight, everyone got a clap.
Stock image
The ground was pristine, the infield emerald green, good nature abounded. Little mementoes were awarded and everyone drifted happily away to lunch.
In September 2011 the excellent Jeremy Clarkson wrote challengingly on the subject of Africa
‘…the leaders are corrupt, violence is a way of life, the Sahara is getting bigger and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it.’ And
‘Bob Geldof may have it in his head that I went to Live Aid so that others, less fortunate than me, might have a happier life. Well I didn’t. I wanted to see the Who.’
Visiting Kampala, capital of Uganda with his daughter. ‘’In a two-hour walk I didn’t see a single girl under the age of 18. ‘They don’t survive’ said our guide. Which, when translated, means they are either raped and then murdered to shut them up or they are beheaded by witch doctors in the daily child sacrifice ceremonies.’’
And he talks of the Lord’s Resistance Army ‘which runs about in the north of Uganda torturing, mutilating, murdering and raping pretty much anything that hasn’t already died of starvation.’
Even allowing a little latitude with the facts, in which place would you prefer to be born, your present home country or Uganda? Are there bloggers in Kampala?
A few years ago an Amnesty International spokesman told a film audience here ‘We in the West have already won the lottery of life.’
Recently The Economist produced a ‘Where to be Born’ survey. Here’s the link
Kampala scene – filmapia.com
A few surprises. I thought the UK would be higher than 27th – it has fallen from 7th in 1988. America has fallen from first place to 16th. A large helping of subjectivity in there I guess. But the first African nation – South Africa – doesn’t appear until 53. The survey only covers 80 countries when there are something like 207 in the FIFA (soccer) rankings.
state house, entebbe – thelondoneveningpost.com
The Channel Islands aren’t shown separately but they would certainly be top ten.
I wonder where Uganda figures? It receives foreign aid of US$1.6 billion. The President has ruled for 26 years and lives in a palace.
The purpose of this rant? None really. Only to wish yet again that people in the developed world would realise their luck, make light of their ‘issues’ and stop fecking moaning at every little thing that offends or displeases them.
Back On The Rock 
A mate of mine ran the Sierra Leone marathon last week. 180th out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index in 2011. He said the people were hugely carefree and happy. They’ve got nothing to lose. It’s natural that when you have something to lose you worry about the threats to it. So we have stuff but we don’t have tranquility.
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Ah c’mon. There’s something big going on in town. It’s a nice diversion from the reality of daily survival. And sure I take your last point as having some validity, but when you go to sleep in a room with ten others, the wind and rain is peeing through the cracks, the children are crying with hunger, you’ve no idea where your man has gone, I think tranquility is somewhat short in supply.
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I’m surprised the US would be even as high as it is.
It sounds like yesterday was lovely. What’s a tea room? That’s not something Americans associate with sports!
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Yet the US has major problems with illegals taking big risks to gain a foothold there AMB. All most can hope for once across the border is a measure of safety and subsistence living. It goes to show how poor things are in their home countries. I can’t really understand the drop down the table. Of course the US has its issues with homelessness, drugs, poverty, crazy gun laws. But has that much changed for the worse since 1988?
Tea room = coffee bar if you like, selling light refreshments. It’s inside the clubhouse adjoining the track.
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It’s all relative. If the bar isn’t set too high, then the US isn’t so bad. I am happy and comfortable here, but I’ve been very lucky (that’s the thing about lotteries!).
I don’t know what types of refreshments are served at kids’ games. It probably isn’t tea here.
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You have the grace to acknowledge that bit of luck AMB, so many don’t. And I know you do your bit for those less fortunate.
See if you Americans hadn’t thrown our tea into Boston Harbour you might have gotten a taste for it 🙂
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I agree partly with you, Roy. I think that those of us living in developed countries definitely need to recognize our privilege in that regard and show more gratitude and grace.
However, we are able to care about more than a single issue at a time. I may not live under a military regime or face the threat of starvation, but life in the developed world still isn’t perfect. I’m not sure what, if any, incident has motivated you to suggest people make light of their “issues”, but that line of thinking is commonly used when people try to speak out against such things as gender inequality, environmental degradation, and animal cruelty, as examples.
I believe that we in the developed world have a responsibility to solve our “first world” problems and become the best people we can be. It’s only through becoming better people that we’ll be motivated to help our fellow human beings in the undeveloped world in the kind of numbers necessary to truly make a difference.
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Well said Janna. I deliberately left unsaid that I don’t make light of some of the very real problems that some of us in the developed (for want of a better word) world face on a daily basis. Of course there are many waking up this morning in pain, misery, wondering how they will get through the day. Others are oppressed, disadvantaged. I don’t minimise those things. And of course they, and our own social issues, should take precedence for our problems-solvers.
What Clarkson was proposing in his usual challenging way is that Africa is beyond rescue. All our efforts in recent years have not scratched the surface of the problems there. They are worse. (As an aside one can only speculate how things might have been had the Brits, French, Belgians etc. not allowed self-determination for the various African states in the last century. Possibly then a rather better and equal world might have emerged.)
My real point is that so many people are oblivious to anything other than their own trivial problems. Generally if we get sick we get cured. An African child gets sick, they die. Two small instances of ‘first world problems’ here recently.
1. A woman complains bitterly that our new double-decker buses enable people to see her and her family around their swimming pool.
2. Another woman complains her life has been made a misery as the bus stop has been moved and it’s harder for her to get into town to see the shops and have a coffee with friends.
Thanks Janna for your ever-thoughtful contribution.
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Just to be clear, I never believed you were discounting legitimate problems of the developed world, Roy – I hope I didn’t give that impression. I was just trying to add to the conversation. I absolutely agree that some people need to re-assess their definition of a “problem”.
As for Africa being “beyond rescue”, I just can’t get behind that. Nobody who needs help is beyond rescue. Thematically, I see no difference between Uganda’s President living in a palace while his people starve than the disparity between rich and poor in the developed world; it’s all just a matter of degree. Maybe if we learn to create a more egalitarian society, others will follow our example.
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Morning Janna. No I didn’t think that at all – I just wanted someone else to bring it up.
Whilst the poorer nations are politically willing to help themselves then there is some hope. Uganda (for example) has a Poverty Alleviation programme. If their government can be trusted to commit to this then, over time and with some outside aid and input, things will improve.
But it is hopeless to imagine that despots and other corrupt rulers have much more in mind than feathering their own nests. The big humanitarian groups have done little more than apply sticking plaster. Despite the proliferation of anti-money laundering initiatives in the last 15 years there are more slaves in the world today than there have ever been. I find it difficult to remain optimistic.
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I absolutely love the look of determination on those children’s faces…priceless! You did a good thing, Roy. 🙂
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Hi Jill! To be very fair that’s a library shot, but it accurately reflects an opportunity for good, clean sport for our children that much of the world can only wonder at. We take it too much for granted.
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Funny, I’d just reminded my kids today that they’re in a very small lucky percentage of that 7 billion population who have it really good. And Ireland have climbed up the world rankings from 15th to 12th best place to live. Hmmm, hardly great progress, but we’re not doing too badly at all.
Griping, of course, is part of human nature anywhere. But it just begets more griping.
Gotta love the work of Amnesty International.
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Ireland certainly has issues as you infer RH. There is an alarming drugs problem that no one seems to be able to address. The economy is still desperately weak with front-line services such as Health and Police badly underfunded. A complacent and self-serving political class. Yet still it is a hugely attractive country in its own right and – compared to many places, some sort of promised land.
Did your children believe you when you told them they were lucky or did they laugh?
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“The purpose of this rant? None really. Only to wish yet again that people in the developed world would realise their luck, make light of their ‘issues’ and stop fecking moaning at every little thing that offends or displeases them.” I couldn’t have put it better myself, Roy.
When I read news articles about children suing their parents because they were made to do their homework (and other such spoiled brattish rubbish) I feel like picking them up by the scruff of the neck and throwing them into a life of war and poverty (well, that may be a little rough, but you probably get my point).
Three years ago my youngest son (who was 20 at the time) went to the Thai/Burma border with the University as part of his degree. He stayed there for three weeks talking to torture victims and refugees. He has always been a sensitive and caring boy and this visit was very tough, but it enhanced his humility/humanity. He came back with a totally new appreciation for the life he was born into.
Good, thought provoking post xxxx
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Thanks Dianne. That was a great and life-changing experience for your lad and he’ll certainly be a better person for it.
Here in Jersey we’re remarkably sheltered. The best thing that can happen for our children is to have them leave the Island for a while – they need to anyway to go to Uni. Even in the UK they will encounter new experiences like drugs problems, homelessness, social issues. My assistant at work just took her youngest son to London for a few days – his first visit. He was impressed with the sights but also full of questions about the less-attractive aspects which he had never encountered before.
Some Jersey schools send pupils on goodwill visits to disadvantaged places. We have ongoing shipments of basic necessities to Romania. Our Overseas Aid trips are well-targeted. But generally we are a spoilt community with the best of everything.
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First-world problems and whining – bourgeoisie suffering, my friend. Thanks for the reminder, we all need it at times.
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Hi Francis, God I was crabby last night when I wrote that! I wished I’d been rather more socially aware when I was younger.
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A timely rant, Roy, I’d say – given the awful news reports coming out of Sudan this week. Does make you grateful for what you’ve got and where you are … Well, it does me, anyway.
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Yes indeed, thanks Jenny. Life is so cheap and expendable in places. At least Clarkson gives an honest opinion in that he thinks world poverty and deprivation is unsolvable despite our best efforts.
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Yes he does, and he often gets slated for being honest. I know Top Gear is supposed to be chauvinistic and as a female I should be appalled but actually I’m not. It’s one of the funniest things we watch en famille. I like Clarkson!
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Never having watched Top Gear (and without a TV unlikely to) I only know him through the headlines that he makes, and his writing. The latter I find hilarious at times, and always honest.
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Roy, I’m with you all the way on this rant ~ and ranting isn’t your style. I don’t think most of us have a clue or can even stretch our imaginations to begin to consider what it’s like to live under a reign of terror, in absolute poverty and without an ounce of hope.
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Thank you Jean. For some unknown reason I thought a reminder was necessary. People can get very comfortable to the extent they think they deserve even more entitlement such as others listening to their tales of apparent woe. Do I not like that.
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I’m totally with Dianne up there…bravo on that closing paragraph. Griping about life when we are so lucky is beyond negative and totally ridiculous.
It was interesting to check out the “Where to Be Born” survey. I’m not surprised that the U.S. has slipped down. Perhaps that’s why, now that I’m here in Oregon, I might be calling myself a Cascadian in the near future.
Have you heard about the Cascadia independence movement? It’s pretty fascinating stuff…http://cascadianow.org/cascadian-independence
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Thanks Britt – I was pretty sure you’d agree knowing your sunny outlook on life. What’s happened in 36 years to send the US spinning? I well know it’s not perfect, but was it less so those few years ago?
I checked out Cascadia, great stuff! I love it when folk have a pride in their local region. People generally have a need for an identity I think. The US is so vast I can imagine that loyalty to the flag isn’t enough sometimes.
Cascadia seems a pretty sensible and viable initiative and y’all aren’t as loony as to circle the wagons yet 🙂 We have our share of separatist movements of course. In September there’s a referendum in Scotland to go independent which is pretty serious stuff, but unlikely to succeed.
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LOL! Obviously the question “what’s happened in 36 years to send the US spinning?” calls for a longer discussion, one which should most definitely happen over beers.
Since we’ve been on this “decline” through most of my life, I can’t speak to the way it was before from life experience. The biggest issues I see, without going too into it, involve education, healthcare, and warfare. But, I have been hopeful to see the latest movements in equal marriage and the burgeoning legalization of a certain herb.
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I know exactly what you mean, Roy. Every time I’m sitting out on a field, watching my daughter and dozens of other kids running around playing soccer, I think about how incredibly lucky I am. Fresh air, sunshine, children running, laughing, playing. Life doesn’t get much better than that, and I am so grateful that we are able to spend our days like that — sitting in the sunshine on a soccer field while children play. Lottery winners by birthplace indeed.
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Thank you Julie. You capture exactly what I felt when I wrote that post. The contrast between our lives and some others is stark.
Generally I think that post was preaching to the converted. Those bloggers that I follow (and likewise) invariably have uplifting stories to tell and are keen to point out the many good things in life that affect them.
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It’s so easy to get wrapped up in problems that in the scheme of things are so unimportant while forgetting that we’re actually really lucky – just to have the means and the ability to sit here reading and commenting on this is a freedom so many people don’t have. Thanks for the reminder Roy.
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Exactly Andrea. I don’t think you or indeed any of my regular blogger pals needed any reminding. There is however a significant number of people who seem to be so wound up in their own lives that they have just lost perspective.
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The “Where to be born” link was fascinating. When we complain about things in the developing world, we really have to put things in perspective…
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Indeed Letizia. On a slightly lighter note than my original rant I read a good ‘First World Problem’ today. A woman asked for hundreds and thousands on her ice cream cone. The man sprinkled them unevenly so there weren’t any on one side. The woman called 999 (911) to complain, insisting it was an emergency. Someone who has just lost touch with all perspective and reality.
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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that one – crazy!!
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