Relativity

My mother received The Little Red Recipe Book as a Christmas gift from her cousins in 1945. In the front of the book is so much useful information (handy hints, how to foretell the weather, useful measures, antidotes for poison etc) including a table of income or wages. I was struck by the observation that the highest income in the table is 1000 (pounds sterling). I've commented to a couple of people how unbelievable that is. That many people earn more than that in a week now. How hard it is to envision a world where the highest income you could imagine is under $20 a week (just taking a wee bit of license and substituting long outdated currency with the modern version). And then like a thunderbolt it hit me!

Almost half of the people on this planet live on less than $1000 a year. ($2.50 a day is $912.50 a year). And 80% live on less than $10 a day - or under $4000 a year. The disparity that seems almost laughable when viewed chronologically and internally, is heart-breaking and resolve-strengthening when viewed geographically and internationally. I realise there is nothing new in these facts. It's just that the reality has hit me afresh. In a new way. Everything really must change.

On the radio today I heard an interview with the Queensland Premier. Who stated that the responsibility to address climate change lay with private citizens who must reduce their emissions. But that 'trade sensitive industries' needed to be allowed to continue to contribute to economic success and to manage climate change through emissions trading. I have been cynical that emissions trading is a way to avoid actually reducing our addiction to carbon. A sort of prop to look as if we are doing something but in fact nothing is changing. In her interview the Premier certainly bolstered my cynicism.

And so what do I do? Remind myself daily that most of my world brothers and sisters are living with 1940s incomes in a world of third millennium commodities and prices. And live in that knowledge. Letting it work away at every level of my being. Strategically work out how to make a real difference. And work personally, in community and politically to make that difference happen. So help me Godde.