"Remember justice is what love looks like in public" I absolutely love that quote. I was reading a magazine article about human trafficking and came across that quote. I'm trying to keep myself aware in what's going on in our world. I have to say I'm shocked in what I'm gathering. How could I have not known all this? How could I have been so secluded? I just don't understand. Here are some things I've gathered:
- the fastest growing crime on the planet is human trafficking
- there are more slaves on the planet now than ever before in human history
- there are over 27 million slaves in the world today, that's more than the population of Australia
- over 22 million children are forced into the sex trade every year
- In India children costs less than cattle
- 50% of human trafficking victims are children
- Slave traders made $32 billion last year alone, that's more than what Nike+Google+Starbucks made combined
- In 2009 1.1 billion people had no access to clean drinking water
- 3 million people died last year from preventable water related diseases
- Experts predict that half of the global population will be living in areas of "acute water shortage" by 2030
- 97.5% of water is saline and ocean based its unable to be consumed. 1.5% is fresh but is not easily accessible. Much of the rest is polluted, leaving 0.007% of the Earth's water available to the Earth's 6.8 billion inhabitants.
Are you shocked? I was. Now that I'm aware of this it leaves me thinking, "what can I do? I have to do something. But what?" These statistics break my heart. I know that can be used as a figurative of speech, but there is literally something inside me that breaks. I love what this girl said in the movie Blood Diamond she said, "It's kind of hard to go back to sipping lattes and acting like everything is okay after seeing all of this..."
I know that the reason I'm sucking oxygen from this planet is to comfort injustice head on. I believe it's my "calling" if you will to do this. I will commit my life bringing hope to those that have gone forgotten, and also making the world more aware to what's going on and show them ways we can make a difference. I encourage you all to start becoming more aware to what's happing in the world. And let's do something about what we learn!
I'm ready to reject apathy and get busy fighting injustice. Let's do it together!
I encourage everyone to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl3MbcZQGHk
