As I alighted from the train yesterday morning I was greeted by a smiling man who handed me the day's Metro. I smiled back, thanked him for it and, still walking along, took a look at the front page. It read:"Bullet Points:
- £561bn : what the world spent on arms this year
- £32bn : the annual amount given in aid
- £275bn : total debt of developing countries"
I felt like crying. What kind of world would allow this kind of injustice? Had we merely spent half of what we spent on arms on alleviating poverty we would have made a HUGE impact. I then began thinking of the fact that this money comes from taxpayers, and that means us. Our money is feeding injustice. Innocent people are dying while world leaders play an international game of "my willy is bigger than yours."
But what can we do? My first response to this question was, "I have no idea," this problem is so big and I have so little access to the corridors of power that I can't do a thing. But I suppose the real answer is that we can all find ways of giving away some money which can address issues of poverty in the world. And, as the old cliché goes, "every little counts".
There is also the serious work of putting pressure on our western governments to stop:
a) Allocating money in this fashion, and
b) Promoting the sale of arms in developing countries
Does anyone have any ideas of how these things might be achieved?
Update:
A few articles on the subject:
Oxfam - Global military spending set to top Cold War high as conflict causes record hunger
Metro - Arms spending hits all-time high