How's That Again?

5 Mind Boggling Issues (At The Moment)
By Pandora Poikilos

You know the funny thing about watching the news is that while you may feel blessed at not having to go through something in particular, there will be moments when you think, "Now, how is that even possible?" While I dislike armchair politicians (the kind who'll drone on about how things are supposed to be and how everything and everyone is doing it wrong but will never even bother to get up from the chair to do anything about their opinions) intensely, I do have a few issues turning cartwheels in my head. Maybe it's because I'm not that knowledgeable or maybe I'm just ignorant, nevertheless, I'm thinking how did these things get so far?

Vote For Me
All around the world, you hear of people who are homeless, who are so very sick and yet cannot afford the medical care they need. I say, forget about all around the world. Look down the street we live on and there are probably at least two people going through the same issues. So, this is one of the biggest issues doing cartwheels in my mind. How can a group of approximately 50 people (maybe even less) spend USD4 billion on election campaigns (US Senate Elections November 2010) when there are so many families probably trying to scrounge together USD400 for their households. I (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) have problems imagining what USD4000 would look like sitting idle in my savings account so what does USD4 billion look like? How can people vote for someone who says, "I need to spend all this money to get your attention and then may not necessarily be able to give you what you need"?

There Just Isn't Any Money
Now, when the Great Depression sneaked up on the world way back when, the world got through it. Very slowly but surely enough that some people out there can afford USD8,000 dresses and have enough spare change to buy accessories and handbags for an even higher price tag. So, when I keep seeing, reading and listening to how countries are struggling to stabilise their economies, I'm thinking, with all our technology, with all our expertise, what have we learnt? It's at the end of a different war, in different times and still we have the same problem. It's almost like being thrilled at making two steps forward and then very confusedly realising we are actually four steps backwards. Did we assume that money has an infinite value or did we become so full of ourselves that we thought we'll always be the ones able to control money at our whim and fancy?

There's A "Mad Dog"
I remember hearing about rabies as a child and obviously it's been around for longer. There was always this constant warning about not playing with stray animals or learning how to handle one instead of squeezing a hurt puppy with affection and ending up with a bite. I understood that it predominantly came from dogs and as I read more on it, I learnt that you could die from it if the proper vaccines were not given to you within a certain time frame. On 5 October 2009, the Overseas Security Advisory Council issued a warning that rabies had become an issue in Bali, Indonesia. Fast forward to 15 October 2010, the 100th rabies victim dies. In a span of one year, that's approximately 8 people a month and short of removing the destination from your holiday plans, what's being done to stop the figure from growing? Or maybe it's just better to sit around wait and let it grow into the pandemic that the H1N1 influenza grew into.

It's A Green World
Here's another one, I grew up watching Captain Planet and I loved it. I could tell my pen pal in Italy about it and she knew about it too, without the luxury of You Tube by the way. This was easily more than a decade ago. We learnt about recycling, waste separation, pollution and the simple things that can be done towards keeping it clean. So, while the kids were getting educated on Captain Planet, what were the adults doing? Why is there this mad rush, only now, at conservation and recycling? Have people only just realised that trees take shorter time to cut down than they do to grow. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that at least some efforts are being made towards keeping trees out of being viewed only in a museum but again, with all our abilities of being able to tell the simple things about weather to our great political debates about whether President Barack Obama will run for another term to even the very expensive equipment at forecasting the likes and don't likes from people using social media, what's the push that needs to be given before this a primary concern for all?

Knock, Knock
Do you know Tyler Clementi? I don't, although I would have liked to. But he has brought to us an issue that has been boiling on the stove for a long, long while - privacy. Tyler Clementi (like it's been said so many times before) was a student who jumped off the George Washington bridge after his roommate publicly streamed a video of him being intimate with another man. What got to me about his death, had nothing to do with what he did in his room but that he felt so ganged up on, that suicide became his only option. The other more glaring issue is, a lot of people using social media these days act as though their parents raised them in a house without doors. The first thing you're taught to do, when entering any room is to, knock because everyone is entitled to having their own space. So, how does putting someone else's personal information or degrading someone for the heck of it in a public space become correct? However, the best part is yet to come, when my friends and I come across degrading pictures, comments about people or even reading material that's not quite age appropriate for all, on social media like Facebook, it so correctly says - "You can report this." When you do click "Report" it says, the content may not necessarily be removed and when you go back to it, three months later, there it is, still there for the world to see. Like wow, how 'smart' is that?