Overfed Girths, Underfed Minds

This morning I came across some numbers that grabbed my attention, because of the stark contrast between them and because they both need to be changed, ASAP.
The first numbers are to do with Canada's overweight/obese children. The Canadian Health Measures Survey shows that the percentage of boys ages 15 to 19 considered overweight or obese has more than doubled in the past 15 years and is now at 31 per cent. The figure for teen girls sits at 25 per cent. Since there is no major difference between lifestyles in the States and Canada, you know that these disturbing figures, with appropriate adjustment made for the difference in overall population of each country, also apply to the U.S.A. The obesity epidemic is reaching such sad proportions that Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has actually launched a program for obese teens that will see those with a qualifying girth able to get laporoscopic band surgery. The aimed-at ages are 12 to 17.
These figures speak sad volumes about the excesses available to/and indulged in by too many in the western world, while the developing world struggles to meet even the basic needs of its citizens.
That brings us to the second set of figures. There are currently nearly two–billion children in the developing world and while I know hunger stalks so many of them on a regular basis, this is not about the hunger their stomachs must deal with. It is, rather, about their rarely fed hunger for knowledge, and a way to ameliorate that. Many countries of the developing world have simply not got enough of a budget to spend on education. It is not uncommon for a developing nation to allot less than $20per year for the education of each of its children, in contrast to the U.S. where an average of $7,500 is spent per annum. One in three children in the less privileged world does not even complete the fifth grade.
This is where such organizations as OLPC enter the picture. The mission of OLPC is based on the assumption that, "children in remote, rural, and poor regions of the world take to computers as easily and naturally as children anywhere", and so one of their chief aims is "to bridge the so-called global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by spreading access to the Internet in the developing world." What they hope to do is get an XO laptop into the hands of each one of those nearly two billion children, so that they can become part of building the bridge across that global gap.
That's where you and I come in, and not necessarily by giving money. Of course, if you can, feel free to give some dollars and cents, but using a little time to give some space on your Facebook page can be every bit as effective. It doesn't get much easier than making a Facebook entry linking to OLPC to do some good for a child who too much of the world will otherwise forget.
And that brings you and I back full circle to where this entry began, with the overweight children of Canada. Perhaps one way to get them off their corpulent posteriors would be to get them involved in raising a little cash for their global brothers and sisters who aren't as lucky as they are. They could, for instance, stage their own fund-raising walk, getting family and friends to pledge so much per distance covered. That way their overfed girths would benefit at the same time as would the underfed minds of their third world counterparts.
Just a thought.