In a move that is sure to cause the entire nation of China to jump at once and shift the axis of the earth when they land Paul McCartney announced he will never perform in China because cats and dogs would look nice as a coat. That’s right, because cats and dogs are not guaranteed a nice life and would look fabulous worn over a sleeve-less evening gown on any woman painting the town communist-red, McCartney will not visit that country. Absolutely Shocking.
Sir Paul will, however, play music in and for countries that do not guarantee those same privileges to its citizens. In fact he will beam his music into outer space to people from those countries that neglect the poor entirely. The fact is that in the US poverty rose from 12.1% in 2002 to 12.5% in 2003 according to the US Census Department. Which means that there were about 35.9 million people living in poverty in 2003. About 24% of blacks, 22.5% of Hispanics, and 23.2% of Native Indians and Alaskans were reported as living in poverty. (A little more shocking than my Dachshund parka.)
As far as single parent families go, it appears that neither Canada or the US cares at all. Over half of single-parent families live in poverty. (50.2% in Canada and 59.5% in the US.) In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Belgium that number is 10% or less. So it must, at least, be possible to lower it. In Canada and the US, when there are two parents, the percent living in poverty is much lower (comparable to Belgium and Finland’s single parent families respectively). The numbers for duel parent-ship are 7.4% an 11.1% respectively. [More stats on Child Poverty] (My Chocolate Lab golf jacket cannot be as disturbing as this.)
But McCartney does not seem to think this is as urgent as shunning China because cats and dogs don’t get their day in the sun (only a date with the taxidermist). Maybe killing pets for food and warmth is not a bad idea. While the inequality in China is growing faster than in other industrialized countries, poverty is on an uneven decline. With a current population of about 1.3 Billion China had about 14 million urban poor in 2003. While some may frown on me using today’s estimated population and 2 year old poverty amounts it may be worth mentioning that rural poverty in China has gone down from 30% in 1978 to 4.6% in 1998. And that does not appear to be a trend the US or Canada seem to be following.
But it is always easier to catch some tail if that tail is your own. (If you know what I mean.) (And I mean it is easier to touch and think about yourself rather than looking for some action outside your own psychosis.) The focus on the plight of cats and dogs while neglecting fellow spaceship earth human cargo is a little insensitive. Sure animals should not be tortured, penned up in unreasonable cages and so on, but come one there are issues facing people that need to be addressed.
About 3 million people will die each year due to malaria. And yet much more money spent on a cure for cancer than on malaria vaccinations. Cancer causes about 555,000 deaths a year while there are more deaths from diarrhea in Africa (707,000) and the South East (604,000) than there is for cancer world-wide. I have yet to see a telethon for malaria or diarrhea.
It seems that it is easier to root for causes that are inconsequential in scope than to actually do anything real. Cats and dogs make great pets (except cats) and make for great headlines but diarrhea does not make for a good story. (Except the story that General Lee, during the US civil war, had diarrhea and that diarrhea was a leading killer during that war. And the fact that US President James Polk died of debilitating diarrhea. But this is no laughing matter.)
What is going on here with celebrities such as Sir Paul is that it is easiest and, might I add, tastiest to lick the icing off a cupcake rather than eating the whole thing. While animals, the environment, trees, and ocean front property are things which enrich our lives and make the world sweeter, they are just the icing. People are the real thing. We can fight forever over who owns this land or that land, or that puppies and kittens are people too but what is missing is the outrage that we keep killing each other because we are too damn lazy to care about things that actually matter. I smoke my cigarettes and I know I can get cancer but I drink water that is treated so that the likelihood that I die of diarrhea is smaller. Our bottled water is a luxury. People that are dieing because they has gots da runs can’t really afford such an extravagant commodity. But then again diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and Mary Tyler Moore syndrome (multiple sclerosis) are fashionable. No one wants to wear a diarrhea pin on their arm.
So, we will continue to lick the icing and then chuck the cupcake out after nibbling the edges. It is a damn shame that celebrities are not real people.
