The Start of My Research
Late last night I started doing research on India. I just put "India poverty statistics 2009" in the google search engine and all kinds of sites came up. Many focused gave statistics that I thought had to be a bit exaggerated...or at least I was hoping so. I found data that said that India is the home of nearly 1/3 of the world's poor and nearly 42% of its population lives below the world's poverty line of $1.25 a day. I can't imagine living on that little amount of money. There are some days that I struggle to not pull out my debit card at all. I don't even want to talk about the amount of food I waste. We are all guilty of living in excess of our needs. Unfortunately, living in excess has become a part of the "American Way".
I'm sure that every country has its own "not so pretty" side to it. Perhaps this it for India. I don't know. America has its poverty, various forms of discrimination, drugs, and violence. I don't want to focus on the negatives, but I'm not going primarily for the tourist aspects of international travel. I'm hoping that this trip will be the springboard for my humanitarian/philanthropic endeavors. i really want to effect change in the world, but I realize that I first have to understand the elements before i can change them. I realize that I have a lot to learn.
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