SWBP: Living Conditions of Children

Chapter 19. SWBP is Solutions for the World's Biggest Problems, a 2007 book I'm reading, edited by Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus. This chapter written by Harry Anthony Patrinos (Can I just call him Harry Patr?), of the World Bank (views are his). Summary and Commentary, by Jesse L. Teshara.

Children are our Future
and "The child is the father of the man"

This is a BIG problem. They didn't title this book the world's BIGGEST problems for nothing. Forget your garden and a new Porsche, folks. Make a nice pretty rock garden or something, and buy a Smart car. This is where suffering can be met head on, and some real personal joy can be had, in my opinion.

Half a billion children under 14 live on less than a dollar a day.

Everyone seems to just think that there is a sea of human suffering, and it's not worth doing anything (or much) about, but we should concentrate on ourselves and our children, ROW (rest of world) be damned, because that's what really matters. I disagree. Eventually, humanity will go extinct. So you and your family aren't as all-important as you think they are. I seriously doubt humanity will survive, forever. Oingo Boingo sings no one lives forever. What's true for an individual, is probably true for anything else. Matter has a half-life. Stars go extinct. They say the universe will eventually go black. We'll surely evolve, and probably are evolving, in process, right now. In fact, yeah, now that I think about it, as long as the environment is interacting with genes, then the human genome, in addition to the change with each generation from the variability in partnering and particular sperm and eggs, is being selected upon by the environment. Even if humanity evolves into something completely foreign looking or technological or whatever, I imagine there's surely an end. Then again, maybe your baby will change the course of history and/or even evolution. Still, one second or a trillion years, things seem likely to be ephemeral. Being selfish is one's prerogative. But if we are to see ourselves as good, if we are to entertain hope of a "heavenly reward: i.e. being saved, i.e. having our 'soul' or consciousness live on after death (such as in a virtual world, with your personality and lifetime data saved on some form of a computer), then maybe we should take the road of compassion and seek to reduce the suffering, increase the peace, maximize the happiness of everyone else, too. The possibility of however improbable an eternal reward (paired with the possibility of however an improbably eternal punishment), is the carrot and stick that in many religions attempts to induce good behavior. But experience and commonsense tell us to be good, too. Everyone knows mean people suck. And karma can bite you on your ass. Maybe not always, and perhaps not necessarily. I happen to believe Hitler got the same (or better) fate as Jesus. But everyone appreciates a needed kind smile or helping hand. We're a human family, we're all in this together, and unless you're maximizing happiness (the right mix of selfish and altruistic activity) you're doing everyone a disservice, I think. I also think people have the wrong ideas about how to do this, and neglect the real sources of true happiness all around them. People really do live lives of quiet desperation. People live deluded, confused, angry, sad, hungry, unhealthy, neglected, and needy lives. And for me, at least, making others happy is what makes me happy, and I subscribe to the basic philosophy that if everyone met their basic clothing/ shelter/ dietary/ relationship needs, and gave all their other effort to helping others meet theirs, instead of constantly seeking selfish gain, then the world would be a much friendlier place.

Half a billion.
I'll just leave it at that.