Monday, October 12, 2009

Heal The World

Poverty


Yall know i be on some positive vibez 24-7, but being positive does not mean being ignorant to the negative. It saddens me that every major tourist city has the largest, harshest ghettoes.

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Everywhere from Jamaica to Rio De Janeiro to India to even Miami. It hurts my heart to walk downtown & on the beach sometimez. Everyone's just walking around wrapped up in their own material riches that they just walk passed the homeless people that swarm the streets.

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Most people walk by the homeless people as oblivious to them as if they were a pebble on the ground. . . . . . .Careless. . . . . .Selfish!

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This is the type of scenery that floods my city & Miami isnt even close to being the most poverty-stricken area in the world, so imagine these so-called 3rd world countries.


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A great majority of Third World countries were former colonies and with the end of imperialism many of these countries, especially the smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nation & institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background a lot of these nations were for most of the 2oth century, and are still today, "developing" in economic terms.

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The Third World is the majority of national powers on the planet. To include to this, many Third World nations (especially in Africa), are affected drastically by political problems, or bad geographical conditions, such as droughts and non-fertile soil. These problems are not the least of it. Famines, shortages, regional wars, and etc., have all caused much instability and no hopes of restoration in the public in Third World nations.
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What saddens my heart the most are the children that have to suffer due to all this political bullshit.





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I recently wuz reading an OSHO book on freedom & he mentioned a very interesting story about Lao Tzu (a philosopher who founded Taoism over 2,500 years ago). I really feel like it applies to society & the poverty issue.
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Lao Tzu became very famous, a wise man, and he was without doubt one of the wisest men ever. The emperor of China asked him very humbly to become his chief of the supreme court, because nobody could guide the country's laws better than he could. But Lao Tzu tried to persuade the emperor, "I am not the right man," but the emperor was insistent.
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So Lao Tzu said, "If you don't listen to me . . . just one day in the court & you will be convinced that I am not the right man, because the system is wrong. Out of humbleness I was not saying the truth to you. Either I can exist or your law and your order and your society can exist . . . let us try it though."
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The first day a thief who had stolen almost half the treasures of the richest man in the capital was brought into the court. Lao Tzu listened to the case and then he said that the thief & the richest man should both go to jail for 6 months. (lol)
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The rich man said, "What are you saying? I have been stolen from, I have been robbed - what kind of justice is this, that you are sending me to jail for the same amount of time as the thief?"
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Lao Tzu said, "I am certainly being unfair to the thief. Your need to be in jail is greater, because you have collected so much money to yourself, deprived so many people of money . . . thousands of people are downtrodden and you are collecting & collecting money. For what? Your very greed is creating these thieves. You are responsible. The first crime is yours."
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Lao Tzu's logic is absolutely clear. If there are going to be too many poor people & only a few rich people, you cannot stop the thieves, you cannot stop stealing. The only way to stop it is to have a society where everybody has enuff to fulfill their needs, and nobody has unnecessary accumulation just outta greed.
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The rich man said, "Before you send me to jail I want to see the emperor, because this is not according to the constitution; this is not according to the law of the country."
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Lao Tzu said, "That is the fault of the constitution & the fault of the law of the country. I am not responsible for it. Go & see the emperor."
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The rich man said to the emperor, "Listen, this man should be immediately deposed from his post; he is dangerous. Today I am going to jail, tomorrow you will be in jail. If you want to save yourself, this man has to be thrown out; he is absolutely dangerous. And he is very rational. What he is saying is right; I can understand it - but he will destroy us!"
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The emperor understood it perfectly well. "If this rich man is a criminal, then I am the greatest criminal in the country. Lao Tzu will not hesitate to send me to jail."
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Lao Tzu was released of his post. He said, "I tried to tell you before; you are unnecessarily wasting my time. I told you I am not the right man. the reality is that your society, your law, & constitution are not right. You need wrong people to run this whole wrong system."
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The problem is that the forces we created to keep man from falling apart into chaos are now so powerful that they don't want to leave you free to grow - because if you are capable of growing, becoming an individual, alert, aware, & conscious, there will be no need off all these people. They will all lose their jobs, and with their jobs they will lose their prestige, their power, their leadership, their priestood, their popehood - everything will be gone.
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So now those who were needed in the beginning for protection have turned into the enemies of humanity. -OSHO


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Now I want u to see this video. It is quite disturbing, but remember this is just one situation with 3 kids. There are billions more across the world goin thru this & worst. And it truly is a crime. In this video, you will see what Lao Tzu meant when he referred to the rich as criminals.
















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Instead of false wars on drugs & false wars on terror, those same trillions of dollars could go towards education.

The amount of money spent on bullshit is actually more than enuff to educate people across the world. Ultimately, the choices people choose are up to them, but when one is educated, the choices are made in a more logical manner.


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We must think over our actions. We are all interconnected & this situation of poverty is not sumthin that can be ignored. We must be more aware of our movements to make sure greed & selfishness does not consume us. One of the biggest sins is how much food is wasted each day. We tend to take for granted our blessings of food in this society.
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And i also challenge u to fast for one day each month. Cook or buy a meal & go to Overtown or wherever u know there's an abundance of poverty & feed at least one person. Do a good deed for someone & even though, it wont fix their whole situation, it will uplift their spirits, which will return to u at the most unexpected times.
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And sometimez when a homeless person asks u for a dollar or two, just give it to them. They might just spend it on alcohol or drugs, but there's just as much of a chance that they will use it for food. Its not up to you to judge what they will use the money for, especially when you have a house to go home to, food in your fridge, & running water. How selfish can we be?
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If a homeless person decides to use it for thingz that aren't necessities, that's on them. At least you did your part.
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Remember: Life is full of suffering when we are selfish, but Life is full of bliss when we are selfless. Luvnlight

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