Opinion: about money and elections

One would have had to be in a coma, blind, deaf or in total isolation not to be aware that something momentous happened in the United States today. Elections are fascinating and boring all at the same time. I can’t help wonder, though, that in the present economic and political climate on a global scale, that the real winner today was someone who didn’t become the new president elect. We all know what a difficult time there is ahead for Obama and his colleagues. I don’t envy his job at all.

But that wasn’t why I wanted to write this piece.

Something snapped in my head on Sunday. Someone at church outlined the terrible state that exists in the poor African country of Zimbabwe. Our church has been an active participant in providing drinking water wells there. I immediately thought of the hundreds of millions of dollars – or was it over a billion dollars – that the candidates spent collectively on the right to become the next president.

I think that is obscene.

Even half of that money, if spent on food alone, could save tens of thousands of people from starving to death in Zimbabwe. This story could be repeated a thousand times over around the globe. What about the enormous amounts of American money being poured into the war effort in Iraq?

I’d say that we’ve really stuffed up our priorities. Where is compassion? Where has common sense gone? What are we doing for the billions of people who merely exist from day to day?Think about it: most people in Australia, the United States and Europe spend more each day on a pet than many families of the world have to live on for a week.