A man and his dog

I mean 'a' dog. It isn't mine. Young Cooper is my brother's Westie/Norfolk terrier cross. Not that I know exactly what a Westie is, but I'm guessing his parents aren't from Penrith.

Cooper and I have been having a quiet few days (with the exception of one day of insane bicycle couriering - but I'll get to that). We've been chatting about the causes of, effects from and solutions to the human condition of misery and what indeed, if there is one, is the definition of human misery. On a side note, this is not because I am miserable, rather I have:

a) been stimulated into thought by Lucas and Farah's recent posts; and
b) written very little about the goings on in the grey matter of my head, other than where I've been, what I saw and what (most importantly) I ate.

I began by pondering out loud, after reading the latest blogs from from Farah and Lucas and their subsequent comments, about how much I agree with their latest suggestion that politics and economics should be free from the doctrines of any and every religion (this is no more obvious than the 'end of days' attitude pervading US foreign policy). Why can't the leaders of the world put their nationalist egos to one side and look at the real problems in the world - and their causes??

As I sat there in a moment of frustration with powerful white men and the ignorant fearful white electorate, Cooper suddenly piped up "well old chap, when you look at it closely and from afar, it is (like everything bad) a cycle as vicious as a Roald Dahl 'knid'" He went on to describe the following heartening description of how our world seems to be spiraling into oblivion:

Terrorism:
People suffer (in terms of education, health and financially), they turn to fundamental religion for a reason to eke out their fragile existence, their lives become devalued in the face of their mighty deity, they learn to hate (often quite rightly) their economic oppressors (and often guided by those with hidden agendas). The result is Jihad in its many forms. Governments and public fear the terrorists, nationalism and xenophobia takes hold, conservative militant governments (like Howard and Bush) come to power (or hold onto power), embargoes ensue, war ensues, the people suffer......

"That was a fairly simplified example - the result, however, is invariably the same" growled Coops in an ominous tone.

"ah", I said, "but what exactly is suffering? Who is to say that one person is suffering and another is not when we don't know the inner workings of their mind?"

Cooper sighed wearily, "And I suppose you are going to say that we, in the West, are suffering just as much with our burden of fast paced living and anxiety disorders....all in the pursuit of more comfort and more wealth?". He finished the sentence with a raised eyebrow and I didn't dare agree that I was about to say almost exactly those words, although as he said it I realised that we aren't suffering at all. We have the freedom of choice. If we wanted to live a simple life of subsistence we could quite easily take that option, without fear of starvation. But so many of us choose to pursue, what we consider, a higher standard of living - we are in any case - rational beings, are we not?

"So" I said to Cooper, "What exactly is suffering then?" He seemed to perk up at this question, then flooded me with following information:

"Overpopulation/Poverty/Infant mortality/Low life expectancy/Illiteracy:
These are all features of how I define suffering. Some people say that when you go to a poor country everyone seems just as happy with their lot in life as we do in the West. Maybe this was more accurate 20 years ago when the vast inequality in the world wasn't quite so vast and wasn't so acutely visible to those living in squalor.

Approximately 2.7 billion people are living on less than $2 a day.

But what if we counted EVERYONE living in 'poverty'. By poverty I mean the nationally determined poverty lines of each country that takes into account the cost of living and welfare programs in that country - not the $1 or $2 a day figure that is applicable in some countries with extremely low costs of living (and how many of those people live on $2.05 a day and aren't counted?). The poverty line is such that costs for bare minimum survival can just be met, with not a cent to spare for investment in any assets (whether that be a stove that works or a new water bottle that doesn't leak the precious water that has been carried for miles each day)."

I sat there quietly for a moment while it sank in. Imagining, at the bare minimum, everyone in Australia multiplied by 135 times, all living on less than $2 a day, and many with barely more than that. But what could I do? One person who is going to be a poorly student again soon - I can't buy and build schools. I said this to Cooper and he replied:

"You can do four things.

1. Do your little bit, sponsor a child, donate to a charity regularly, anything - it doesn't have to be much.
2. Make sure you invest in ethical organisations. And by investment I mean your career as well - that is the biggest investment you will ever make.
3. Vote for a government with a global conscience, not one that instills fear into the public and closes the minds of a generation.
4. Probably the most important thing you can do is to pass on this message. The more people that know about the catastrophe going on under their noses and feel empowered to do the little and the big things, the less suffering there will be in the world, and isn't the ultimate goal after all to make the world a better place?"

"absolutely right" I said to Cooper, "I'm going to write a blog about it right now, can you give me a hand?"

But he just stared at me with his tongue hanging out, then rolled over and started biting his groin.