The other day, I saw a quote: �Don�t sacrifice yourself, you�re all you�ve got�. My first instinct was that it was a logical quote and I couldn�t think of an argument against it. �Damn that�s the first time that�s happened.� I thought.

Now, I want you to picture this (this is gonna sound really clich� but to truly appreciate the nature of this topic, jus do it aight?): a hot summer day, dusty roads, kids playing in the sweltering summer heat. Between them they play with a stone. A simple stone. Not a Nike basketball, not a Rawlings baseball, not a football. A stone. They kick the stone from one person to another person with bear feet. Their ragged shorts and shirts are getting dusty with the dirt that they are kicking up. Anyway, if one looks down the makeshift dirt road that has been shoddily put together, one can see the tattered shacks that have been made out of mud. Now if one dares to look inside one of these shacks he would see a woman; a woman with long stringy hair that hasn�t been washed in a lifetime. She has in her hands 2 pots: the extent of most of their possessions. On the side lies a small child of the tender age of 4. Her lips are pale and his belly swollen with the lack of water and food. Every single rib can be counted as her skin is stretched over her bones to the maximum. Where is this place? Is it hell? Is it a placed damned to eternal suffering by Beelzebub himself? Hah! This is a continent. This is Africa itself my friends. A place that exists on the face of what we call a humane world. A place where on average a person is murdered, raped or severely wounded every 5 minutes. So what are we doing about this? What about that supposed humane United Nations? Dream on. The United Nations is merely a finger-puppet of the �ever-powerful, best nation in the world� oh yes the United States of America. People are being slaughtered on the basis of their beliefs all over the world and Bill Clinton is gettin� a job. Oh thank god for all-powerful America and it�s brilliant influence on the world. But anyway, that�s a separate issue. So I�m sitting in my doctor�s office and I pick up a copy of Newsweek. I read this shocking stat: By the end of next year, 10 million children in Africa would have lost either both their parents or one parent to AIDS. But of course, the UN shouldn�t give a hoot about them because it is �not in the economic interest of the USA�. Instead the UN decides to slash funds from programs all over the world to fight in Iraq as it contains oil or to fight Milosevic because of their alliance with Israel. The real problem in the world is in the heartland of Africa where 1 in 4 people are infected with HIV but the UN refuses to see that. I�m guessing that as long as the American eagle has its proud wings spread wide and proud, there will be no change. The UN refuses to do anything. It is a project too risky for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). Will no higher power step up and intervene? Apparently not. So now the power lies in the people or on the individual. But no. Next time when you see a commercial from the comfort of your living room on your big screen TV with SONY speakers with sub-woofers, to bring water to these children in Africa, to establish safe sex programs, to make sure children have a meal every day, think to yourself, �No I don�t have to contribute. After all, as the quote says, �don�t sacrifice yourself, you�re all you�ve got��.