Human Hearts Lawyer.

OK it should be ‘Rights’ but that’s how it came into my mind and it seems apt. Anyway this crew cut HRL on TED knocked me sideways. Probably the crew cut; it’s hard watching a marine get emotional. Apparently the millions in official poverty, 1$ a day, have fallen considerably but only because it’s not risen with inflation. Allow for that and there’s been no change. So you could say our millions in foreign aid has achieved one thing, inflation. But that’s not what knocked me. His experiences have led him to realise the poor are created by violence. Not wars or racial conflict etc, though there’s enough of them, but day to day violence because there’s no rule of law. Slavery, rape, daily theft and brutality are committed with impunity because there’s no effective policing. The poor have no redress against the violence inflicted on them, and it is this that causes poverty and for the poor to be and remain poor. With the rich being able to afford private security any trickle down effect is not of wealth but violence. What knocked me was our human lack of compassion. Have we really been afforded our greater intellect to create insularity, given free will to create brutality? All animals become brutal when starving or without territory or mate but when satiated they’re not. Are we then the only species incapable of being satiated, who can neglect the plight of the poor for a private yacht or a new bathroom? All the above may have happened in far away Africa but when a woman in Cleveland (USA) phoned the police to say a man was breaking in to rape her and got the reply, “sorry our police don’t work on the weekend, try asking him to go away”, and was raped because of public spending cuts it’s closer to home than we might think. Back to his main point, less than 1% of our overseas aid goes to better policing when it’s the major cause of poverty. But why do that when you can afford private security?