ICE AGE 3

I love the Ice Age animated movies. They are well done, they are humorous and they can even teach you a lesson or two about the importance of friendships when life goes sour.

I am not so sure that the boy wearing this old, worn out, faded t-shirt is even remotely aware of what Ice Age 3 is. I can promise you that he has never had the pleasure of going to the movies to watch it on a large screen, enjoying popcorn and Inca Cola (the Peruvian delicious alternative to a Coke), while laughing his heart out.

If he was to do that at the price this costs, his whole family would not be eating anything for days. But it is just one person going to the movie, you protest. That's right. Just one boy. What you may not know is that his parents only earns a bare minimum. In Peru that sort of income very far from allows such luxuries as going to the movie. For them even celebrating a birthday with a cake may be a major expense for which they will be saving for a long time.

As you read this, I hope you realize that there is a huge difference between poverty and poverty, depending where in the world you are. Peru is one of the countries where only the affluent can afford going to the movie theater. That population is growing, but in this country about 25 per cent of the people are still living in poverty. This boy is one of them.

Now, I could plead with you that you pitch in and help him have the experience of going to the movie, but I won't. Ice Age 3 simply is not a concern in comparison to what he really needs. He needs a healthy diet, education and clothes as he grows as the three very basic needs. Once we have that covered, we can start talking about running water, proper sanitation in his home, etc. I hope you get the point. This kid may be wearing the t-shirt, but Ice Age or anything else provided by the entertainmaent industry is so horribly far down the list of necessities that we can return to it in about 20 or so years.

You may not at all be rich where you live, but the very fact that you can log on the Internet and read this blog already makes you way richer. You may belong to the low income group in your country and money may be tight, but you have been to the movie, you have eaten out, you may even have an old car, but a car nevertheless.

As for myself income is also really low, yet I am writing this blog from a café in town during a break between classes (I'm a teacher). I am way richer than this kid and his family. We are so much more privileged than this boy. We enjoy a form of life that he can only dream about.

You and I need to stop for a moment to realize that we are the lucky ones, we are the fortunate ones. We have access to so many things that this boy does not. We actually (admit it!) expect to be enjoying things in the near future that he may never have heard about. So, Looking at the photo of this boy in his well worn Ice Age 3 T-shirt should remind us how privileged and well off we are in comparison, and we need to be thankful for what we have and for what we will enjoy tomorrow as well. Yes, we may be poor in our world, but our poverty is nothing in comparison to his. Therefore we would be fools to not understand how blessed we actually are.

Torben