Sad but profound

Do you read Nicholas Kristof's column in the New York Times? If not, you should. The man travels around the world to report on a wide variety of issues that usually don't get a lot of press. Things like rates of women dying in childbirth in Africa, modern-day slavery, family planning in developing countries. Not only does he report on such things, but he often investigates what can be done about them, what is being done about them. It's not all doom and gloom. The man does important work. (Seriously, read the man's bio here. Downright inspirational. He could be living on Easy Street but chooses to write about the "least of the least".)

But what I want to share with you right now is not something Kristof wrote, but a comment that was left after one of his posts (the subject was the 2+ million people who die each year of pneumonia). I will quote it in its entirety because it's worth it, and I don't think the commenter would object:

I’m an American professor of critical care medicine and infectious diseases in Bangladesh, where my team and I care for the sickest children from Dhaka’s squalid slums.

We lose several babies a week due to lack of ventilators, a toll we feel personally and constantly. It saddens me to think that our country is willing to spend $500 million a day on war, but not $100,000 to save thousands of poor children’s lives.

Working as I do in an impoverished Muslim country, I’m very certain that modest investments in health and education would do more to mend fences and deter terrorism than eloquent speeches, intrusive intelligence agencies, and violent military forces; our current tactics are counterproductive, in addition to being inhumane and immoral.

— Dr Brian