Part of what I like to do on Saturday mornings (even when I haven't slept all night!) is catch up a bit on some of the emails that come in throughout the week with information and articles and news to read.
This morning I was skimming some UNESCO reports that were linked to an email that was sent out by my organization.
I read some sad statistics:
According to estimates by Oxfam, the financial support needed to reach EFA corresponds to:
– four days´ worth of global military spending
– half of what is spent on toys in the
– less than what Europeans spend on computer games or mineral water per year
– less than 0.1 per cent of the world’s annual gross national product
Source: Oxfam 2000. Achieving Universal Primary Education.
According to these statistics (which, yes, I realize, statistics can basically be used to say anything you want them to say... but they can also be food for thought, no?) with a bit of global reorganizing of priorities, every child and adult on the face of the planet can access quality education.
So maybe instead of buying just one toy, or one bottle of water or one computer game, we can give that amount to an organization that's working to provide quality education somewhere. Somehow, I don't think I can change any government's ideas of how much money to allocate on military spending vs. educational spending, but putting it in terms of toys or computer games or bottles of water... that makes it a little more manageable.
Anyways, just some food for thought as I sit here and plan a primer workshop for 4 language teams here!
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