Through J Villanueva Cabrera's X-spot, I learned about the Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty on 15th October 2008. Although it's only four days more before the date, I am hoping to be able to get the message across even to just a few of my fellow bloggers.

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion on poverty, a subject that Filipinos are very much aware of.

Quoted straight from the site: First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment.

Last year, the group's theme was Environment. In 2008, the focus is on "the mammoth issue" of global poverty.

Personal thoughts

I am hurt by the mystery of poverty. It has always been my question why there are people who are very, very poor when there are people who are very, very rich. I can't seem to swallow that trite explanations of injustice, indifference and political corruption.

A simple explanation is this: because we let it. Because of greed. Because we greed.

The bible says this on Luke, Chapter 12:

15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

What then can one person do? Start with kindness. Some do-able suggestions:

• Donate to a Philippine charity at least once a year. 88db Service Portal and Philippine's DSWD listed quite a number of institutions in the Philippine which need help);
• Sponsor an education of one Filipino child (perhaps through Volunteer for the Visayans or Worldvision or Friends of Overseas Filipinos Incorporated);
• At least twice a year, sponsor a feeding program for hungry children (perhaps through Jesusis4 Foundation);
• Help find one Filipino a job.