Reality check

WARNING:

Here's something NOT FUNNY.

And NOT entirely CHRISTMAS-Y.

If you really don't want to mess with your own good mood today,
then skip this post and come back tomorrow.

But I'd prefer you stuck around.


* * * * *


A couple of days ago,
whilst in the middle of putting together
The Dmitri and Swięty Mikołaj Show,
these three blog posts came up in my open Google Reader window.
At that peculiar and strange moment, it was only these three.

This one,
from Dooce.

This one,
from Adriana Stuijt of Censorbugbear-reports
Uncensored News from South Africa.

And this one,
from Denford Magora's Zimbabwe blog.


Unsurprisingly, the disconnect that exists
between the small small world
of America's premiere self-absorbed mommy-blogger
and the rest of the planet rather shook me up.


Of course, every blogger is free to choose his or her own topics.
It's fine for Dooce to go on about mommy-stuff.
I'm sure I would have done the same
if blogs had been invented
whilst my little ones were small.


And I do realise that my writing is often as lightweight
as the lightest of fluff.


But I like to think that I have something of a social and political conscience too,
and that I'm not all about planning my next trip
to Target or Amazon.com.


So I'm off into the wilds of the internet now,
to make good on my promise
to follow through on my October Poverty post.

I'll let you know what I come up with.

But it's certainly not going to involve the purchase of
Piglet Key Fobs
or
Blue Cone Dog Pillows.


Right now, I'm thinking donations
for Project Peanut Butter
to alleviate child malnutrition in Malawi,



and for mosquito nets
to help combat
the transmission of malaria throughout Africa.



(click on the links if you want to learn more)


And I'm also going to write to President-elect Obama,
encouraging him to maintain his moral outrage
regarding the Zimbabwean situation.


Because Zimbabwe's not getting any better.
It's getting worse and worse.


The rest of the African continent isn't doing all that hot either.
I'd like to do something to help,
even though I now live far, far away.

It's just too easy to do nothing,
and turn away
from the poor, the sick, and the hungry.

And that's pretty sad at Christmastime, don't you think?

.