Guns, weapons violence!

What do you think societies should be doing - To the extent that they can do anything? 

Recently, one father, reminding us of the ongoing threat, wrote:

"My son, Daniel, was a smart, quiet kid. He'd just become a straight-A student, and he was overcoming his shyness as a new member of the debate team.

On April 20th,1999 my beautiful, bright 15-year-old son was killed by two teenagers with guns in the library of his High School -- one of 12 innocent kids who lost their lives for no reason at all. It's been 14 years since that horrible day -- 14 years of fighting so no family has to grieve like ours did....yet the battle rages on....."

These tragedies keep happening, and so far,  the US Congress (like many other Governments the world over, has failed to take common-sense action to stop them.

Even though 9 in 10 Americans have agreed that expanding background checks would help close the loopholes that put guns in the hands of dangerous people and prevent future violence.

Today, people around the world are still begging for action to ask members of Governments: What will it take to finally act to prevent this kind of violence from continuing and from plaguing out communities?

Can any of us make a difference?

Well, for starters, every day individuals make a difference in each others lives - some they are aware of and others they are not - we all know of the proverbial 'ripple' effect.

One small voice can become a thunderous shout when people start to listen and agree and decide to join their voices to the 'chorus'!...in the same way, to use another poignant cliche...one little pebble, given the momentum of a little effort - can become a massive snowball when rolling in the right direction...or send ripples far from the water which it first touched!.

Once you start participating, and start raising issues - creating the impetus for communication and clarity, ANYONE can make a difference - consider the success of talk show hosts such as Ellen Degeneres and Oprah Winfrey and the power (for good) which they now yield!

We CAN help each other get important matters/issues noticed! We can bring about change! 

Of course any such effort has to start somewhere and whilst the process may be slow at first,. in some instances and and may have even been tried before, but sometimes just the timing or perhaps a fresh, focussed and completely unbiased approach will succeed!.....and has the ability to exceed our wildest expectations!

Where we see, feel or experience a need therefore - don't you dare 'down tools' - begin somewhere and what may same initially daunting may suddenly convert to something which you  most definitely can achieve! 

Feeding the World! Where to from here?

One planet, set space, increasing pace......

So where to from here? - to give you a taste of the impact that population growth is having - not the knock on effects- but instead just the hard numbers - I decided to have a quick look at the global changes since last year.....

05 August, 2013 to 03 May,2014 (300 DAYS!) - the changes show a trend that anyone should want to have a look at - it is simply amazing!

I illustrate for your own consumption and thought here the change in the global population over the last 300 days -:

People: 
World population as at 16:40 UTC on 03 May,2014 7,230,690,460
 
World population as at 10:18 on 05 August, 2013: 7,169,999,605

Difference 300 days has made: 60,690,855 new lives for this planet to support! 

Top 20 Largest Countries by Population (as at now!)
1	China	1,392,467,401			11	Mexico	123,563,750
2	India	1,264,956,243			12	Philippines	99,823,531
3	USA	322,177,114			13	Ethiopia	96,121,232
4	Indonesia	252,338,926			14	Vietnam	92,407,952
5	Brazil	201,765,401			15	Egypt	83,173,863
6	Pakistan	184,652,962			16	Germany	82,663,072
7	Nigeria	177,730,442			17	Iran	78,305,142
8	Bangladesh	158,204,987			18	Turkey	75,692,636
9	Russia	142,526,513			19	Congo	69,065,445
10	Japan	127,021,766			20	Thailand	67,187,923

See Population Clock at this link: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

TIME has it sped up?

We often comment that "we don't know where the time went". On other occasions (particularly those which tend to be all consuming - like work, or on the other end of the spectrum - a very enjoyable holiday) - its not uncommon to hear the comment - "I could have used another 48 hours!" 

There are times however - such as when we endure pain, hardship, neglect - that every minute seems like an hour and every hour a day....every day - a lifetime! 

Its easy to see therefore that the human mind and human emotion is very much interwoven with the concept of "TIME" - yet time is not just a concept - of this we are reminded daily!

Through ageing and changes all around us - indeed time is a very precious commodity that should not be squandered. 

In fact, as we mark this,our near half-way mark of 2014, I remind myself and each and every one of you that none of us know whether it is the last May we shall ever see! Perhaps an ominous thought - but we must also focus on the silver lining - we are here now and we need to take advantage of every moment.

With this sombre but very real thought at the forefront of our thoughts, I am proposing that each person reading this blog take 2 minutes of their day to think how their life could improve - are you prepared to share yours? Do you have any?

VISIT: http://www.timeanddate.com/ 

patrickgschmid