Mark Michaelis' Challenge I am participating in the 2008 Couer d’Alene Ironman Competition on June 22 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. In this event I will attempt to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon (26.2 miles). Using this event, I want to increase awareness for the issue of global hunger and poverty and, through Janus Charity Challenge , I am raising money for World Relief . If we look back on history, we are repeatedly horrified by atrocities like the Holocaust and flabbergasted by the fact that so many who could have done something, instead stood by on the sidelines and watched. As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, I believe that future generations will look back on this one with the same horrified view. In a time where globalization has flattened the world, why is it that in the last 24 hours approximately 30,000 children die due to hunger and easily preventable diseases – extreme poverty. Deaths like this are from simple problems like dirty drinking water or the unavailability of a 20 cent pill that is common place in the U.S. What is remarkable is there are ample resources to solve world poverty – this planet does not have a supply problem, there is no shortage of land or water. To put it coldly, this world has a distribution problem. Fundamentally, however, this is a justice problem. The wealthy few control the rules of the game and the poor are powerless to change that equation and the disparity between the rich and poor is increasing, not decreasing. In Haiti, you can be horrified by the glaring disparity between the rich on the top of the hill and the slums down below. It causes one to ask, how can the rich be so cold, selfish, and calloused. However, this confronts us with our own hypocrisy: just because we can’t see the poverty, doesn’t make our comfortable life any less unjust. Even if we harden our hearts and ignore how most of the world lives – they still live that way. The fact is, three million people still live on $2 a day and about half of those (1.2 billion) live on less than $1 a day. What does a parent do on $1 a day when it is time to buy a sweater for one of their two children, take their child to the hospital on the bus, or buy food for the family? If I saw a documentary on my lifestyle in comparison to those in most of the third world, I would be horribly embarrassed. Just because no one has done that documentary, doesn’t make the injustice any less ghastly (just less embarrassing). As a Christian,
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