Is Water, Food, Clothing, And Shelter Only For The Rich?

Isn't being born on Earth supposed to come with some privileges? All of them basic such as water to drink, food to eat, a place to stay, and clothes to wear.

Then why is it that more than 50% of the world's people are deprived of these needs?

We human beings take pride in success and nothing succeeds like succes. A classic example of this point is Team India. In March, most of them would have been scared to even venture out of their homes for fear of being attacked. The reason: a first round exit at the 50-50 World Cup. Today, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra is going to Mumbai AIrport to receive them and the players are going to be then taken in a motorcade to the Wankhede Stadium to be felicitated. The reason: we are the T20 World Champions.

As a reader you would be wondering what's the connection. I assure you there is a strong one.

We as a race have used success as the benchmark for survival. We proudly spout Darwin's Survival of the Fittest theory. My question: Is suffering and misery the only rewards for those who ain't as succesful or as gifted as some of us? It's a different issue that the successful also suffer and most waddle in miseries of the imaginary kind.

Have we as a people become a inhuman race? So much so that we do not bat an eyelid or spare a thought while profiting from the suffering of others?

Am I to assume that if I am very ill and do not have the money, then the only option for me is to die? Aren't hospitals supposed to care for the ill? Isn't medicine supposed to be a noble profession? Or is there nothing noble in today's world that ain't a for profit?

Homeless children roam our streets scavenging, shifting junk in dustbins to find a morsel to eat. It ain't vastly different in villages where kids are dying of hunger while the rest of the world is busy packaging food for a profit.

Most people do not have drinking water, while a few are profiting from bottling this very life saving commodity. Most people do not have a decent roof over their heads (please do not call slums homes), while a few are busy pocketing and selling vast tracts of land for a cost that most can't afford.

So is water, food, clothing, and shelter only for the rich? What happened to the basic rights of people to these essentials?

Please do not tell me that people need to work hard to get these things and please do not quote religious texts to tell me one should not be bothered about the fruits of labor or it's one's karma. Most people who do not have one or more of these essentials work harder that most in air-conditioned offices who surf the net to appear busy.

These are convenient answers to mask crimes committed by a few on the many.

We cite proudly as enterprise how Dhirubhai Ambani in his early days melted currency coins in Uganda because the gold that came out of those coins were worth more than the value of the denomination on those coins.

Ambani senior had questioned "Is it a crime to make money?" I say no. But yes it is a crime to profit from the misery of mankind. And we all know that it ain't possible to be super rich if one is squeaky clean.

So what are we celebrating here, the enterprise of corruption and crime? Were the same things to be done by a desperate farmer or beggar, the poor fellow would not have expereinced freedom for the rest of his life.

As answers to most of my queries we will cite government inefficiencies and a whole lot of other reasons. But to me it nothing but the plain greed of a few. The day we started acknowledging sleight of hand as enterprise, the day started recognizing wealth as God, we as humans failed God.

You can call my writing a crib, you can call it waste of web space, but once you finish reading it, I assure you none, including me, can walk away free of guilt of not having succumbed to the lure of wealth. So much for the right to live!