I hope you’ll forgive me, but today’s posting is nothing at all to do with bunkai. It is about Blog Action Day 2010, and this years theme is . . . . water.
Why do I mention it on a Bunkai Blog?
Because as martial artists, we should be altruistic. I’m sure that you’ll agree, martial arts is not just about methods of fighting, it is about making us better people. This may sound like I’m on my soapbox; well; yes I am.
Why is Blog Action Day about water?
For one thing, 42,000 people die each week from unsafe water. Most of us, at least in the Western World, take water for granted but almost a billion people around the world do not have access to clean water. In Africa many women and children have to walk miles each day to get water (and that water is not necessarily clean). This takes children out of education and dominates much of the women’s lives, taking them away from more productive activities.
Safe clean water is poised to become a scarce resource over the 21st century. With the icecaps melting and our water levels rising, salt water will come further and further inland. Even in areas that do not end up permanently flooded, it will damage our farmland, destroy homes and contaminate the clean water that we do have. That could leave us with a world that is just too scary to contemplate. It could cause refuge problems far greater than any war that’s ever been. More and more people would start to compete for less and less land.
Blog Action Day is here to draw our attention to this plight and also to ask people to sign a petition to the UN Secretary General urging him to continue the UN’s life-saving work bringing water and sanitation to developing nations. Please do not just ignore this posting and look for something more interesting. As martial artist we should care and we should be pro-active. At the time of writing this post, little over 4.5 thousand people had signed this important petition. I think that is a sadly low number for an Internet campaign of such importance. Please take just a few minutes to click on the widget below and sign the campaign.
