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The sixty second commercials paid for by the many leading charities will never portray the total crisis of poverty in our world. Most commercials are tuned out by the masses or have become the background of our lives. The only way to make poverty an important news story would be by flooding television and print media with stark, open facts.

From time to time, major journalism magazines such as Newsweek and Time will feature stories about the poverty and suffering in different parts of the world. The stories are expertly done, but reach so few people. There are documentaries about places in the Third World countries where people are starving by the millions. Sadly, most people do not watch such programs because they are depressing, appear to be the problems of someone else, or because they would rather be entertained by something romantic or humorous.

For people in more affluent countries, there would need to be a campaign by all forms of media to bring current reporting on the state of poverty wherever it exists. No doubt, it would need to be a concerted effort. Actual films of the starving people in Africa, India, China, Cuba, Mexico and many other places would need to be shown on several channels during prime time. Newspapers would need to have front page coverage of actual conditions in which poverty stricken people live. A continuing story that follows a family or two over several weeks is better than a few statistics on poverty on page six. Along with Time and Newsweek, many other major magazines could feature a family, a group of people, or a community that is living in poverty. Flooding the public with the harsh truth is the only way to cause people to stop and pay attention to the overwhelming number of people who starve to death every day.

It takes some time for total awareness to sink in and cause people to realize the seriousness of a situation. As brutal as the facts may be, media cannot afford to gloss over the worst of conditions. Reality must be shown without skirting around the edges. Millions of Africans die every day for lack of food, clean water, and simple medicines taken for granted in affluent countries. Millions of Indians exist on a small bowl of soup once a day. China has no real data or true interest in the number of her citizens that live in total poverty. Over many nations, there are untold numbers of people displaced by war, living in refugee camps. Let us not forget those in America who must choose between buying food or paying the power bill. With inflation growing every day, those who live on social security or on minimum wage are slipping further and further into debt just to survive each day.

Until the various forms of media agree to work together and coordinate their efforts for the most impressive coverage over a longer period of time, poverty will continue to be the red-headed step-child that no one wants to acknowledge. Poverty is a constant in the world we live in. The situation will worsen with every Maddoff or CEO we allow to walk away with tax payer money, stolen as surely as if they had robbed a bank at gun point.

If the very fact of how well spread poverty is and the rate at which the numbers are growing doesn't concern people enough to act, they may well find themselves standing in their number one day soon.

Learn more about this author, Barbara Stanley.
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