TO THE EDITOR:
There is a very feasible strategy we can take as humanity so everyone can enjoy world peace. The first step is to prioritize saving all the poorest people on earth first who are in need of clean water, food, basic health care, education, safety, etc. These people’s lives are in constant danger from lack of resources. Almost 783 million people lack clean water access and 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation. 85 percent of the world lives in the driest half of the planet. In 2000, the price of providing everyone in the world with clean water was estimated at a mere $10 billion a year.
Currently, almost 800 million people — one in every nine people — go hungry each day. Poor nutrition kills 3.1 million children each year and nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 years old. Many of these people live on less than a dollar a day. People in developing areas of the world die and suffer from preventable infectious diseases. 5.9 million children die under the age of 5 each year ... (and their leading causes of death are) pneumonia, birthing complications or diarrheal diseases. As of 2015, out of 214 million cases, 438,000 die each year from malaria.
It is time we create a volunteering program built into our education and careers to save these people both domestically and abroad by addressing and solving these pressing and reasonable concerns and create a system that works for everyone. The volunteering program would be required of everyone, all over the world, as a structured part of the system to unite nations and people.
The programs we have in place now like Peace Corps and AmeriCorps are like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound and are overwhelmed and ineffective. This new program means a way out of these world problems on both sides for good as the constant inflow and outflow of volunteers would put the brakes on all these out of control issues, like poverty, clean water, health care, etc.
Additionally, this could be the big break people were looking for, as an opportunity for workers and professionals to independently use and share their knowledge to develop every industry and market under a common organization and keep up the modern-day standards that make corporations popular.
People could then use all these talents and knowledge to develop brands where the majority of profits don’t go to CEOs, but are rather distributed fairly, ideally giving everyone in the world the opportunity for an education and lucrative professional career. This program would create competitive jobs in every market and industry for both those serving and those being served so everyone enjoys a great standard of living. Every side wins!
This opportunity would let us modernize our country here and abroad to create a globally interconnected community.
The excess profit from this organization can be used to address all major social concerns like health care, environment, education, infrastructure, etc. Smart cities would create new infrastructure. A digitally distributed education with an internationalized curriculum would ensure everyone had a world-class education, state-of the art schools and that intellectuals are protected.
