SHARING OF RESOURCES WILL CREATE JUSTICE AND PEACE

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Sharing of resources will create justice and peace

I would like to thank the Mercury for publishing the First Person column written by Riaz Ravat entitled "A tribute to the power of shared values" (Mailbox, December 27).

I have always been of the opinion that the only way to resolve the chaos and injustice in the world is through sharing and selfless service.

What a glorious world it would be if all nations were to share together the Earth's bounty, such that no person lacked food, shelter, medical care and education.

Every day, humans die from hunger in a world with a 10 per cent per capita surplus.

Two thirds of the world's population live in abject poverty. Many men, women and little children do not even have the essentials to stay alive. This should fill all our hearts with shame, particularly when food is often left to rot in warehouses around the world. Celebrating 2012 as the Year of Service is a starting point.

However, it would surely be more productive if correct sharing and selfless service were undertaken in all walks of life, from Government level through to our day-to-day lives, so that it becomes the chosen and dignified approach to living for all of us.

Only worldwide sharing of resources will create justice and peace in the world, leading to cooperation, trust and a sense of true joy in all our hearts. If many of us were not complacent, we could not bear to live in a world in which these crimes happen; people dying in a world of plenty.

We need to eliminate the current unbridled march for consumerism and commercialisation which has seeped into every aspect of our lives. Could it be a green Marshall Plan is needed to put an end to the competition between nations and control access to world resources?

Bal Singh