Thursday, January 19, 2006

5 a.m. Thoughts

i am jolted awake at 5 a.m., so i get up and walk around the house opening windows and peering out to see if the sun has come up. it hasn't.

my first thought that im aware of is that i'll do my walking on the tracks around the school football field after i bring the kids to school, so i better change into my walking outfit when i drive them to school.

next i sit down at the pc, and open my "Intention 3" file on the desktop. it's part of my Maintaining my Focus and Staying in the Feeling exercise that i've started to do after ive finished The Attractor Factor; it's a 30-day challenge set by its author to try, a documented experiment for me.

anyway, Intention 3 has to do with money (of course!) : ) but i will not elaborate on it here. for this 30-day experiment, im writing down my detailed "What I Desire" (Intend) and what's happening day-to-day in my going through the 5 steps of The Attractor Factor in my handwritten journal. for really really deep things, handwriting works best for me to get things out.

anyway, contemplating my Intention 3, i google search-- what can 100 million dollars buy? And then, a little later, what would it take to eradicate poverty?

i am wide awake now at what i've just learned--

it took 100 million dollars for Batman Begins' marketing.
it took 100 million dollars in a recent US aid to Colombia for counterterrorism.
it would take "$60 billion, once and for all", to eradicate poverty. that means only 600 more movie hype budgets or Colombian counterterrorism budgets, or a mix of both, to eradicate global poverty. in UN terms, that means only 0.7% of the gross national income of each of the 22 developed nations' budgets set aside for international assistance. this target was set by the UN 35 years ago but still hasn't been reached today, though.

WorldChanging.com explains that ending poverty would even have a multiplier effect:

What would ending poverty do for us? Many things.

Ending poverty would provide rich soil in which development, even leapfrogging could take root. It would reduce global tensions, helping to fight terrorism and minimize conflict. It would take pressure off the environment, helping us respond better to biodiversity loss and climate change. In every imaginable way, progress will be made easier if more than a billion of us are not struggling for survival.


and i thought 100 million dollars was already way too much, way too big to Intend! : ) : ) : )

(wink, wink!)

why would i limit what the Universe wants to give?

heehee. this is fun. now im back "in the Feeling" again.

***

P.S. interesting not-so-fun fact : ( --

World military expenditures topped $839 billion in 2001, up from $798 billion in 2000. The United States government's military spending accounts for 36% of that amount, which does not reflect increases in spending following September 11

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