It's not Fair!

I'm pretty sure everyone has complained about something being unfair more than once in their life.

Too much homework? It's not fair.
The boss is "picking" on you? It's not fair.
Your favourite shop has sold out of your size in that t-shirt you just had to have? It's not fair.

Looking at "fair" in the dictionary:

Fair (adjective): Treating people equally without prejudice or discrimination.

Related to this word, "just":

Just (adjective): Based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.

Seems a bit bigger than the previously mentioned situations, don't you think?

Here are a few statistics for you:

• Almost 50% of the world's population live on less than £1.62 ($2.50) a day.
• The wealthiest 10% of the world's population use 59% of the worlds resources. Meanwhile, the poorest 10% use just 0.5%.
• 25% of the world's population do not have electricity.
• 85% of the world's water is used by 12% of it's inhabitants (leaving 15% for the remaining 88% of the population).

Now, that's something to complain about.

The proportion of people in the UK living with HIV is estimated to be 0.15%. That's 1 in 650. In comparison, the prevalence rate in sub-Saharan Africa is 5%. 1 in 20. 68% of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, an area which is home to only 12% of the world's population.

If the sheer difference in prevalence wasn't unjust enough, the difference in consequences is also huge. Nearly half of all AIDS related deaths occur in Southern Africa. In Western and Central Europe, 1% of people living with HIV suffer an AIDS related death. In comparison, this statistic rises to 5% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Put into figures, that's just 9,900, compared to 1.2 million deaths. The development of anti-retroviral drugs has most definitely reduced these figures in recent years. A person who uses these drugs correctly has a life expectancy nearing on that of an uninfected person. However, again, it is those in Africa, (where HIV affects so many people) that cannot afford or do not have access to these drugs.

As this video shows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj0dbFgjoh4), this is often the result of "people in higher places".

This isn't fair, and it makes me angry.

One more statistic.
In 1994, an earthquake of 6.7 on the Richter scale, killed 60 people in Northridge, California.
The 2010 earthquake in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was a similar 7.0 on the Richter scale. 316,000 people died.

That is definitely not fair, and it is definitely not a part of God's just plan for his world.

Yet, here we are, complaining about things such as education or work or clothes, which some people on this Earth do not even have the privilege of possessing.

I'm not saying that it's wrong, or that we should feel guilty about having those things. God's desire is that we live and have abundantly. I'm just saying we should remember how lucky and blessed we actually are, and how much injustice there can be. As a result of hearing all of these injustices, I don't understand how I could sit back and do nothing. There is a worship song with the lyrics "Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your kingdom's cause." To bring God's kingdom means to fight against injustice. Even if you, personally, are not religious, I think it should be of the utmost importance to fix this. Ultimately, these are actual people that are suffering, not just statistics.

Why not start by thinking, before saying "it's not fair"?