Tuesday, February 12, 2013

First World Problems...and Ultrarunning

Via Southern Beale on 8 Feb 2013, "First world problems read by Third World people. Kinda made me feel like an asshole after I watched it."

Me too.  This short video is worth the 61 seconds it takes to play.



If the embed does not work, try this link.

I don't know anything about the sponsor of the video, Water is Life, other than their mission seems to be the provision of clean, safe, drinking water for the Third World.

I've previously blogged about this in the global sense, observing that if we had invested all of our war-making dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan into providing safe water sources for those countries, we would have not only made the planet much safer, but also done incalculable good...including cleaning up our trashed reputation across the planet.

Here's some of what I wrote.  Actually, as I re-read it, it's a pretty good post, and you oughta check it out:

And we'd be helping the least of these, my brethren. Rather than soldiers and tanks and Humvees and Strykers and Predator drones invading a country and slaying its people, it'd be a convoy of drilling rigs or trucks of solar panels and windmills and pipes rolling across the landscape. The result would be clean water supplies and millions of averted deaths. And at least an attempt to erase our global black eye.


The link to Ultrarunning is that safe drinking water in the backcountry is one of our priorities.  Indeed, probably more than any other group in this country, Ultrarunners think about water more than just turning on the tap.  We know about our personal water requirements, gear up to carry it, scope out potential water sources, plan for treating those sources if necessary, etc. 

In short, we don't take water for granted.

The spring at Tumbling Run Shelter along the Appalachian Trail in southern PA--possibly the best water in the world. 
[Photo by Gary]
 
 

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