I (Ryan) subscribe to a monthly Canadian general interest magazine called The Walrus. This month, I read yet another disturbing article about the state of affairs on the continent of Africa, and the complicity of the Western world in creating and perpetuating a situation that can only be described as a "grotesque nightmare." Poverty, political corruption, tribal warfare, and an increasingly glaring gap between the rich and the poor are problems that have historically plagued Africa, and, alarmingly, things do not seem to be getting better at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Here are just a few things that jumped out at me:

• Of the 177 countries on the UNDPs' Human Development Index, the bottom twenty-four are all African, as are thirty-six of the bottom forty.
• The share of the total African population living below the $1 a day threshold is higher today than in the 1980's and 1990's.
• In Canada, we spend annually approximately $3000 per capita on public and private health care; Malawi spends $13, Rwanda $7, Ethiopia $5. In Canada, annual drug spending per capita is $681; in Africa it's $2.
• On top of all this, there is the well-publicized AIDS crisis which kills Africans in numbers horrendously disproportianate to the rest of the world.

It is with regards to this last grim reality that I direct your attention to something a friend of mine at Regent is doing. There are many offers out there which promise to give a (usually small) portion of the proceeds of the sale of some product to fight AIDS in Africa. The Gap's (Product) Red is one these initiatives, and it is a good thing. But Mike is simply asking for a donation of $10 that bypasses our consumeristic tendencies which sometimes require 'bribery' in order to help people. I admire that. So check out the link, and give $10 to a worthy effort. Thanks.