Make our world a better place?

We all want our world to be a better place, don't we? We want life to be better, easier, more human for everyone, don't we? Of course we do, passionately - the trouble is, we don't want to have to do anything about it ourselves, but expect 'someone else' to do it, to get involved, to bring about change.

The Japanese, practical people, say that in order to change by 100% you can change 100 things by 1% each, surely no great achievement; this put life into perspective properly and takes away our excuses, but still we procrastinate. And the Japanese have had to endure change, embrace it, move their country forward after WW2, effectively and with dignity.

But what do most people do, western or otherwise? We read about things, talk about them, debate the alternatives, choose to ignore them or form societies and charities to deal with them; a small minority of us even get involved in making our world better in some way. The rest of us, well:

We are horrified that the seas are inundated with plastic, but still cannot be bothered to re-use our bags at the supermarket and so cut down on the packaging that we utilise.

We are upset that our children are more vulnerable to diseases because of the prevalence of antibiotics in our lives but still take them at the first sign of a sniffle, and despite the fact that doctors explicitly warn us against it. And we do not boycott meat suffused with antibiotics because it's cheaper.

We cannot be bothered to walk or use public transport despite overwhelming pollution strangling our cities and poisoning our children.

We leave our cars idling needlessly so that we don't have to switch off and forego cool air from the air-conditioning for a few seconds, or because we just can't be bothered to switch them off. If we can't see pollution it's not there, surely.

We eat crap food produced cheaply despite lots of evidence showing how food production is poisoning our planet, destroying nature and, ultimately, our (and our children's) health. Cheap is cheap, after all, and why should we worry.

We continue to put our needs first and ignore our fellow human beings despite abundant evidence that civilised societies can only operate within systems and parameters based on mutual respect.

We then have the cheek to wake up in the morning and wonder why our world is a mess, and who is going to do something about it...

Oh, please! We can change the world, we can make it better, but it involves trying, putting ourselves out; it simply will not happen by itself, or only through the efforts of others. Get real, get busy, get changing, get on improving. A little at a time is fine.