Lest anybody forget how good we really have it here...

[ThaBigP]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=526534&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490

[arglebargle]

While there are some really bad places in the world right now (Sudan, Burma, The Congo, etc), North Korea is probably the worst place on the planet.

[burmafrd]

There are some places in Africa where aids is epidemic that might even be worse then NK.

[vta]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=526534&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490

Usually when people have the time to leisurely complain how bad they have it, on their high tech plastic boxes, while sitting in climate controlled spaces, far from being hungy and cold, chances are they don't have it bad at all.

:D

[iceberg]

i think 'having it bad' is perception and comparing pain has never worked well for me. i hear people complain and whine about things in life and how bad it is and lately i've been up many late nights with a friend talking to her about what she's going through. i won't bore you with details because i'm sure you don't really care in the end. i'll just say if you had to deal with a terminal illness you have more of a right to complain than most, i suppose. she doesn't. and she's dealing with several and multiple forms of cancer coming on. but i rarely hear her complain. the times i do tears me apart because what can you do but listen? nothing.

all that said, does it help YOU to know someone else out there has it worse? not really, no. never has me. it can put something into perspective to a degree but if you're not living through it or around it "good or bad" is simply what's around you at the time and all any of us have to compare it to.

in all we do have it very good here. too good at times to where what's bad we tend to overinflate how bad it is just because we don't have "real bad" to deal with now. if another 9/11 hits, or if the economy does tank and we hit a recession and unemployment goes 10% or higher or things really take off - what will happen then?

my guess is we'll deal with it because what other choice do we as people have? the only real choice is how. you can't control what life throws at you for the most part, but you can control how *YOU* choose to deal with it.

whine and complain, or shut up and work harder even through you'd rather be on a beach somewhere. choice. i don't have a whole lot of pity for the whiners for the most part. yes *feces occurs*. but it does to us all and whining to me has only made it worse.

when the pain of hanging onto what you have hurts more than the pain of moving on, you move on. till then you hang on. human nature.

so i've come to admire some people more for how they deal with and face problems the best they can and just blow off people who whine cause they didn't pay their bills and their water got turned off.

if you don't want to live the live you have, change it. takes work and when people are now used to be handed everything it only makes it harder. we all have our moments, some people just make that bad moments last a lifetime.

i got no use for those people and try to do all i can to be someone i'd admire if i was on the outside looking in. i'm sure i fail at times, but hopefully, i succeed even more. hopefully.

[sacase]

There are far worse places to live. How about east timor, when they seperated from indonesia and had murder and rape gangs roving around? Bangladesh where living on the steps of a band with 3 kids is considered good? How about where if a woman is precieved as promicuious she get battery acid thrown on her face? My driver in Bangladesh made $200 a month, he thought he was doing well! there are plenty of other countries where life sucks. Hell the Somali refuge area in djibouti where your house was made from different pieces of corragated steel. I have seen bums living better than a large part of the country.