Save the Children - Marvin Gaye
Today, November 20th, is World Children's Day. It commemorates the anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child which took place on November 20th 1959.
In the last 12 months 11,000 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, according to Oxfam.
While it feels terrible to have to make such comparisons, totting up victim numbers as though in some kind of competition, the Dow Jones news publication, Barron's, states that 37 Israeli minors were killed during or as a result of the attacks by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
Since the escalation of the war in the Ukraine in 2021 at least 659 children have been killed and 1,747 injured as stated by UNICEF.
In Sudan's civil war, Save the Children report "The number of children exposed to the deadly conflict has increased as fighting has spread to more parts of the country including Al-Jazirah, which was once Sudan's breadbasket.
The intensity of the conflict has led to the displacement of four million children - the highest number in the world, while 230,000 children and new mothers are likely to die from hunger without critical action. Over 15,200 people, likely a large underestimate, including children, have been killed, while thousands more have been injured." (figures from ACLED).
Various sources suggest that there are currently over 70 wars taking place in the world, including 34 in Africa. Curiously, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child doesn't mention war, although Principle 4 clearly states:
"The child shall have the right to adequate nutrition, housing, recreation and medical services."
which presume the standard conditions of peace.
At the same time the Declaration was passed however, the UN also adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child which reaffirms:
"....that children's rights require special protection and call for continuous improvement of the situation of children all over the world, as well as for their development and education in conditions of peace and security."
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised in a world where last year's COP28 agreed to "transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems" but, a year later, reporting to COP29 in Baku, emissions are projected to reach a new high in 2024. Presumably the non-compliant industrial and petroleum bosses as well as their political leaders don't care for the future of their own own children and grandchildren, so why should they worry about the present of others? Let alone of those caught up in the wars for which they are providing (and profiting from) the arms and fuel.
One beef I've always had with Marvin Gaye's way--ahead-of-its-time 1971 album "What's Going On" is the fact that each line in "Save the Children" is spoken just before being sung. The only vinyl I can find that has it without the spoken bits is the 2019 release of the live recording of Gaye's concert of "What's Going On" in full in 1972 at the John F Kennedy Centre of the Performing Arts in Washington DC, ironically enough. It was the first time Gaye had performed live since the death of friend and singing partner Tammi Terrell four years before.
The tapes were incomplete, missing at least one track from the album, which explains the sudden truncation of "Save the Children" on it. The words are all here though. Let's pray all those members of the United Nations obey the rules of the club they have joined and save the children.
"I just want to ask a question:
Who really cares?
There'll come a time
when the world won't be singing,
flowers won't grow, no, no,
you know bells won't be ringing.
Who really cares?
Who's willing to try
to save the world
When I look at the world,
it fills me with sorrow:
children today really suffer tomorrow.
Oh what a shame,
such a bad way to live.
Oh, who is to blame
Oh live, live for life
but let live everybody.
Live life for the children oh for the children
oh, oh save the babies, save the babies, save the babies,
and if you want to love, you got to love, save the babies!
oh lord make them feel it,
save the babies, all of the children.
Who really cares
who wants to try
to save a world, save a world,
save our sweet world, that is destined to die?"
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