“Back in my day…” many have likely heard this before, from grandparents or parents; saying they remember a time when things were different: better. I had never really thought about that before, until I took a close look at the world. I saw that with each new year the world gets worse and continues to worsen.
In the United States alone, violent crime rose 15% and property crime rose by 12% in just 2012 alone. In just a few years the number of malnourished people in Africa has grown from 175 million to 239 million; to put it in perspective one in four people in Africa will go hungry today. In Japan 24 people out of 100,000 will take their own lives this year. That’s double the rate in the United States and tree times more than the UK. 50 years ago no one would have ever dreamt of it being so high. Many people might say ‘That’s sad, but that’s life. Bad things happen.’ Imagine for a moment that your future child died of starvation. Imagine that your sibling was murdered. Imagine that your best friend committed suicide. Are they still just a part of life? Are they still just the bad and sad things that come with living? If you’re still not convinced listen to this tragic story. In 2000 a woman by the name of Theresa Giarrano was murdered. She was kidnapped by an insane woman, who killed her and removed the baby that Teresa was pregnant with. The world had never before experienced such a cruel and malicious act. Thousands were moved to attend her funeral. In more recent times the Aurora theatre shooting and the school shooting in Connecticut shook the world. 20 years ago shootings didn’t exist. But now we prepare children for them as they are inevitable. These all show that the world continues to get worse and worse at an alarming rate.
Many would argue that technological and medical advancements have cured diseases and bettered lives through new inventions. Nevertheless, with each new advancement, the world’s stupidity has increased instead of its intelligence. Harsh chemicals and materials used to make the latest tech have continued to pollute the earth. In addition, with each new cure, a new disease pops up or old ones thought to be eradicated come back. Now I’m no expert, but wouldn’t that be a step back instead of a step forward?
The condition of the world has continually deteriorated. Past generations have made the world worse and new generations are contributing to it. With so much bad in the world it’s impossible to refute the fact that with each new year the world continues to get worse.