Time to give back

Bulls,

I would never want to talk about anything outside of stocks on this blog unless it was of the utmost importance. Seeing that this blog now demands over 12 million hits a week I cannot help but think that this blog cannot only be used to further a message of prosperity but also a message of giving back. Don't worry this is a once in a blue moon entry but it is extremely important.

I am surmising that the majority of the readers of this blog are not poor, uneducated people who cannot afford to give back some of their money in life and I am sure most of you give back your fair share.

I can't help myself but to point out a few charities that I feel deserve your fullest attention.

http://www.nothingbutnets.net/

http://www.netsforlifeafrica.org/

I realize that Malaria seems like a foreign term in the United States but this disease is infected in 300-550 million people every single year and it kills between 1-3 million people. While that may seem like a low death rate compared to the people infected, it should be noted that 75% of the people who do die from this disease are under the age of 5 years old. 3,000 children die every single day in just Sub-Saharan Africa alone. What can be done to stop this? While I certainly advocate giving money to vaccines and research I must also point out that just buying a net for 10 dollars( that includes cost to ship and everything total) will shelter four people every single night from this deadly disease.

The nets typically sell for between 2-3 dollars from the United Nations but you can donate to these two sites above and they will buy all the nets, ship them to Africa and get them set up with families so lives can be saved. For just 10 dollars you can save a life. I am sure(or hoping) that no one would walk by a dying child on the street and not help, but just because you cannot physically see the dying child does not mean doing nothing is any less unethical.

2. http://www.endhomelessness.org/

- I realize the majority of people see homelessness as baggers on the street looking for their next shot of vodka but this is nothing but an allusion that people create in their minds to make it easier to help forget about what homelessness really is. 30-40% of homeless people are veterans who fought to protect this country so that the rest of us could go on with our lives trying to "live the American dream". About 1,500,000 children are homeless tonight on the streets of America and 43% of them are under the age of 6. While I am sure many are fast to blame poverty on the person, how can you blame a 5 year old child for his parents actions?

What frustrates the Bull more than anything is how so many people feel they are so much better than the homeless bagger on the street. The Bull would probably be considered in the top 99.999% of successful people in terms of how America judges success but this has more to do with the opportunities that were given to the Bull then it does with the Bull himself. The Bull grew up in a two parent home, was given every opportunity he could ever dream of, was able to go to college anywhere he wanted, able to obtain the top notch education he needed, able to travel the world, given the opportunity to have some of the best jobs any college student could dream of and due to a large part to all those experiences was able to make millions of dollars by the time he graduated from college. But the Bull would have NEVER been as successful had he grown up in a impoverished family. Had the Bull grown up on the streets he most likely would have never graduated from highschool, never mind going to college. I have heard so many times friends and family of the Bull tell each other "how sick they are of hearing about homeless people, they are to lazy". These friends and family lack any sort of perspective outside of their own self built make believe fantasy world in which they are of more intelligence, drive and ability than everyone who is below them in terms of money. Don't be one of these people.

Some people think homelessness cannot be cured and that it is a cause of Capitalism. Take it from someone who knows money and capitalism better than almost anyone out there. Homelessness is the effect of ignorance and nature, not of some economic system. Minneapolis- Saint Paul has cut down homelessness by 43% between 2002-2006, NYC has cut it down 33% in the same time period and San Fransisco by 65% in those 4 years. Those are some of the most prosperous(NYC and San Fran 1 and 2 in the country) and yet they have overcome the "evils of capitalism and greed" by realizing that homelessness is a problem and that it can be fixed.

3. http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/

Starvation kills over 35,000 people every single day. That means it kills 10 times what the 9/11 terrorist attacks killed in a single day. I once had a famous Biology teacher(won a noble peace prize in the field of nutrition) who always told me that there is not a single reason that any one on earth should ever die of lack of resources for the next 5,000 years. He made the bold claim that not a single person died of starvation in the United States unless they went out of their way to make sure they did not eat and he gave lecture after lecture about how easy it would be to feed the world until humans reached their carrying capacity(9.9 billion in his opinion). Should 35,000 people be dying a day because they cannot get the resources to survive? You can feed a family of 4 by just paying 5 dollars a day to this website.

4. http://www.redcross.org/

The granddaddy of them all. The Red Cross is involved in almost every line of charity(poverty, sickness, homelessness, ect). If you want to help the world become a better place and not focus on just one cause then the Red Cross is for you.

Since I know this is long I will just link the other charities I am involved with.

5. http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.diJKKYPLJvH/b.1539751/k.BDB6/Home.htm

6. http://www.conservationfund.org/

7. http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer

8. http://www.imcworldwide.org/

9. http://www.fallenheroesfund.org/fallenheroes/index.php

10. http://www.secondharvest.org/