Quote of the Day
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
— Muhammad Ali
The Muhammad Ali Center records Ali using these words in 1975 after quietly giving $100,000 to a New York centre for older people that was facing closure. He left before reporters could catch up with him.
That detail makes the quotation more interesting.
He helped.
Then he left.
We sometimes imagine service as something large enough to be photographed. A foundation. A campaign. A cheque with many zeros on it.
Most of us will never do those things.
But somebody still needs a lift to an appointment. An elderly neighbour may need groceries brought upstairs. A newcomer may need help understanding a form. A child may need one adult who has enough patience to listen.
These things rarely make news.
They still count.
Perhaps community is built partly through people noticing what needs doing and deciding that they will not always wait for somebody else to do it.
There is government responsibility. There is institutional responsibility. And then there is the smaller responsibility that belongs to each of us.
Not because anyone is watching.
Simply because we share the room.
Quote source: Muhammad Ali Center
Did You Know?
Around 900 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to clean cooking.
A cooking fire can feel like one of the most ordinary things in a home.
Wood goes in. Charcoal burns. A pot sits above the flame. Dinner gets made.
But there is another part of that picture we do not always see: the smoke.
The World Health Organization says about 83% of people in sub-Saharan Africa—roughly 900 million people—lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. The region is also the only one where the number of people without clean cooking access is still rising.
This is not simply a question of convenience.
Cooking with wood, charcoal, dung, crop waste and other polluting fuels can produce harmful household air pollution. WHO estimates that household air pollution caused about 2.9 million deaths worldwide in 2021, including more than 309,000 deaths among children under five.
And think about who often spends the most time near the cooking fire.
Women.
Children.
The person preparing three meals a day may breathe that smoke repeatedly for years. Someone may also spend hours collecting firewood before the cooking even begins.
So when we talk about access to energy, perhaps we should not picture only electric poles and light bulbs.
Sometimes energy policy is the air inside a kitchen.
It is how long a woman spends looking for firewood.
It is what a child breathes while sitting beside her mother as dinner cooks.
A problem can be enormous and still live in a very small room.
Sources
- World Health Organization — Energy and health
- World Health Organization — Household air pollution and health
For discussion: What would change for families in our communities if clean, affordable cooking energy became as ordinary as owning a cooking pot?
Leave a comment