A friend recently gave me a ticket to a hockey game. I couldn’t help but noticing the high cost of tickets; the average ticket costs $50.
Mark Manary, a WUSM pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, is saving the lives of children in Malawi with peanut butter. His revolutionary new method for treating starving children in malnourished regions could become a worldwide standard of care.
My attendance at this game reminded me that numerous people spend substantial dollars to go to sporting events. As I watched the game tonight it occurred to me that whenever 20,000 people each pay $50 to go to one hockey game, the total gate for the event is $1 million. That $1 million is spent solely to distract and entertain the people for a few hours. The money is for pure amusement, of course, even when it’s the “game of the century.”
An average of 20,000 starving children each year enter the so-called Nutritional Rehabilitation Units in hospitals throughout Malawi.
The arena literally filled up with Americans. 60% of Americans are overweight and half are obese. But Americans are largely in denial regarding the extent of this problem.
When Manary first traveled to Malawi a decade ago, he was eager to make a difference. Everyone told him to stay away from the nutrition wards in the large hospital where he worked. It will depress you, they told him.
People want to think of some dollars as “entertainment dollars” and others as “charity dollars.” Most people …
