As many of you might know, I just did a tour of India with MUTEMATH. This was the band's second time there, but this tour was much more extensive as we spent almost three weeks playing gigs in cities like Kolkata, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Mumbai. What you do not know is that prior to going on my India trip, Cliff and I had been brewing up a version of The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want." This song took on new meaning to me while I was in India as I was again encountered with the most severe level of poverty I had ever witnessed.
Needless to say, I grew up around poverty. It was not uncommon for me to spend weekends across the border in Matamoros, México visiting my grandparents and see poor homeless ladies carrying their kids around in the streets, begging for money or whatever anyone was willing to give them. I believe I've done my part throughout the years in giving to the poor and helping those in need whenever I could; however, this last trip to India, I confronted myself again with the question if I was really doing enough to help end poverty.
Everywhere I went in India I was confronted with poverty, from children sleeping on a filthy curb of a busy street to young girls doing cartwheels in the street for money. I could not escape it. And I could not help but to imagine them as one of my own. All the rationale and reasoning that made me think twice before if I would give in the past went completely out the window as I realized that these impoverished kids are "my own." I am connected to them if I allow myself to be, and I have a responsibility to them like I do with my own biological children.
This cover song and video are simply to help bring awareness to the problem of poverty throughout the world. Please, please, please help me get what I want in helping end poverty. Many of these kids cannot even get what they NEED, much less what they want. There are many organizations out there that are making positive strides to end poverty (for example, The Hunger Project, One, Mercy Corps, etc.). None of them are perfect, but as you celebrate the upcoming holidays, please act on supporting some cause that brings hope to the impoverished children in your local community and around the globe.
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