My hard drive and my back up drive both died resulting in the loss of 15,000 pictures. It should cost me about 1500$ to get the information back.

Also, this month, I will have 15,000 page views and although I am very grateful to all those who watch and support my work, I would like to bring up 15,000 in a few other areas of discussion which are more important than my pictures and way more important than my DeviantArt webpage.

---

On November 30th 2004, Bush visited Canada and 15,000 people marched to parliament hill in protest against the war in Iraq in which 15,000 people died in the first days of attack. It is estimated that 4,300 of them were civilian noncombatants.

The 9/11 fallout has been suggested as the cause of many of the medical problems that affect 15,000 people who worked at ground zero. Up to 9000 of them now have the "WTC cough", many have lung cancer and some have already died from chronic respiratory failure, such as 34-year-old New York police detective James Zadroga.

A recent report from NDP David Chudnovsky claims that there are currently up to 15,000 homeless people in BC. That is from an estimated 150,000 homeless people in Canada. It is also estimated that 1,500,000 US resident will use a homeless facility this year.

India has some of the world’s cheapest labor. In Delhi, workers produce clothing for less than 15 cents an hour in most of their 15,000 "inadequately regulated garment factories", produced by many children under fifteen for fifteen year old American kids that buy these garments at stores such as the Bay for over well over fifteen dollars. Children of ages from 5 to 14 are responsible for 20 percent of the India’s gross national production.

Last month in Australia, authorities seized more than 15,000 videos and 500,000 images of child abuse. Some of the children were as young as 12 months old and some were abused for over two hours. So far, 19 men have been arrested. "More than 2 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported each year in the United States. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 new cases of sexual abuse occur each year.”

---

There is not much to celebrate but rather much to ponder and I hope this serves as a somber reminder to all who suffer from apathy in regards to these issues.

To all the people who complain about minimum wage, to all the people who use people and teenagers who expose themselves and try to compensate for their insecurities. And to all the people who sit idle in front of the computer and television for days while the world passes them by...

If you cannot give to those in need, at least give to yourself the gift of a better and healthier lifestyle. You have so much to be grateful for.