First world problems

When we were in Rwanda in the summer with the  CRED team, one of the phrases that started to get used quite a bit was 'hash-tag first world problems'.

For the non-twitterers amongst you, the hashtag bit is reference to something you can do on twitter if you want to link phrases (I think - I don't really understand it myself!), but the essence was that it was used to highlight moans and gripes that people were having, and put them in perspective as 'first world problems' ie not really problems at all, just inconveniences that were being 'endured'.

So some of the 'moans' that got the response of 'hashtag first world problem' included:
- trying to decide what T-shirt to wear
- the white trainers getting dirty
- how to fit all the resources into one bag
- having to have porridge rather than toast for breakfast

and several others that, when looked at through the lens of the street-kids that we were visiting, made you squirm with embarrassment at the 'spoilt rich kid' mentality of them

It really was very effective at making you stop and think about what really matters, and how so much of what we get het up about is actually very trivial and not worth the wasted energy.

There is a short film that Huffington Post have put together that is very powerful about this, and you can see it by clicking here (so long as you are on-line when you are reading this!). It shows people from the less developed countries reading out some 'first world problems', but due to the context of where they are reading them, it gives a very strong message that we all could do with being reminded about.