Putting it in Perspective

For £70 you can buy one of the best interchangeable camera lenses available, the Canon 50mm f1.8 prime. For £280 you can buy the ever-so-slightly superior 50mm f1.4 prime.

For the £210 difference, you could, according to Sight Savers International, pay to restore the sight of 12 people in Africa or India who were blind through cataracts.

I find this disturbing. Not least because I would be inclined to spend the extra £210 on the more expensive lens.

Why do we, living in a western capitalist society, have the choice to improve our ability to capture the wonders of the visible world by the tiniest of margins by spending more money, whilst those in Africa have to make do with not being able to see anything at all for lack of £17? I feel that doing some small thing about it may help lessen my guilt, and I have a few ideas...