As I write this, in November 1971, people are dying in East Bengal from lack of food, shelter, and medical care.

Importance: This is Singer's opening statement, and it signals his intention to hedge his philosophical argument within the conflict that was occurring in the Bengal region at the time of writing. His use of the first-person pronoun situates his argument in the present, adding a sense of urgency that that serves to heighten the necessity of the moral claim he is about to make.

I shall argue that the way people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation like that in Bengal cannot be justified; indeed, the whole way we look at moral issues - our moral conceptual scheme - needs to be altered, and with it, the way of life that has come to be taken for granted in our society.

Importance: Here, Singer summarizes the position he is about...