I went to a Hunger Summit for a non profit organization I am involved with yesterday and we got to hear some sobering statistics on hunger around the world but ONLY after we had finished eating a 4 course fat laden lunch that was catered.
I learned that 15 million children die of hunger every year and then they served cheese cake (I kid you not! I didn't eat any)
They talked about how 50% of the world's population, (3.2 billion) live on less than $2.00 equivalent a day and 50% of them live on less than $1 per day.
We had Chicken Marsala with wine sauce and vegetables swimming in butter.
For the price of one missile we shot in Iraq, a school full (350) of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years
They served hot rolls that had been brushed on top with butter, I hate it when people do this makes the rolls greasy to pick up not to mention high calorie.
One lady talked about that it is estimated that some 850 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
Did I had mention we had cheese cake? It had cherry sauce on top.
And even the United States is not spared I was told that somewhere one out of every twelve children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry EVERY night.
I mentioned to the people at the table I was sitting at that I find ironic that 200 adults are talking about world hunger while we have a lunch that 2/3rds of the world will never have in their lifetime and I got looks like I should be flogged and beaten out back and my friend seemed embarrassed that I brought it up!
Does anyone else see the irony in all this. I am not saying the organization I am involved with is bad they send millions to 3rd World Countries but wouldn't it have made sense to have a simpler lunch instead of the fancy one we had?
But I guess the object was to raise more money so a box lunch might not do but come on wine sauce? cheesescake with cherry sauce? LOL!
I mean even participating in 3FC discussions, we all talk about how fat we are and we can't stop eating while 800 MILLION people are hungry in the world.
So if half the world is starving and we are in the position that we can eat too much and be overweight I guess you can say we are LUCKY we are fat, right???
What a strange thought... that there are millions and millions of people in the world who would trade places with me in an instant!
Anybody ever think about the state of the world and feel guilty about how lucky we are even to have our over eating problems?
I have been asking some of my friends and most of them say NO but I think it is because they are just wrapped in their own little worlds here and cannot (or will not) even think about what others are doing in the rest of the world and it is normal I think.
Like I wonder what someone from Sub Sahara Africa thinks about someone from the US who has bulimia or anorexia??? Probably about as much as an average American thinks about someone staving in a far away land with a swollen belly eating pebbles in an effort to feel full.
George Carlin said it best... the United States is the ONLY place in the world where the poor people are fat! LOL!
I am keeping all the brochures I got from that summit meeting so I can look at all the pictures of the hungry children on it and I will think about them the next time I feel an urge to binge.
I think this organization's event sounds completely tacky. Wouldn't a better event have been to give 10% of the attendees the dinner you mention, while another 40% got rice and lentils, and the remaining 50% nothing at all? I think that would have sent a better message.
Wouldn't a better event have been to give 10% of the attendees the dinner you mention, while another 40% got rice and lentils, and the remaining 50% nothing at all? I think that would have sent a better message.
I agree would have sent a better message but I wonder how many checks they would have gotten from the 50% who got nothing!
flatiron, you've just had your consciousness elevated. You can see the discrepancy between what Western countries have and what most of the rest of the world has.
Another level of consciousness is possible beyond this, but I'm not sure I can explain it. On this level--yes, you can eat chicken marsala while knowing that hundreds of thousands of people will not get enough to eat today. You are not "bad" for eating good foods when others cannot.
That doesn't mean we should stop working to fight hunger. It just means that the world is a complex place full of contradictions.
Thanks for your post! I think all of us in western society struggle with the issue of equity and what we will do about it personally.
I know that my over consumption is an issue I have wrestled with in many areas of my life, not just food.
As we lost weight, DH and I contributed food (1 lb for every lb lost) to our local food pantry - 150 plus lbs and counting
We also work with our local hunger coalition. There is much we can do, and sometimes - starting in our own backyard is a way to feel that we can make a difference.
George Carlin said it best... the United States is the ONLY place in the world where the poor people are fat! LOL!
Lol. I love George Carlin . . . this topic made me think of his rant on people in america and their food issues.
I would have mentioned the irony of it all as well but I'm also used to getting disapproving looks from comments like that. IMO, someone just goofed when making the menu for that lunch.
I think it's cool that you participate in something like that, that is awesome!
that is freaking crazy... i would DEF keep those brochures. can you mail me some? haha seriously though, it really boggles my mind that at a benefit to spread the word about starving children you were served all that stuff. and the people that gave you dirty looks were just mad because they were thinking the exact same thing but they ATE the cheesecake...
As an American who recently returned from living in a developing country, this has been my biggest problem: How to explain what things are like in the rest of the world to people here in the States - people who are living a lifestyle that 95% of the world can't imagine even exists.
It's hard. It's hard to convince Americans that our wealth of resources is, by and large, not earned or deserved (my personal belief is that we're blessed, but the continuation of that is that we're blessed to be a blessing). It's hard to understand that true hunger and poverty are soul-crushing and lead to things like terrorism, human and sex trafficking, and endless despair.
And, I think the hardest thing, is to convince people that our actions here affect what happens (or doesn't happen) there.
Something I recently read in a book by Rob Bell has really stuck with me, and I think it sums up a lot of first-world attitudes toward the developing world: "Entitlement leads to immunity to the suffering of others, because 'I got what I deserve' and so, apparently, did they."
Sorry for the super-intense post, but this is an issue that I care about deeply. I loved hearing your thoughts on this.
As an American who recently returned from living in a developing country, this has been my biggest problem: How to explain what things are like in the rest of the world to people here in the States - people who are living a lifestyle that 95% of the world can't imagine even exists.
I can relate a little. I didn't live overseas but I visited a lot of places when I was in the Navy and one of the first place we (my ship) visited was a humanitarian visit to Djibouti where there was a huge refugee camp of Eritrians who were chased out of their country because of war and we brought sacks of food to them, in fact I was part of a all hands working party and had to carry a 50lb sack through the jungle to the camp.
We were all young and joking around until I saw my first glimpse of the camp. It was 4 or 5 young boys trying to take a shower under a drainage ditch pipe that was trickling dirty water out of it.
We all stopped laughing when we saw that. It was the first time I saw that not all the world lived like we did.
I remember when I got back home I tried to tell my family about the poverty I saw but none could understand what I was talking about.
Unless you see it with your own eyes it is hard to fathom.
it's ironic....
