Swollen bellies. Emaciated figures. Outstretched hands. These are the images we see when we think of people starving. And usually these bellies, figures and hands belong to people we don’t know who are from far away lands, making hunger and the overriding issue of poverty seem very far away for us. We grow immune to these images and stories and learn to think of hunger in these dramatized terms. But hunger isn’t a dramatization. It happens to real people and doesn’t always stand out to you like a swollen belly, emaciated figure or outstretched hand does. And it is closer than you think.
My friend’s friend is starving right now. She lives in Cambodia, a country where 35 percent of the population is malnourished. She is a single mother with three children, all of whom are school age. My friend and her friend met years ago and continue to keep in touch through email, the most recent one revealing that she has been going without food since she cannot afford to buy any for herself.
I can’t imagine what her hunger must be like. I’ve never gone without food for even one day…I get grumpy if I just skip one meal. And just imagine what it is like when you have three children to support in addition to yourself.
She was embarrassed to tell my friend that she is going hungry, but her hunger isn’t something that has resulted due to her mistakes, but is instead a product of her environment. Due to recent food and fuel price increases, the world is experiencing a food crisis . This video on You Tube from Al Jazeera gives you an idea of how severe it is.
According to the report, food prices have risen 55 percent since June of 2007, so it is simply becoming too expensive to buy food. And this is happening everywhere – even in the United States. But while we are feeling the pinch and therefore may cut brand name foods or our snacks, the poor are going without the necessary nutrients to keep them healthy.
What’s more is that when there is no money for food, that means there is no money for education and none for health care. It also means you do not have the nutrients to concentrate on studying or fight off disease. Therefore, the fact that so many people are going hungry points to a much larger issue, one of inescapable poverty. One out of every seven people in the world don’t get enough to eat so just imagine how large this issue actually is.
I would say that I can’t believe that this kind of injustice reigns in our world, but I can believe it. I bet you can too. However, hopefully we aren’t so jaded to accept this inequality and injustice but instead do what we can to work against it. My friend sends her friend money whenever she can so if you want to help this woman and her family, send me an email at krosinsky [at] gmail and your donation will be part of the next money transfer. If this is too sketchy for you, I encourage you to inform yourself about the issue and demand that our representatives do more to help the people going hungry in this world. Maybe if we all do something about it today, we can prevent people from suffering from hunger and all that is associated with it in the future.
**Update: Here is another good video describing the food crisis and how violence has started to become part of the equation: Global Food Prices Crisis.
Brain Knots 