Stop World Hunger Today

[Morning Dew]

Hi friends,

For those who can spare some extra money please consider supporting kids and people in need for food, water and shelter.
I sponsor two kids via http://www.childfundalliance.org/  but there are others.

Here are some statistics about world hunger vs wasted food in the developed world;
http://www.stopthehunger.com/

I cried again when I read on this page that we people of the developed world WASTE 47.000 tons of food daily.

May we all have the courage to get our heads out of our arses and help those who are truly in need.

I go sit now indeed.



Why?

[jernej]

Do these sponsorships really work?

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but in my country the red cross and unicef are among the most corrupted agencies, only filling money to their pockets 

[Andrew]

It a risk we take I guess. Even leaky pipes get some of the water through.

[Jeeprs]

I donate to the UNHCR every month. The scary thing is that it is going to get much worse, check out this story on the BBC Online - Food prices to double by 2030.

[Morning Dew]

Jeeprs thanks for the link.
This is the very reason i choose self-sufficiency.

May we all find the way back to nature

[rideforever]

Hey - how is the self-sufficiency going ?  And how much does it cost to set up ?  What job are you doing - do you need a bit fancy  job to make it work ??

[Jeeprs]

actually in truth I am in an ideal job for self-sufficiency. My job is to do the documentation and help screens for big computer systems. Already I am only required at the office for 2 days per week, in the future, there will be no office. I had a vision when I was only 18 years old that one day I would work on a screen of some kind, sorrounded by ducks and chickens and a garden. Now I am 58. Really it is not too far out that I could make this happen. I could reduce my carbon footprint to very little. I have a 'mobile internet' connection, can work from anywhere there is a signal.

I admire self-sufficiency a lot, but am not very good at it. I still live like a typical 'urban commuter', dependent on all the modern conveniences and lots of physical energy. I think what I should do as a way of committing to self-sufficiency is to start a vegie garden. I have the space for it, and everything else I need will not be hard to acquire. Actually, when I think of it, gardening is a lot like meditation practice - takes practice and cultivation and patience.

We all have to learn to reduce our carbon footprint, energy usage, and dependency on imported foodstuffs. This is something we can do.

[Morning Dew]

Hey - how is the self-sufficiency going ?  And how much does it cost to set up ?  What job are you doing - do you need a bit fancy  job to make it work ??

It is making baby steps thanks for asking.

It will cost me 2 million swedish crowns to buy a farm. I already own an apartement and a part of the summerhouse. Will sell both next year if all is according to plan.

 I work in a local pet store. No fancy job here. My wife works part time.

It is about finding the bank which will give the best loan deal.

One can ofcourse buy cheeper farms up north in sweden but my wife is bound to stay close to Copenhagen working. She is not into self sufficiency but is supporting my idea. She likes living in nature.

We all have to learn to reduce our carbon footprint, energy usage, and dependency on imported foodstuffs. This is something we can do.

Yes

[Masauwu]

The state of the world today makes no sense to me. The full focus is on getting food packages to the hungry, but why not give them a small patch of land and access to tanks of water in arid areas on top of that. And the most important, why not give them just a little bit of education. If you have no idea what you are going to eat tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, STOP MAKING CHILDREN. Ignorance leading to suffering, those people need help understanding because maybe they don`t know any better.

To make things worse, the little information and free condoms they get from outfits like Red Cross is offset by mad christian "missionaries" who tell them condoms are from the devil and their mission on earth is to multiply... This is insanity, the world has really gone mad.

I know it`s easy to submit opinions from the comfort of your home when others are in the midst of extreme suffering, but it might still be true anyway. Too much madness born from mindlessness, something`s gotta give soon.

[Andrew]

Someones gotta give too! 

A

[Morning Dew]

I know it`s easy to submit opinions from the comfort of your home when others are in the midst of extreme suffering

So true.

Ignorance leading to suffering

As well as corrupted governments which piss down on the small people and keep the folk in repression. It is very hard to find the way out if in constant daily strougle to find food and water and this is the very tool the governments use to keep them (us) down.

Until the time they accumulate enough energy to raise the revolution and kick the bastartds out of their comfortable chairs one child dies every 4 seconds. This is the truth of this very moment Masauwu no matter what you or I or anyone thinks. While Im writing this and you reading it kids are dieing out there. But that matter little to us living in good conditions because once I have closed down this forum page I will go and make myself some breakfast and tea and go about my day not thinking much about the actual suffering taking place in this world I am part-taking. That is Ignorance on my behalf! Are they ignorant or not? How to judge others if I never walked in their shoes?

May we all have enough compassion to give more and to ask for less.

[Crystal Palace]

I know it`s easy to submit opinions from the comfort of your home when others are in the midst of extreme suffering...

That's one of the disadvantages of living in a developed country. You see all around there's not much material suffering, and you tend to think the world is OK after all. But in reality, you have just sunk your head deep into the ground for there are people LITERALLY dying every minute because they don't have access to food.

This could be one difference: Every time I don't finish the food in my plate and leave it, I feel bad because I have seen the same people who are servants in my house, strive so hard just to get 2 meals a day. It hits a chord in me somewhere, and it just doesn't feel right. Would the people in the West feel the same amount of guilt? I don't know but I doubt it. And its not their fault really because they never grew up in an environment where they had to see struggle.

Thank god for TVs and photos showing suffering in Africa, at least it makes you question some things, even if for a brief moment. Otherwise it would have been business as usual. And a lifetime spent in ignorance with the head deep inside the ground.

CP

[Crystal Palace]

India is such a great country for Dhammic advancement in this regard, you can find on the same road people going to work in a Merc, a mid-size car, 3 wheelers, 2 wheel scooters, simple bicycles and some just walking. You can see everything from one end of the spectrum to the other and it all comes together in a chaotic mix of poverty, oppression, opulence, selfishness, ill health, abundance, selflessness, crime, non violence, vegetarianism, slaughter houses, hunger, old age, death, religious tension, religious harmony, yoga, meditation, malls, sex, celibacy and so on.

You see all of that daily and you ask yourself, "WTF is the meaning of life?" and you go on from there.

Warmly,
CP

[Quardamon]

This could be one difference: Every time I don't finish the food in my plate and leave it, I feel bad because I have seen the same people who are servants in my house, strive so hard just to get 2 meals a day. It hits a chord in me somewhere, and it just doesn't feel right. Would the people in the West feel the same amount of guilt? I don't know but I doubt it.

That is right. The generation in the west of the Netherlands that had suffered from hunger in the last winter of World War II (1940) could not throw away food. For the generation after that, throwing away food is just like not buying it: there is plenty. That is the generation that still would repair their own bicycle and vacuum cleaner. Still one generation younger throw away things that are broke and buy new. There is a counter-movement, but this is the general idea.

The last retreat I did, December 2009, I wanted to try out, more or less, whether it was possible to feel a suffering, directly - say bodily - from the climate change that we, the rich countries, inflict on this beautiful planet. My idea was, it would be healthy (for the collective) to suffer from that, like it is healthy to suffer from biting in your own hand: one should not do it.
My conclusion afterwards was: yes, that would be possible, but there are a thousand other things that are now not in your consciousness that you could suffer from, and also there are a thousand other possible futures that one could fight against or strive to attain. I was impressed by the vastness of the field of possibilities. (And by the smallness of my ability to cope and to oversee.) I decided not to pursue this line.
Well   . . .   Just throwing something in, I guess.

P.S.: I did not do the retreat I had planned for this spring due to lack of money.

[Masauwu]

I know it`s easy to submit opinions from the comfort of your home when others are in the midst of extreme suffering

I was talking about myself posting, using the general "your", i hope it wasn`t misunderstood.

Until the time they accumulate enough energy to raise the revolution and kick the bastartds out of their comfortable chairs

I was very young but i witnessed a revolution in my country 21 years ago, it`s sad to see how hope slowly turns back into hopelessness. You kick some greedy and corrupt bastards out of their chairs only to have them replaced by other greedy and corrupt bastards.


Of course i didn`t mean to suggest stopping the effort of giving to charity, but on top of that a lot of good can come if you give a man a fishing pole and teach him how to fish.

[Matthew]

a) 1/3 of all the food purchased in the UK is thrown in the trash ...

b) The city of Philadelphia (population 1,526,006) throws more food in the trash each and every day, 365 days a year, than is eaten in the country of Ethiopia (population 80,713,000)  ...

To end world hunger we have to end the hegemonic control of the rich and the military-industrial-media-political complex that serves them. We need an economics based around sufficiency and sustainability. None of the power players in our world have an interest in that - so where do we go? We stop giving them our power to play with.

[Andrew]

We stop giving them our power to play with.

Agreed. We sit our power on a mat and we encourage others to do so too. I'm not being trite either, since learning to do that, a lot of my ambitions have fallen away, my fantasies have fallen away, greed is on the down, ignorance is being unravelled, etc What is giving our power away other than these things? Every ignorant, greedy, hateful act can be manipulated by those skilled enough to harness them. But who can harness my peace? It doesn't want anything.

If I could give that, instead of money (or as well as!) then I see real hope.
 

A