Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
— Henry A. Kissinger
Hunger is the deadliest weapon of all, and for years after years, this weapon has been used to exploit opportunities for personal gain. It’s an elemental force transcending geographical boundaries affecting all races and genders. When crisis hits, people don’t think about shelters over their heads or at worst, forget what stands for humanity. It’s a game of survival we all are in for eternity and visionary(!) foreign policies tend to strike right here to take control; you control that gnawing sensation of the stomach, you control people, and the cycle continues until the ultimate purpose is served. Otherwise, we won’t see commercial ships carrying foods sunken at the bottom of the ocean.
Enough blabbering with politics— I never tried to understand it and guess I won’t ever give it a try.
But I do understand how it feels to be hungry and thirsty. Not that I have been to deserts and lost my way home but it’s a religious thing I am observing right now. I did it in the past, it is observed every year without a break for a 30-day streak. Sometimes 29; depends on the moon. Ramadan as Muslims call it— a month-long ritual of personal sacrifice to experience people’s misery first-hand. Many of you are familiar with it I believe. It’s really challenging, I tell you.
So, you have all the food and drinks but you aren’t enjoying anything from sunrise to sunset— a strict rule to be followed to participate. There are other rules too, but most of them are beyond my little religious knowledge; such a shame.
But what do you get from all that…
Beyond religious benefits, you know all those promises, what I think you get is your understanding of people’s suffering for food across the world. It teaches you how it feels to be without food and water, how your body reacts, how your mood swings even though you know you can eat all that you can right after the sunset.
But the problem is, we still don’t get the message. Like, we all starve, maintain the ritual till dawn to dusk but at the end of the month when it’s over, we don’t care about all the food we waste. We forget how it feels to be without food, we refuse to stretch our arms to those in need. But the amount of food we waste on a regular basis, that’s enough to support a few hungry souls. Not that we all waste food on purpose, sometimes we have no choice but to throw it away.
Unfortunately, though, our careless actions sometimes put others in great misery. There is no alternative to be more careful about what we do with our food source and overall consumption. Some societies have some bizarre food traits on occasion, this is quite disappointing. It’s okay to eat but there should be a limit, and I guess deep frying a whole camel to eat isn’t a good idea for a handful of people while thousands of people are out there struggling to bring food to the family even for once a day. This brings the class system to the foreground, but, that’s not the point. As a human being, we should be empathetic to all— and this month could be a great start for a specific religious community; let’s not waste it.
