Why is it so hard for some people to imagine what incredible lengths they would go to to get something to eat, if they were literally starving to death?
I posted an article that said the GMO scare was unfounded, that we’ve been eating GMO food for the last 10 years.
Rarebear once said it could mean the end of starvation in under developed countries.
Someone, who lives in South Africa, said something like, “Eat all the GMO you want, but keep that crap away from our rural, uneducated Africans.”
I asked, “Isn’t the rural, uneducated Africans who are starving to death?”
At one point I asked what she would do if she was starving to death. She said she would ”...beg for organic food.”
I asked if she would actually turn down GMO food if she was starving? She hasn’t answered that.
Why is it so hard for some people to fathom what starvation is? I mean, you would eat your shoes, you would eat leaves, you would eat grass, you would eat just about anything you could get your hands on that could be eaten. I have never been starving, but I can understand the lengths I would go to if I was.
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65 Answers
Living in a country where obesity is rampant might have something to do with it.
There are many people in this country that think they have it rough because they make too much money to qualify for a heath insurance subsidy. These people have literally no sense of perspective.
Desperation is no argument for anything.
Some starving people would kill a person to eat them.
But this is in Africa @Blondesjon. I don’t think obesity is rampant there. But I don’t know.
Yes, @ragingloli, some would. And have.
South Africa is not Ethiopia. The entire continent is not starving.
Probably because they have never experienced starvation before. Neither have I, but there have been times in my life when I have had very little to eat, up to the point where filling myself with crappy 25 cent ramen noodles made me genuinely happy. :/
Here is a list of the top 5 countries where populations are malnourished. Of those 5, 4 of them are in Africa.
In Burundi 73.4% of it’s population is malnourished.
In Eritrea, which is in Africa, 65% of the population is malnourished.
In Zambia 47%.
In Ethiopia, 40%
@Symbeline Maybe it’s just from reading about things, like about the Donnar party, and the plane carrying rugby players that crashed in the Andes, that allows me to understand it, even though I have never, ever been anywhere near starvation myself.
@Dutchess_III @Blondesjon
Since 1980, obesity has become a problem in South Africa, North and West African nations. Google “Obesity”+“Africa”
see Epidemiology of Obesity, Wikipedia.
It is entirely possible to be both obese and malnourished at the same time. This is the case with many Americans.
(it’s the Donner Party)
Because it is very difficult to imagine something that you have not experienced. I have been hungry, very hungry, once or twice – once when I was stranded in Toronto without money – but actual starvation, I cannot imagine it, even if I have read about it.
I once went a week without eating just because!
See that film where those Uruguayan rugby players were caught in a plane crash in the Andes, there’s no fucking way i’m going to chow down on human arse meat.
Easy to say while i’m tapping away on a website rather than starving on a sub zero mountain, but what can I say? I was never any good at rugby anyway & I don’t fly, so it’s all good.
@ucme Human arse meat. We colonials call it the haunch. It’s the best part. Cowboys fought over it.
I’m not going to starve. I would walk up to a cop and punch them if I was in need of food.
I would kill someone and eat them if that was needed and there wasn’t a cop or a 7/11 around.
How can you live on a continent with this kind of starvation rate and not understand??
There are books, movies, articles, 60 minutes, 20/20….
@bea2345 I agree, I can’t really imagine it either, but I also can’t imagine anyone suggesting they would turn away any kind of food if they were starving.
When you can enjoy the arrogance of abundant food, to the point you can toss stuff out because it was older than the “sell by date”, was not as tasty as it was when it was fresh, or because it is too inconvenient to take back home because all of it was not consumed at the BBQ, party, convention, etc. then you can say you would not eat a moldy potato, or rancid piece of meat. I bet they would change their tune if they only got a meal every three days and was happy to get that. I bet most people in industrialized nations have never been hungry for more than 8 hours, and if so very rarely; certainly never hungry to the point they actually worried that they might not wake up if they went to bed without getting anything in their stomach that night.
This person sounds like a raging narcissist. Seriously, what an idiot!
” Well..if I was starving I would only eat leftover lobster and Top Sirloin.” lol
What a lunatic….well, hopefully if she is ever starving nobody will give her a cup o noodles and a bag of Cheetos. haha
She says she would beg for organic food. Like, beggers can be choosers? And if “begging” was all it took, there would be no starvation.
Well..I do agree with giving decent, quality food to the less fortunate as I believe in preserving a persons dignity too. It’s degrading to give crap food when one has plenty themselves.
If it’s a matter of two, equally destitute people and one gives another half of their meager share, that is the true nature of giving. If, OTOH one has plenty but only “gives” stereotyped “welfare” fare, I find that degrading.
However, GMO vs. nothing is taking it too far.
Some of those folks just need food, period.
@Seek Those people Do have it rougher than they are accustomed to, and they’re only going to be squeezed further. Their perspective is warped by the loud and frequent explanation that those who do qualify for subsidies are playing the rest of us for suckers. Just who do you suppose is busy blaming the poor for the collapse of the middle class?
Forgive me for not breaking out my violin.
(I had to pawn it to pay the power bill)
That’s not true: it was a guitar, not a violin
What! You were allowed a violin? You probably have indoor plumbing as well. What’s going to become of us? Fox was bemoaning the fact that poor people in this country are allowed to have televisions, and even, God help us, laptops and cell phones. I even watched while a gaggle of their “journalists” discussed the outrageous fact that you could legally purchase LOBSTERS with food stamps. Those of us who now want a decent lobster must plan ahead to avoid the stampede of poor folks driving lobster prices through the stratosphere.
Oi vey.
Sure. We’re allowed to have all kinds of shit. Just as long as we’re not homeless. If we happen to become homeless we have 30 days maximum in state campgrounds (at ten – 30 dollars a night), and then we’re on our own to find a 10×10 patch of ground that isn’t claimed by someone else. But don’t pitch your tent anywhere the police can see it, because they’ll tear it down.
And seriously, one night of lobster would eat up an entire month of food stamps. I’m sure some moron has done it, but it wasn’t someone who actually counts on that money to feed his family.
Not only would starvation be horrible and also almost unimaginable, but think about having children or babies who are crying for food, cranky, can’t sleep, just crying. I would go out of my mind with anxiety about what to do for them. I am very grateful that we live in a nation and a time when this is not occurring, and hopefully, won’t in my lifetime and hopefully not in my child’s lifetime, either.
It is not that this lady cannot fathom the desperation of one who is starving (she can), it is that you cannot fathom the idea of her dying/suffering out of principal (if no one gives her organic food). Whether the principals are right/wrong, good/bad, smart/dumb are irrelevant for her ability to fathom. It doesn’t apply to her specifically either. You’re basically assuming that principals go out the window when one is desperate. While it is true for some, it is not like that for everyone.
Also, if someone understands the desperation of starving, it doesn’t mean they have to give a shit about it and they certainly don’t have to assume that one day they may possibly find themselves starving (law of probability).
@eno You make a valid and interesting point. One should not lower their standards just because they fall on hard times, agreed, however, that said, there is a big difference between becoming a hooker vs. eating GMO foods. lol
@eno: There’s also a big difference between being hungry and starving to death.
@eno On the contrary, she seems to care deeply about them. She said when she retires she wants to go live among them to try and help them, and become part of their culture.
@Coloma It depends on the “hard times.” If it’s bad enough you will totally drop all your standards, and all of your morality, to keep your family alive. The people we’re talking about haven’t “fallen on hard times,” either. It is their LIFE, from birth to death.
@Coloma
The difference matters to you, though, not her. In her mind, GMOs might be as equally bad as prostitution, maybe even worse.
@jca
I’m talking about starving to death. Same answer ^^^, though.
@Dutchess_III
I wasn’t just talking about her. I was making general commentary. However, her idea of help is obviously entirely different than the way you see it.
I think she has this romanticized view of the “poor urban Africans.” I think her perceptions would change completely if she was actually in the presence of dying babies and children.
”... In her mind, GMOs might be as equally bad as prostitution, maybe even worse.” Well, that’s the privilege of the non-starving privileged. Even at that, as much as I would abhor it, I would prostitute myself to feed my kids. I know that I would. Annd…I’d probably end up with AIDs.
@eno I guess perception is everything, yep, I’d dumpster dive and eat sloppy throw out GMO food before I became a hooker or a drug dealer. The lesser of several evils if you ask me.
@Dutchess_III Agreed.
Seriously, hmmm….would she rather get AIDS or eat GMO soybeans. lol
Nothing like living it to get your realities straight.
@Dutchess_III
She sees GMOS as something that causes sickness which leads to suffering/death, so showing her dying babies and children will not change her mind at all.
It is not a privilege. Food doesn’t fall from the sky. You have to earn it through work.
Of course you do @eno. But having work available so you can eat IS a privilege. Not everyone has the privilege of working. Having a government that helps it’s citizens is also a privilege.
It’s a privilege to sit back in your comfy house, which you worked for, with a full belly, which you also worked for, and to belittle those who don’t have any of that, and belittle what they might do to get it.
Don’t you know hungry people are hungry because they don’t work, and jobs are plentiful, and all employers pay a fair living wage, and anyone who puts in a hard day’s work is more than capable of paying for an easy lifestyle full of all the modern comforts, including free-range organic grass-fed unicorn steaks?
Duh.
@Dutchess_III
Oh, thanks for clarifying, however, you’re still running with the same assumption that anyone starving would prostitute their body to eat. Obviously that is not true for everyone.
I would. Especially for my kids.
Right, but the world doesn’t revolve around you three. I mean this lady wouldn’t put GMO in her mouth to live, so I highly doubt she would put some strangers dick in, either.
You three are atheists (your principals are different). Take a statistic on religious women and see how they respond to this question.
@johnpowell said he would kill and eat someone.
Would you guys do the same?
@eno . . . I would as long as they were organically raised.
If she was starving to DEATH she would do both. She just doesn’t know it because she is blindly privileged.
@eno do you have kids? If not, then I can understand how you can’t fathom the lengths a parent will go to to keep them alive.
I don’t know if I would eat another human…in the case of the movie “Alive,” about the rugby team, they ate the folks who had already died. They didn’t kill them. I’m thinking I would too.
You don’t know that. You undermine people too much especially with your what/if scenarios. Why does a solider jump on a grenade to save his platoon? Why does a martyr die for his religious beliefs?
Yes, I have 6 kids. Not only would it be extremely unlikely for me to end up in such a position, but I certainly would not throw out all my principals to save my kids. Hard for you to fathom, I know, but my kids survival stops if it has to be at the expense of someone else.
Holy crap. Seriously. You would let your child die before you’d have sex with someone to get enough money to feed your child? My god. Sex must be extremely sacred to you.
You’re not reading what I’m writing. I said my kids survival stops if it has to be at the expense of someone else.
Prostitution is a voluntary exchange between two consenting adults.
What I was saying is that I would not harm someone with violence or thievery so that my kids could live.
@eno In my case I have also refused to work in certain industries because I do not agree with the ethics of such. I will not work at McDonalds, Walmart or any gambling establishment, casinos, bars etc. I have worked in a nice winery tasting room but would not work in a skeezy bar.
I don’t care how bad it got, I am not compromising my personal standards.
Food OTOH, not an issue and @Seek I love your attitude, and it is so damn true!
@Dutchess_III . . . If you are living in a society where you have to leave your kids alone to go and fuck for a little food, are you really doing them any favors?
Fortunately, these ’‘what if’’ scenarios rarely limit the decisions to something outrageous. Say you need to feed your six kids, you probably won’t have to harm someone to do so. In the event that it would come to that, it would be useless, as you’d have to live in a place where NO one has food, therefore jumping some fucker wouldn’t net you any food, since that fucker and every other fucker is probably starving to death to begin with.
I don’t think ay one presented a scenario where harming someone else was an option.
What do you mean, @Blondesjon, “Not doing them any favors”? It would be a crappy society to live in, that’s for sure, but if that’s what it took to keep them alive, I’d do it. It isn’t doing them any favors letting them starve to death, either.
@Coloma
Admirable. How about prostitution? Would you do it so you can eat?
Yes, it’s admirable, but she clarified that she had the luxury of refusing to work in certain industries because she’s not starving.
@eno Nope. I’d rob a bank first.
@Coloma wrote I don’t care how bad it got, I am not compromising my personal standards.
According to this comment^, she would not compromise. Perhaps we should wait for her to clarify. .
@Coloma But you’re assuming a rich American society that has banks and stuff. What if there was nothing?
It’s just sex, man!
Anyway, so you’d rob a bank, probably get caught, get thrown in jail….and what happens to your kids then? The scenarios I’m imagining are the lengths I’d go to for my children, not necessarily for myself.
The point is not everyone breaks their principals during times of desperation. That’s all. You have a very hard time understanding this which is why you keep on undermining others with your own understanding.
@eno You are correct. I would steal to eat but I would not sell my sexual favors. I consider thievery to be better than degrading myself in a sexual manner. I would not steal from other destitute people, I would steal from sources that would not be missed.
@Dutchess_III Okay…no banks, then I guess I’d raid somebodies watermelon patch or steal a chicken, of course, you already know I wouldn’t eat my pets.
I don;t understand why you are disagreeing with the individual CHOICE of how low one might go.
Your low and my low may be different. You might choose to eat your dog and sell your sexual favors and I would choose to steal money, food, survival items before I ate my pets or sold my body.
OK. But the point is, there are some personal standards you would compromise.
I think the final point is, none of us can really imagine watching helplessly as your children die from starvation and preventable diseases, and not being able to do anything about it.
@Dutchess_III Well…then robbing a bank that got me thrown in jail and my child/children put in foster care with decent food and shelter might be the best option for the greater good of all. I’d rather my child knew I was a bank robber than a hooker. lol
Also, working at Walmart or McDonalds wouldn’t keep one from starving or being homeless anyway, sooo, might as well stick to my principals. Nobody can live on part time min. wage work.
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