A Closer Look at Life

Who's Hungry?

While the Great Leap Forward is a fascinating study in the systemic failure of communism as a functional governing system, I do not mention it here to critique it for its untenable ideological underpinnings.  I bring it up because it offers us a unique perspective on hunger.

In the history of bad ideas, there are few worse than the Great Leap Forward.  The plan, implemented by the Communist Chinese government in 1958, was targeted at increasing the production of the agricultural and industrial sectors of the Chinese economy by taking advantage of the seemingly endless labor pool of the Chinese peasantry. By the time the plan was scrapped and grain imports began in 1961, some estimates put the death toll from starvation at more than 40 million people. 

It has been reported that many of the people who died during the Great Leap forward did not die from simple lack of nutrients.  They were poisoned.  Finding no suitable food source, many peasants had begun looking for any alternative, going so far as to consume the very dirt they farmed in an attempt to gain any form of nutrient they could possibly find.  Not surprisingly, eating large amounts of soil, an activity the human digestive system was never designed for, quickly proved fatal. 

I first heard this from a Chinese history professor in college.  What was meant as an illustrative anecdote has stuck with me ever since.  That was the first time I was exposed to the idea that starvation is not simply the lack of something to eat.  It is the lack of  something that nourishes. 

As an example, look no further than our own chronically obese population.

There are some in medicine today that suggest that one of the major causes of obesity in America is not, in fact, overeating.  For many people, losing weight has less to do with quantity of food consumed and more to do with quality. 

There is medical evidence that shows if the body is not provided adequate nutrients, it will begin storing anything it can process as fat, thinking that lean times are at hand.  As a result, the person trying to lose weight by simply cutting the number of  Diet Cokes they drink and eating one less Big Mac a week is actually fighting upstream.  By simply providing the body with less junk food, they may be raising the rate at which the body is storing fat, thus abrogating much of the potential weight loss purchased with their lowered caloric intake.  Sadly, this is not the sort of weight loss news to get headlines.

This notion of starvation as a lack of nutrients has broader application than understanding why America is morbidly obese, why we care what kind of gas mileage we get, or what will happen to the poor Somalis that can no longer buy grain with their devalued currency. 

Beyond these more visible, tangible forms of starvation lie the emotional starvation of orphans and those widowed by war and other tragedies.  There is also the relational starvation that can be found in the most affluent American suburbs where busy parents throw money at the increasing angst of their children who are crying to be noticed and loved.  We see the same principle at work in porn addicts, adrenaline junkies and alcoholics; all trying to squeeze some feeling from their empty addiction.  The list of hungers of the human spirit is nearly endless.  Beyond, or perhaps beneath, even these forms of hunger lies the spiritual starvation experienced by nearly everyone on the planet.  It is not a starvation that many would admit to, or even notice. 

Hunger occurs when a basic need, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, is not met.  I believe every human has a hunger within them for the Divine.  Opinion may vary on this point, but I believe the preponderance of evidence throughout history is in favor of this claim.  Throughout time and across the world, people struggle to find higher meaning, greater significance; some kind of transcendent knowledge that satisfies the mind and soul.  Whether it is Buddhism, Christianity, Secular Humanism, Islam, Money or a host of other alternatives; all of us are looking for something.  We all have souls that need to be fed, and even the best human relationships and most ideal physical conditions fall pitifully short.

It is on this point that the experiences of Chinese, peasant farmers becomes salient for me.  That they would resort to poisoning themselves by eating dirt in an attempt to avoid starvation reminds me that when hunger becomes great enough, any alternative, no matter how foolish and empty, will become a viable option.  Similarly, the frustration of the overweight fast food junkie reminds me that abstaining from an empty, unhealthy thing does not always equate to filling myself with something valuable and substantive.

When I wake up each day, I am faced with a question common to all mankind.  All our souls our hungry; what are we going to fill them with? 

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
       come to the waters;
       and you who have no money,
       come, buy and eat!
       Come, buy wine and milk
       without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
       and your labor on what does not satisfy?
       Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
       and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

3 Give ear and come to me;
       hear me, that your soul may live.
       I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
       my faithful love promised to David.

                                                    Isaiah 55:1-3

There is no promise more glorious than God’s.  There is no food so satisfying to the soul as His love. 

There are no reasons but fear or pride to refuse that which is given for free.

Driven to Starvation

If one reads the news these days, there is no escaping the panicked stories about the rising cost of staple grains.  There is little doubt that the world’s population is getting larger, and hungrier, by the day.  One may well wonder what has brought this seemingly cataclysmic condition upon us so quickly.  Many different groups are being accused of causing this new crisis, with the average Chinese peasant, Western alternative energy producers and commodities traders in the Philippines standing together in the line-up.  I suggest a different cause; one that hits a little closer to home.

In less than two months, global news coverage of the plight of the hungry has gone from non-existent to a full fledged feeding frenzy, no pun intended. Even bio-fuel manufacturing is being senselessly implicated in this terror of the month. Some news reporters, and even news makers, seem to have forgotten that a substantial portion of US corn production is dedicated to producing corn-based sweeteners for non-essential products like Coca-Cola.  Much land is also used to grow corn used to feed cattle that are helping to meet the rising demand for diary and beef in rapidly growing Asian markets. 

Feeding the world’s hungry is certainly a growing problem.  Whoever you blame, the fact remains that the global population is continuing to grow, and it must be fed.  This is a new kind of hunger too, with the new concentrations of the under-fed being found in urban areas rather than impoverished rural settings. 

When we were in Ethiopia, we were told that the government there had undertaken actions to raise the price of the indigenous staple grain teff by nearly 600% in less than two years.  The plan was designed to help impoverished farmers by artificially raising the price of their biggest product.  While it accomplished the increase in the price of teff, it has also brought about a predictable rise in farming related goods and services, thus abrogating much of the anticipated windfall for the farmers. 

The farmers, many barely more than subsistence grade, have so far weathered the storm. The business of fighting to grow enough to survive is not so susceptible to fickle market forces.  In the cities, however, millions of poor are facing an astronomic increase in the cost of food, often the largest portion of their budgets.

In reality, however, the commodities traders, bio-fuel makers and even Coke drinkers are only a small part of the problem.  Perhaps the biggest reason food prices are rising is the increasing cost of oil. 

Around the world, the urban, jobless poor are finding themselves at the mercy of seemingly unrelated issues half a world away.  Unrest in the Niger delta, American foreign policy in the Gulf, frustratingly shrewd production caps by OPEC, huge SUVs on Western highways and pension related strikes in Scotland continue to push the cost of oil into historically high territory. The knock-on effects are felt at every level the world over.

Today we are beginning to see a new kind of hunger.  With farming techniques and technology continuing to raise production levels across the industrialized world, the availability of food-stuffs is growing.  Shortage of resources is no longer the problem.  The cost of transportation, thanks to rising oil prices, and the hoarding of staple goods through commodities trading on futures markets is driving the cost of staple foods higher and higher.  Across the world grocery store shelves are full of food.  The problem is, no one has the money to buy it.  We are entering a new era where global production and allocation of resources and commodities must be more intentional and directed if it is to meet rising demands. 

We are entering a period of history unlike any known before.  We will soon find ourselves in a world where others suffer not from our inaction or our lack of charity.  People will begin to suffer when we fail to use our resources wisely.  Compassion for the poor will soon be more closely related to the conscientious use of our resources than many of us ever expected. 

We as Americans, and particularly the Christians among us have an opportunity, and, I think, an obligation to help prevent a crisis that may soon affect people we will never meet.  If we were to merely engage in the simple, yet frustratingly interdependent, act of carpooling, we could have large effects on the quality of life of those living in the fragile economies of the developing world.  As the largest consumer of oil on the planet, Americans have the greatest potential to lower demand for oil by making small changes in our daily lives, thus lowering the price of oil, and by extension, the price of food in developing countries. 

The question at hand is not a matter of resource shortages.  It is simply that Americans and those in other westernized countries are not economical with their resources because it is not convenient for them to do so.  In a purely Darwinian view of life, selfless economization is not a matter of concern.  The Haves can do as they wish, and charity is an option. 

On this point, the Gospel of Christ differs greatly from the conventional wisdom.  From what I have read of the Bible, I am to consider everyone the world over as family.  Christians are called, I believe, to act with the interests of others in mind, even when there is no direct benefit to themselves.  After all, that is the basic definition of love. 

While on earth, Christ called us to and then exemplified compassion; by definition “suffering with” those he encountered.  My “suffering” could begin by riding a bike to work, getting up a little earlier to catch a bus or even buying a smaller, more efficient car so that others can eat.  To me, that seems a light burden to bear to begin fulfilling the commands of God. 

Ends and Means

One of the most unfortunate confusions that Americans have about life is that we see the physical things we possess as ends, rather than as means to greater truths that lie beyond them. 

Living in Colorado, I drive on roads that are populated with a high percentage of off-road vehicles.  One can barely drive a block without seeing an enormous truck or SUV rumbling along on its huge tires.  A large portion of these land barges are the over-stuffed, fluffy, suburbanite cruisers such as Toyota Sequoias, Chevy Tahoes and Nissan Armadas; vehicles that will never see off-road duty, and aren’t even designed to in any case.  For the most part, they are simply ego stimulus packages for Gen-X soccer moms and dads who don’t want to admit that they need a minivan.  Their atrocious fuel economy aside, these brontosaural heaps are largely benign and have the benefit of being handy in the event of light snow.

There is another breed of vehicle that seems to be increasing in numbers, however.  Comprised mostly of elephantine trucks, (think lifted Dodge Rams and Ford F-350s) this new species can be spotted blocks away, towering over the cars they (sometimes) share the road with.  They are easily spotted by their obscenely large lift-kits and/or low profile tires and huge, over-sized rims, often painted black and aggressively styled.  These trucks give the impression of an almost militant, testosterone-soaked outlook that says “I need this truck because I breathe.  Sorry if you get run over, but this is what I need because I am just this hardcore.”

There is only one problem.  They aren’t hardcore.  They are merely hard-shelled.

I will spare you the details, but even from my limited understanding of off-roading, I know that many of these chrome-laden, jacked-up rigs lack some of the most basic equipment (and geometry) to really tackle the rigors of the unimproved mountain roads of Colorado.  This leads me to question why people are spending so much money creating these monsters.  To me, the answer is a matter of confusing ends with means.

This is not just a rant against silly trucks.  In many spheres of life I see a steady progression away from functionality toward form and appearance.  This is emblematic of a shift in how American culture handles possessions, due in large part to the blitzkrieg of visual advertising content we are exposed to.

In the case of the big trucks, many people driving these vehicles have little interest in the actual act of off-roading.  It is about the perceived value in possessing a vehicle that looks capable of doing so.  Perhaps it allegedly says something about their outlook on life, their capacity to cope with danger, or their potential virility and thus capacity to mate. 

In one sense, this image projection is the essential purpose of possessions as preached to us by the ads that bombard us daily.  When content driven, informative advertising finally gave way to ideological, worldview-forming marketing somewhere in the 1980's, (the shift from what you need to who you are) we were put at the mercy of a doctrine that says the possession of the thing itself is more important than the function of the item. 

“So what?” you ask.

The “so what” is that we, as a people, are increasingly divorced from critical examination of the things we buy, as the simple act of possessing them is sufficient reason to pull out our wallets.  We no longer think of possessions as a means in the traditional sense.  They have become ends in and of themselves, locking up our energy, our time, our money, our worries and even our worship in cold, dead, manufactured things.

What is troubling about this shift is that it prevents us from seeing any higher goal or purpose to our work, our play or even our lives than the act of acquiring possessions.  Caught up in the labor of buying things to establish an identity or provide experiential fulfillment, we miss the opportunity to connect with substantive activity in life.  We miss the chance, or rather forego it volitionally, to tangibly change, impact or even enter into the lives of people around us. 

This isn’t about feeling guilty every time we get into our cars or pull out our smart phones.  It is about trying to look through the hype to ask “why” in everything we do and everything we buy.  When we begin to ask this question, the substantial, satisfying answers will soon begin to stand out from the crowd of imposters. 

To me, this question matters because I believe there is an ultimate Why.  I believe His love for us and His perspective on life are more valuable than anything we can possess.  I believe working for and in line with his purposes is the ultimate End.  Everything else must be a means for me to reach Him, or I will fall pitifully short of the full wonder of existence. 

Water

If you are like me, you almost never give tap water a second thought.  After all, who doesn't have water in their home?

These women don't. 

Seriously.  Take a look.

It doesn't take much to lend a helping hand.  The difference it makes can be incalculable.