When you are hungry how you do feel.

(Shoe)

Usually tired? Foggy? Often angry?

After taking the time to contemplate hunger in our contemplative practice this week I came to see hunger in a more multifaceted way. In addition to the terrible condition of being hungry, people who are going hungry are also adversely effected by the condition that huger leaves them in. It has been shown that hunger causes cognitive impairment including a lower ability to concentrate and learn. (World Vision) For a group of people that have a preoccupation of where to find food and the mindset that comes with hunger we must recognize the increased difficulties of improving their own life without help.

As we learned in Hunger Games, food and a lack of has been used as an instrument of power and control throughout history. (Quinn) We learned that it is convenient to draw a line between people and their value and right to live.

We also learned in Richard Robbins writing that people in western countries would have to change their lifestyles substantially to reach sustainable living. (Robbins) Think for a minute how much worse off we would be if everyone on the planet lived like the westerners.

If we take a minute to put this information together it could be argued that we in developed countries are benefiting from the low standard of living of others and the lesser world impact that comes with this lower standard. Is the current inequality between developed and developing countries and their access to food another less direct but still significant form of inequality with one people group coming out on top of another?

Works Cited

Quinn, By Peter. Hunger Games. 5 May 2014. https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/hunger-games.

Robbins, Richard. “Essays on beef and sugar.” Allyn, Bacon. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. 2007.

Shoe, Space. “Hunger.” Digital Image . 16 March 2012. https://www.flickr.com/photos/spaceshoe/6987096293/in/photolist-bDqGit-TLw2fi-4KHgkm-UtbWGD-8NH9Gh-UNMd4R-7qgjtH-6jgoBq-9Drz1T-og8WbJ-8T8WNg-71d6R-5dYtmS-UFbhgZ-GuCnR-WdX5Mb-ppo4Kn-qgkXBD-nt3UDR-W2vT1s-ozzRLZ-sq7Xk1-nGhSGX-VNq5m7-afePvn-kKWrSt-Tyrq8S-9cBm.

World Vision. Affect of Hunger: The Brain. n.d. https://www.30hourfamine.org/2011/11/affect-of-hunger-the-brain/. 20 July 2017.