You Have No Idea…
Have you ever been hungry?
And no, I’m not talking about “Upper UC, Lower UC, and Rathbone never has anything I want to eat!” type of hungry.
No.
I’m talking about real starvation,
the kind of hunger that leads to emaciation
like the situation of Venecia Louis,
a young Haitian who little body weighs less than half of what it should be
the images of her living skeleton were so nauseating that I couldn’t eat my dinner…and neither could she, even if she tried
she’s so skinny that she looks like she’s about to die
but this little girl isn’t suffering from an incurable disease or an eating disorder
No. This is girl is dying because her world has no order,
Do you know what its like to suffer from severe malnutrition?
And no I’m not talking an increase in college tuition so that you can no longer afford the Carte Blanche meal plan
I’m talking about the kind of malnutrition you get when your mother is forced to give away most of your food to starving neighbors so that they don’t murder you and your entire family out of jealousy that you get to eat.
Yes, it really is that deep.
You might think you know, but you have no idea…
What it feels like to be a child in Haiti living every second in fear
To cry out, but to be too dehydrated to shed tears
To eat mudpies, yes mudpies, to calm your craving stomach’s cries.
You have no idea…
What its like to live in one of the poorest nations in the world
How it feels to be tortured, raped, and brutalized
To feel the wounds from being politically, economically, and socially crucified
To see your world full apart all around you and all you can do scream is WHY? WHY? WHY?
Even I thought I knew about the deprivation in Haiti…but I had no idea.
EDUCATE YOURSELVES
This is real this is the human condition in its most purest form. We do this to each other, with enough food, resources and modes of transportation to feed the world two times over do we try to cure world hunger? No, we sanction who can get access to what. It's crazy. Why? Because humans led by an Americanized materialism and greed don't want to share. They want to keep up the status of the haves and have-nots and if you just so happen to fall into the have-nots category, oh well! Because your not important enough to care about. And they feel that it will always be that way, the haves and the have-nots, but it's not true they make it that way, we can end this issue but the problem is not enough people standup and say they care to fight this problem and so many others. And to see this little girl like this shows what we feel about our future, that are future isn't important if it means I have to give up my Ipod, my car, my computer with 24/7 internet access, my prada bag, my video games. Well, I would gladly give those things up to see this little girl in a better state than what she is in, I would give my life if I thought it meant anything, if I thought it could change conditions for this little girl and so many like her and I'm angry that I can't. How many people who claim to care about human rights would do that? Not many. If you aren't willing to risk your life to combat injustice than what's the point of living? People use to think this way and fight some still do, but many lost sight of this. Good post Tara
ReplyDeleteSeeing this picture still gets to me. It shames me that people including myself complain about small things like food and how we can turn it down because it tastes "funny". It's unfortunate that people are still so unaware of the horrific situations that is going on in other parts of this world. But again great job performaning this at Rock 4 Haiti.
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