Quirky banquet will illustrate poverty

by FelidaJoe : 7/4/09 3:28am - Report Abuse

Sounds like a bunch of Liberal nonsense to me. It would be far more illustrative to set up a day labor hiring table vs. a cheap wine, government check, and video game table and have The Columbian report accurately which one people tend to migrate to.

by M Johnson : 7/4/09 8:12am - Report Abuse

Try it, FelidaJoe, you might actually learn something, instead of being so proud of showing your continuing ignorance in these blogs.

by M W : 7/4/09 8:27am - Report Abuse

Both the Luepke Center Loaves and Fishes program and Mercy Corps provide important, lifesaving services to those in need. This fundraiser shows creativity, will inspire thoughtful conversation and sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

by J K : 7/4/09 11:12am - Report Abuse

Creativity and etc., yes. The problem is that people are assigned to the three groups randomly, which seems to say that poverty is a luck-of-the-draw issue.

How about holding a banquet and asking kids for their last report card (are they doing well in school?) or what chores they did today (are they working hard?), and assigning the tables based on that. I suggest it would be a more useful lesson and more of an eye-opener for children.

Or you can pretend that poverty is based on pure chance. But the last time I checked, we weren't assigning medical degrees or toilet cleaning jobs based on chance. Doing well in school and working hard play a big role.

by Oregon Webfoot : 7/4/09 11:30am - Report Abuse

Interesting idea, but "bread and water" was never a poverty thing... it was a sadistic punishment used on sailing ships and in prisons. The point was how backed up and painfully impacted the digestive tract gets on that diet. A "beans and mush (oatmeal,etc)" table would be more accurate of a depression ear poverty meal.

by Vancouver Sue : 7/4/09 11:51am - Report Abuse

I've heard of this being done before. The poverty table is usually just rice and water, although one would have to dirty up our water considerably to make it truly representative of how a huge majority of the world eats not out of choice but because of pure circumstance. And the pizza is too wealthy for that mid-range, it needs to be more austere and balanced nutritionally, but I'm not in charge of this particular event. The proportion of people seated at each table is relative to the proportion of people globally who would fall into each category.

The illustration is not intended to show what a person in the US can do based on hard work and study, but to show that political circumstances in a big portion of our world are the primary factors that determine whether a person is able to feed his/her family adequately, or they will subsist on rice, a few grubs, and dirty water.

I would strongly encourage all to participate and support this fund-raising effort. There are too many local people who, despite a lifetime of hard work and study, are currently either unemployed or under-employed (moi) and looking to local charities to bridge the gap.

by FelidaJoe : 7/4/09 2:10pm - Report Abuse

Holding fundraisers for worthy causes is a good idea. Trying to turn fundraisers into some sort of silly Liberal kindergarten political indoctrination ceremony is just plain stupid.

by Vancouver Sue : 7/4/09 8:42pm - Report Abuse

Hate to tell you this, FelidaJoe, if you care to listen, but starvation around the world does not play favorites. It has nothing to do with being "Liberal". Unless you, through some strange twisted logic, think that famine in Somalia (or wherever is currently affected) is some left-wing fairy tale?? Or disbelieve that we in the good old US of A are in the middle of a major economic crisis with the greatest rate of job loss in decades?? Or that workers who have retired thinking that they had adequate savings in their 401K's and a guaranteed company pension - oops, think again?? It does not matter one's political leanings. My brother-in-law is retired, after many loyal years of work, from a major auto maker that is currently in bankruptcy. He is very much a conservative. Guess what has happened to his retirement nest egg! Poof - gone!! Guess what happens to his pension and his retirement insurance in bankruptcy! All renegotiated! Nobody is immune! Don't be so smug, you may be the next to stand in line at the local food bank, only to find the shelves and bins to be *empty*!! This dinner opportunity is a perfect time to be reminded that extreme poverty can happen to *any* of us, which is the entire point of the exercise. Any of us who can afford to put a fully balanced and adequate meal on the table three times a day need to count our blessings, because we are in the minority world-wide.

by FelidaJoe : 7/4/09 10:03pm - Report Abuse

It's just Liberal theatrics designed to make some people "feel" like they identify with the poor people in the world and make them "feel" like they're doing something, Sue. In reality, it will do nothing to help the world's problems because most of the world's problems are caused by government, and it will do nothing to help fat Americans understand what the world's poor actually go through.

"Death" can also happen to any of us at any time, but I can't see going to a fundraiser and trying to play "dead" just to show solidarity with those in the graveyard. It makes about as much sense.