Too weird; too wrong
I was in the gym. The evening News had just finished on TV. TV3’s weeknight current affairs show, Campbell Live was getting underway. I had finished my stint on the treadmill and was lying on the exercise mat working myself up for a few crunches when I hear this; there are more obese people in the world than there are starving. Campbell is a little taken aback. He repeats questioningly, there are more obese people in the world than there are starving? I look up at the TV screen to find that the statement has been uttered by someone called Jenni (one of those sanctimonious, 30-something, blond ladies with flat tummies) in an item on fighting the flab.
What kind of statistic is that? Was Jenni actually suggesting that we should just forget about the starving and concentrate on helping the obese because there’s more of them? What kind of comparison is that anyway? Have we all gone completely off our trolleys? Obese people are fat mostly because of their own actions. Fat parents breed fat children. Starving people in general don’t have a choice. Starving parents breed starving children, it’s true. But it’s not their fault. Starving people are busy struggling just to stay alive. They don’t have any energy left to do much about it.
Isn’t it madness when nearly four decades after free school milk ended, the Government spends money to give an apple a day to about 20,000 schoolchildren to protect their health and primary schools are to be ordered to provide at least an hour a week of physical activity? Is an apple a day going to make a difference? I don’t think so. Not when kids are sent to school with a pie in their hands and go back home to a McDonald! What’s wrong when kids have to be taught to be active? Have you ever seen a young child in an open space sitting around doing nothing? Of course not! Kids are naturally active … they run around, kick balls, climb over walls …. And if they don’t have the opportunity to do what comes naturally, isn’t that the parent’s fault?
Not so with the starving! According to The Hunger Site, about 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five. Whose fault is that if not ours?
I don’t remember where I first saw this but it seems appropriate still. In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
UPDATE: After posting this I noticed the title of my previous post was Too much food. Too weird; too right!
What kind of statistic is that? Was Jenni actually suggesting that we should just forget about the starving and concentrate on helping the obese because there’s more of them? What kind of comparison is that anyway? Have we all gone completely off our trolleys? Obese people are fat mostly because of their own actions. Fat parents breed fat children. Starving people in general don’t have a choice. Starving parents breed starving children, it’s true. But it’s not their fault. Starving people are busy struggling just to stay alive. They don’t have any energy left to do much about it.
Isn’t it madness when nearly four decades after free school milk ended, the Government spends money to give an apple a day to about 20,000 schoolchildren to protect their health and primary schools are to be ordered to provide at least an hour a week of physical activity? Is an apple a day going to make a difference? I don’t think so. Not when kids are sent to school with a pie in their hands and go back home to a McDonald! What’s wrong when kids have to be taught to be active? Have you ever seen a young child in an open space sitting around doing nothing? Of course not! Kids are naturally active … they run around, kick balls, climb over walls …. And if they don’t have the opportunity to do what comes naturally, isn’t that the parent’s fault?
Not so with the starving! According to The Hunger Site, about 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five. Whose fault is that if not ours?
I don’t remember where I first saw this but it seems appropriate still. In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
UPDATE: After posting this I noticed the title of my previous post was Too much food. Too weird; too right!
posted by Omykiss at 12:02 pm
6 Comments:
Great post, Omykiss.
Ditto. See my blog.
That's a great quote!!
I love that quote..if you don't mind I'll have to write that down somewhere! I wonder who originally said it?
I'm liking you more and more as I go down. I was shown this blog through Michele but I'm still reading. Good reading.
Welcome elle, cara and wickwire.
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