I heard it often when I was a kid, and working in a restaurant now, I still here every now and then, “Eat your food. There are kids starving in Africa!”
When I was younger I didn’t give a shit about kids in Africa. Now that I know about what goes on over there…well, I still don’t give much of a shit. Things haven’t changed since I was a kid. Why are we still feeding them? Why is everyone so concerned about what they’re doing over in Africa. Hell, there are kids starving right in our own country; no one seems to be worried about them. Do you think parents in England or Japan tell their children not to waste their food because kids are starving in North America?
And why is it always the kids that we’re concerning ourselves with? What about the adults? Are they not starving? Are they hogging all the food? They still look emaciated on the commercials. Is it that the adults can’t provide for their kids, so it’s up to us? We make the efforts to feed the kids of these deadbeat parents and help them grow into deadbeat parents themselves? Is this our ultimate goal? We help the kids grow up, then say fuck ’em? Have some more kids so we can feed them now.
Not only do we send tons of food to these countries, but we spend millions treating them for diseases like Aids – just so they can live longer and starve to death like the rest. It’s a natural cause of death over there. What we should be doing is helping them learn to farm. There are acres of land just begging to be tilled. We should be helping them learn to grow their own food. Teach a man to fish, eh? And hell, some of these countries mine little chunks of rock called diamonds that the rest of the world pays enormous sums of money for. How is it that these countries are poor? Don’t they know how to handle money? Maybe we should be sending them accountants, not food.
Maybe I shouldn’t be saying that we send them food. We send them money, with which they get food, from somewhere. And they eat for far less money than we do. For what it costs to buy a Big Mac combo at McDonald’s here, they could feed a whole family for a week. And I know they don’t have a McDonald’s in Zaire, but isn’t that a good thing? These poor people don’t have access to a greedy billion-dollar food franchase that mass produces tasty garbage? I have a hard time feeling sorry for these people sometimes.
So, okay, they have food and agriculture problems because of war and corrupt governments. So do many countries. Our goverment is totally corrupt, screwing the little guys every chance they get, yet I don’t see other countries striving to feed our kids. No one helps me out. I’ve got a mouth to feed. I’ve got bills to pay. I’ve got creditors calling me sometimes three times a day trying to get the money back I that used to get an education. Sorry if I’d rather feed myself instead. Now, sure, maybe those young people in Rwanda don’t have the opportunity to go to college, but maybe they’re better off. I’m (only) fifteen grand in the hole, and for nothing. I have a plaque, and that’s it. No fancy job – I only make minimum wage. I’d have been better off NOT going to college for all the good it’s done me. So no, I’ll keep avoiding paying back the goverment for my useless education because I have to pay my rent. Cause if I don’t my ass is out in the cold. Yeah, it gets cold here. Over in Africa if you’re out on the street…or dirt…at least you can survive the comparatively warm nights.
So, yeah, I think feeding those people is the last thing we should be doing. We should be teaching them safe sex. If hundreds of children die in these countries every day, like they claim, then eventually they should run out of kids, shouldn’t they? But more of them just keep showing up. Between the shootings, lion attacks, rampant disease, and oh yes, starvation, you’d think at least a few of these countries would be bankrupt of children after a decade or more. But no, apparently once these kids reach adulthood (thanks to our help), they do nothing but fuck each other. If they can’t fill one hole they’ll fill another.
After decades of being dependent on our help, it’s time to cut ties with these countries, ween them off our assistence. It’s time to kids our own kids and overthrow or own goverment. Because if we can’t take care of ourselves, how the hell are we supposed to take care of anyone else?
The Chris Effect 