Carpe Diem #920 Hunger (Empathy)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to bring another episode of Carpe Diem to you. It's also a pleasure for me to announce that Chèvrefeuille's Publications soon will be publishing our new CDHK E-book by Hamish Managua Gunn. Hamish has already send me his concept and we are busy to create his E-book together. Hamish has chosen to share kikôbun with you all. In his last CD-Special you all have been introduced already to kikôbun. I am looking forward to his CDHK E-book.

Food For Thought (© unknown)

Introduction

Today I will follow the same structure as I do this whole month, but this time my introduction is different, because I love to share a tanka which I created as I saw the above photo.

This is a very touching photo, so full of pain and misery, but also full of love. As I see it ... this young boy has to take care for his younger brother or sister. They have no place to go. Maybe they have lost their parents through hunger or war. 

near starvation
living on the streets of the world
brotherly love
stronger than ever struggling together
fighting against hunger

© Chèvrefeuille

Hamish on Hunger (Empathy) 

There are 795 million undernourished people in the world today. That means one in nine people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. The good news is that hunger is entirely solvable. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone and no scientific breakthroughs are needed. Today’s knowledge, tools and policies, combined with political will, can solve the problem.

Solving hunger is a “best buy” in today’s tough economy. When nations work together to solve hunger and invest in good nutrition, they increase productivity and create economic opportunities. Conversely, studies have shown that countries lose millions of dollars in economic output as a result of child under nutrition. Solving hunger is also a contribution to peace and stability. When governments can no longer guarantee adequate food supplies, states are prone to fall. Volatility on food markets can quickly translate into volatility on the streets.

Finally, solving hunger lays the foundation for progress in many other areas of development, including health and education. Well-nourished women have healthier, heavier babies whose immune systems are stronger for life. A healthy, well-fed child is also more likely to attend school.

Good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the 1990s, but progress began to level off between 2000 and 2010. All of us – citizens, employers, corporate leaders and governments – must work together to end hunger.

Your haiku today does not need to be about the sense of hunger, but it should show empathy, which is another way of being at one with your topic or theme.

My response

Hm ... how to catch this in a haiku or tanka? Not an easy task, but here is my tanka, I think tanka is the best poetry form for this theme:

a homeless man
seeking for food
in the garbage
I invite him for dinner
sharing my meal

© Chèvrefeuille

 

 

 This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 20th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, absurdity, later on. For now ... have fun!