Does eating an 18-course dinner help you understand people who don't have enough food?

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/324






The lunch and dinner menu from the G8 summit. Could these meals inspire helping those less fortunate?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Chad Rubel


We have a global food crisis that requires extensive solutions. So is it ironic or necessary to be well-fed before you can discuss why people are starving? The leaders at the G8 summit in Japan sat down to a 6-course lunch and an 18-course dinner while at the same time being at a meeting that focuses on the food crisis. The food included delicacies such as caviar, milk-fed lamb, sea urchin and tuna. Of course, champagne and wines flown in from Europe and the U.S. The full menu is listed above.

But irony can work to your advantage. This extravagance reminded me of the stories I had heard about those who worked on one of the charity songs in the 1980s and called out for the popular West Coast chain Fatburger during the recording sessions. After having my first encounter ever with Fatburger this past week on vacation, I can understand their request. The food is good. Maybe being nourished made them sing with more passion to bring relief to parts of the world that needed it.

And years ago, when I worked in radio, I was preparing to do an interview with Casey Kasem on the joys of giving up meat for a day. I was going to go over the materials to prepare, and decided to read while having dinner: hamburgers from Burger King. It did help me reflect on the impact of meat by eating meat. And the interview was better as a result.

Yes, it would be better to reflect the ideals of the four Congressmen who lived for a week on $21, the average federal assistance provided to food stamp recipients. And this is in a country where we have access to food, even if it's not affordable. But if you hold extravagant food on your plate and you can see the irony right before your eyes, then the meal, albeit an 18-course dinner with "milk-fed lamb flavoured with herbs and mustard, and roast lamb with cepes and black truffle" might be the best solution. After all, since the meal is so far away from the current realities of many people around the world, it could be obvious even to leaders who live isolated lives. But if it's not, and the leaders can't come up with good solutions, they might want to try living for a week on $21, or limiting themselves in some other way. Because right now, these people don't even have access to the cake Marie Antoinette allegedly pushed on the peasants.

[Captain Angry]

1. I have only eaten a bowl of raisin bran today.

And now I'm gnawing on my monitor after reading that menu.

I saw the story yesterday about the great amounts of high end food being made for the Democratic convention, and it frustrated me. These people don't need to be wined/dined. We're wasting so much money on that while so many are going hungry. It's very sad.

[ben_meyers]

2. Sure, it's like 10,000 people flying to Bali

to discuss climate change then having to fly the empty planes out to make room for the next flight.

Do as I say, not as I do.

[exothermic]

3. Big deal, I could have a hot onion tart for dinner tonight! (If I had an onion and

some tart)

:shrug:

[China_cat]

4. Only if the 18 courses consist of

17 grains of rice and a bug.

[Tutonic]

5. No but it certainly helps you to block out the troubles that that poor

iddy widdy Georgie has had for the last seven years. Shucks I bet that delicacy G-8 "fantasy" desert was all that he could think about while he had to endure the other 15 courses beforehand.

[groovedaddy]

6. I can't remember the title of those dinners some organizations put on

In order to reflect the reality of how people eat around the world they would do the following:
At one end of the table, people would have a lavish meal and from there, the other diners would have increasingly less variety and quantity, arriving at the other end of the table where people might have a little rice, if that.
Now why didn't the G-8 have that kind of dinner?