Rice Is Nice, Change Is Better.

There is a website that I would like very much to share with you all. It's called FreeRice. Before you read any further into this post, please take a moment to visit the site, familiarize yourself with their mission statement, and play the game for a bit. I ask this of you, so that you too will have hopefully experienced a mixture of emotions similar to that which I struggle with when considering the implications of this program. *After having done that, please read on.

FreeRice is an extension of Poverty.com, and as such is aimed at reducing global hunger, while concurrently boosting peoples vocabulary. A novel idea right? There is a part of me that marvels at the premise behind this, and idealistically wants to believe it will make a difference. While another side of me is sickened by the realization that the classist dichotomy of our world has reached such surreal proportions that a small section of the global population can now play a game to help feed the impoverished majority.

I feel like a soulless hypocrite to even attempt to speak out against this, as I sit here at my computer, benefiting from the comfort afforded those born to the "first world." As an advocate of compassion, and one who seeks to distribute wealth and comfort to the "have-nots," what gives me the right to criticize such an obviously well intentioned program? But then it dawns on me that my quarrel is not with FreeRice, no, it is with me, and you, and everyone currently living in such a privileged existence as we experience here in the "first world" context.

According to the United Nations' World Food Program; 25,000 people die of hunger and hunger-related causes daily. Yet that knowledge alone is not enough to inspire us to want to make a sacrifice. It does not encourage us to altruistically donate of ourselves. We need incentives for such behavior. We need a photograph, a letter from a child, an emotional rah-rah guilt trip delivered courtesy Sally Struthers to 'give up that extra cup of coffee each day.' Do we need a video game that offers to increase our intellect, massages us with perceived gains, to want to do the right thing?

Of course we are not all like this, and although the picture I paint is somewhat bleak, there is hope for us still. There are many tens of thousands of people out there willing to give selflessly of themselves to help make this world a more excellent home for us all, and those folks should be commended for their efforts, each and every day, because they are the true heroes that walk among us. I want to look at programs like FreeRice and believe that they are making a difference beyond the superficial; that they are more than small bandages being placed against wounds requiring cauterization and stitches.

My hope is that those who play this game will be awakened to the idea that there are billions who are in desperate need of our assistance, and that those individuals will then take it upon themselves to seek out other, more comprehensive ways to give. Really, this is not an outrageous request. Take a look at this chart for an idea of where we Americans stand among our "first world" peers in terms of international aid. The money is out there, we just need to know where to look. There are so many ways to cut costs, and save money, that when our relative overall wealth is then juxtaposed against our lack of contribution, the result is shameful.

This is not, nor has it ever been the exclusive responsibility of the rich or elite among us, as we are so prone to convincing ourselves through abject justifications. If left to their own devices, the elite would see to it that the world stayed exactly as it is right now, and nothing would ever change because this is how they remain wealthy. So you see, the burden of responsibility falls squarely onto our shoulders. We who still have some small shred of compassion lingering within us. Whose spirits are not yet entirely corrupted by the ease and privilege of this "first world" existence.

I've said it before, and I will continue to recommend that we turn the heat and AC down. Take a walk once in awhile instead of driving everywhere. Reduce your convenience! So much money is being wasted on our quest to avoid anything and everything uncomfortable. For those of you with a religious background, those who tithe 10% of your income to the church, mosque, synagogue, or temple: consider using some, (or maybe all) of that apparently liquid income to help improve the quality of life; education, healthcare, sustainability of the "third world" instead of paying to have new carpet added to the church foyer. Isn't that what God would really want?