Last week I attended a “Hunger Banquet” sponsored by Oxfam America. In my role as a citizen of the world and occasional do-gooder, I’ve come to enjoy programs at the Action Center to End World Hunger, which hosted the event; as a wordsmith I was intrigued by the oxymoron of “hunger banquet.”
The first order of business was to pull a slip of paper from a bowl—my fictional persona for the evening. I was Enrique, a 40 year-old farmer in Guatemala, who recently bought a cow with money he received from Mercy Corps (which sponsors the Action Center). I don’t look or sound anything like an Enrique, but I was willing to play along. Almost immediately I learned that “playing along” included sitting on the floor for the event. My slip of paper was green, identifying me as one of the roughly 50% of humanity considered “low income,” meaning they earn less than $800 per person per year.
Circle of Ignorance 