Today I broke a fast. For the past ten days I have been cleansing my body of toxins. No caffeine, alcohol, no solid food, only liquids. I have always wanted to complete a fast. I’ve tried many times and failed. The hardest part was the caffeine withdrawals for the first three days. On those days, I spent most of my time lying in bed with a splitting headache. When the headaches went away, it got easier. I lacked energy, but I felt pure and free.
Every morning, I would flush my bowel with warm salt water, completely depleting me. I felt euphoric at times and other times, the pain of hunger. On the fifth day, I could only think about hunger. Not just my hunger, but hunger as an emotion. hunger as a metaphor. The spirituality of hunger. The social significance of hunger. The oppression of hunger. The wanting and needing something to survive, and not getting it. Then I thought about world hunger, and how my hunger though very spiritual and meaningful, was merely a fairy tale compared to others. My hunger was a privilege.
Here are some statistics I gathered from a the website http://project-peaceonearth.com/Home.html
1 Billion people live in extreme poverty earning less than $1 per day. These people live chronically hungry, are unable to get health care, lack safe drinking water and sanitation, cannot afford education for their children and lack rudimentary shelter. – The World Bank
Over 11 million people die each year from preventable diseases. This is comprised of 3.8 million who die from Acute respiratory infections, 2.8 million who die from AIDS, 1.8 million who die from Diarrhea disease, 1.6 million who die from TB, 1.2 million who die from Malaria, and .5 million who die from the Measles.
- The World Health Organization
There are over 160 million malnourished children under the age of five. 34,000 of these children die each day due to hunger or preventable diseases resulting from hunger.
- National Association for the Prevention of Starvation
There are an estimated 110 million unexploded land mines worldwide. These land mines remain active for up to 50 years. The cost to build a land mine is approximately $3. It costs up to $1000 to remove a single land mine. – The United Nations
An estimated 15,000 – 20,000 people, many of the children, are killed every year by land mines.
- US Department of State
-Brett
