Food For Thought

Wouldn't it be nice if hospitals and schools had all they needed and the army had to hold bake sales to buy guns."

Have you ever stopped and actually pondered about how crazy this world really is becoming? Poverty is everywhere and it is just getting worse: the United States is constantly plugging in billions of dollars for the war on terrorism, more and more companies are now global corporations eating up small community based enterprises caus- ing more families to fall into poverty.

These issues are a reality, and as students we should know at least a little about poverty but do we really know what is meant by severe poverty? Try eating less then "Krappy Dinner" (Kraft Dinner) and sharing a small bed- room, like the smallest bedroom in a Brown's Court Townhouse, with eleven other people while you have no access to clean water or sewage facilities and live in houses put together with whatever materials you can find qualifies as living in severe poverty.

There are also millions of people in this world who struggle with the question "Where I am going to get food and clean water to feed my family today?" How would you feel if you were in this situation? Watching your children grow up with a bloated stomach . because of being undernourished, while we as Canadians chuck out the scraps from our dinners into the compost bin without thinking about how much we really waste.

There is hope that one day,

‘no one will be hungry or thirsty on

this planet. We as consumers have a voice and a choice. A good choice would be to buy "fairly traded coffee" instead of store bought brand. This way, the grow- ers will receive a fair price for their coffee beans instead of poor wages and they can support their families. Another thing to do is to buy clothes that are not made in sweat- shops. Sweatshops are factories where workers toil for twelve to fifteen hours a day and get paid very poorly because the countries that have these sweatshops do not have minimum wage. The compa- nies continue to make large profits while their worker's never get a pay increase.

If reading this struck a cord and made you more interested in doing something or to learn more about how to help fight against poverty and injustices in the world,

‘you are in luck. Students at the

Chaplaincy Centre are soon going

to organize a Think Fast: like a Thirty Hour Famine, only with a Christian perspective. We will be learning about issues surrounding poverty and justice and how to combat them along with having lots of fun and raising money that will help Development and Peace with their projects to fight against poverty in the Third World.

Think Fast is scheduled for March and is open to anyone who is interested in poverty and injus- tice issues. More information to follow, but if you have any ques- tions do not hesitate to email me Melissa Drummond, at knightof- god777@hotmail.com. Together, we can stop poverty from growing. Lets keep things local!

UPEI Cadre February 4, 2004 page 21

Good Story Idea?

If you have a good idea for a story to be placed in the Cadre, send your article to upeipaper-

trail@hotmail.com.

Make sure you include your name and a title for your master- piece.

(Look what we had to do to fill

this last corner at 6:52 am.)

Men’s Volleyball Recently, a contingent of UPEI male volleyball students partook in the Canada East Cup in Quebec City, Quebec. The boys would like to thank the following sponsors who helped make their trip a reality:

UPEI Athletic Department City of Charlottetown Schurman’s Building Supplies Business Technology Consulting Inc.