“Whatever You Like” by an American rapper, T.I., was a massive hit in the summer of 2008, topping the charts for seven nonconsecutive weeks, and staying in the top 3 of the charts for over 3 months. In the song, an imaginary girl that goes out with T.I. is able to have whatever she likes, from champaign to clothes to just plain cash.
However, in our society, it seems to us that we can
never get what we like. When we take food, for example, in my high school cafeteria, when I ask my friends, “What’s for dinner?”, one out of three times, they say something like, ”OMG rubber steak!”, “It’s chicken and rice again”, or “It’s disgusting. I’m ordering sushi.” This is not only happening at my school cafeteria, but restaurants all over the world, resulting in the increasingly wonderous food wastes.
Once, one of my friend told me that her father scolded her and told her to think of the kids in North Korea everytime she had left-over food. Perhaps, it is the tragedy of having so many things that we do not realize how many things we have to be thankful for. We easily forget that when we are wishing to get “whatever [we] like,” people in North Korea do not even get the one of the most basic things that human beings deserve to have – food.
Just today, the Chosun Times reported that this year, North Korea will be short on food by 1.0 to 1.2 million tons without support from outter countries. It has been estimated that, from last fall till upcoming summer, approximately 3.0 to 4.0 million tons of crops will be produced. Whereas, the amount of supply needed is nearly 5.23 million tons, which includes 4.058 million tons needed for the people. The Korea Herald reported that nearly 1 third of the North Korean population needs food support from the United Nations.
More than a third of North Koreans are in need of food aid from the international community, said Lynn Pascoe, U.N. under-secretary-general for political affairs, who visited the impoverished state earlier this month.
“These are human beings that need the food. It’s not the political system. This shouldn’t be argued in a political way,” Pascoe said in an interview with CNN.
He said the United Nations is giving nutritional supplements to as many as 1.3 million of North Korea’s 24 million people, but the U.N. World Food Program has estimated that more than a third of the population needs food aid.
Pascoe claimed the United Nations can be relied on for transparency of distribution.
“Our people believe they have a very clear idea of who’s using the food, where it’s going, and it’s really for the good of the people who need it most,” he said.
Pascoe was the first top-level U.N. official to visit North Korea in six years.
“There clearly is malnutrition at younger ages, so we’re trying to help them with fortified food and up through the schools so that they can eat. There also was a very large program on immunizations for the children,” he said.
“Our problem is we don’t have enough money coming in now to sustain some of those programs. … But the truth of the matter is we need to do more because these are people.”
The South Korean government estimates that the North will be short of up to 1.1 million tons of grain this year due to poor harvests last year.
It is perfectly fine not to like all the food that we get on our plate, and we might, again, be prone to throwing them away. However, next time we are in front of the trash can, thinking of dumping the left over rubber steak in, we should remind ourselves what that steak means to the children in North Korea. It is something that they can only dream of seeing. It is something that can keep them more healthy. It is something that would have helped some of them live for at least one more day.
