Early this morning (ie. 1am) I finished reading Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, and it was a revelation for me. The book is non-fiction, and entwines the stories of six people who lives in North Korea through the eighties and nineties. It's a method that works really well to bring home the living conditions the North Koreans had to deal with. After all, to the human mind, a million is a statistic; Barbara Demick gets around this by using these individuals to stand in for larger stories. Each individual does exist, and went through events as described - it's just that Demick backs up the idea that these weren't unusual situations for that time and place. It's well worth a read.
The bit that really stood out to me was the description of living through the famine in the 1990s. Around 10% of the population died. It's hard to track because - and I didn't realise this - most people don't actually starve to death. The hunger weakens their immune systems, and they die from other illnesses that take advantage of it. Apart from that, of course, the North Korean dictatorship are well known for their propaganda, and actually prevented donated food from reaching the right place out of their desire to hide their need for it.
That makes me want to do something to help, and yes, I know the 90s were fifteen years ago. Here's a more recent article on life in North Korea today.
My first instinct was to look to Kiva, which is the way I prefer to give money. Essentially, you loan money, in $25 increments, to people who otherwise would not be able to get a loan at decent rates. You don't literally loan them the cash; basically, your money underwrites a loan from a provider near to the person in question. In other words, your money pays the loan company back if that person defaults on the agreement, ie, doesn't pay back the money. That guarantee is what enables the loan provider to take that risk, and then once the loan is paid back, you can lend out your $25 again. There are some limitations of course - there aren't any loans going in North Korea, because internet access and aid access are so very restricted there. So that won't work for this purpose.
Incidentally, while browsing Kiva, I found my next loan - Mrs Thùy in Vietnam, who wants to build a toilet, bathroom, and water filter system.
Going back to famine and starvation, I want to take part in a fast to better understand and appreciate hunger. I'd also like to raise some money to donate, either to sponsor a child, or to lend through Kiva, or to just straight out donate to a charity which helps to prevent famine. I'm not sure how to do that yet. Have people sponsor me for fasting? I hate asking people for money. Donate any money leftover from my normal food budget for that month? I'm not sure. For the actual fast, I'm planning to follow the basic principles of Ramadan. I'm an atheist, but there are several reasons for doing it this way. Firstly, it's an established time-frame, with set beginning and end points that other people observe, not just me. That'll make it easier to stick with, I think. Secondly, it has set rules and criteria, and although I don't plan to follow all of them, using an existing structure is, again, easier than making up my own. Thirdly, I have family members who are Muslim, and having their support will, again, make life easier.
The reason I won't be sticking strictly to the rules is that, firstly, I'm an atheist, and intend to use the time to better understand human experiences, rather than get closer to god, so those elements will not be a part of it, for me. Secondly, I'm due to donate blood during that time period. Ramadan, this year, begins around June 29th, and my next blood donation will be due on July 7th. I'm not quite sure how to manage this. If I'm eating between sunrise and sunset, will it be okay if I fast the day before, eat a lot before sunrise, eat normally on the day, and then fast the next day, depending on how recovered I feel? Should I avoid fasting for a longer period around then? I'm not sure yet, but I've asked Blood.co.uk's facebook page for their suggestions.
The question of blood donation doesn't normally come up, as losing blood is automatically considered to break the fast during Ramadan, so Muslims would avoid it, if possible - obviously, avoiding menstruation is a little trickier than avoiding a blood donation! That's sensible - people who are losing blood should take in slightly more calories, and they should definitely be replacing iron and various other bits and bobs. We'll see.
I could just donate blood slightly later, but I don't want to. This is partly because I'm taking part in an interval study, which is designed to find the optimal gap between donations. It screws up their records a bit if I leave it too long. Secondly, since the point of this, for me, is to try to understand and help other people, it seems a bit silly to go out of my way to avoid donating blood. We'll see.
Anyway. the book is very powerful and thought-provoking - obviously! - and I highly recommend it. A lot of people have written very powerful reviews here, and I also recommend reading them.
The bit that really stood out to me was the description of living through the famine in the 1990s. Around 10% of the population died. It's hard to track because - and I didn't realise this - most people don't actually starve to death. The hunger weakens their immune systems, and they die from other illnesses that take advantage of it. Apart from that, of course, the North Korean dictatorship are well known for their propaganda, and actually prevented donated food from reaching the right place out of their desire to hide their need for it.
That makes me want to do something to help, and yes, I know the 90s were fifteen years ago. Here's a more recent article on life in North Korea today.
My first instinct was to look to Kiva, which is the way I prefer to give money. Essentially, you loan money, in $25 increments, to people who otherwise would not be able to get a loan at decent rates. You don't literally loan them the cash; basically, your money underwrites a loan from a provider near to the person in question. In other words, your money pays the loan company back if that person defaults on the agreement, ie, doesn't pay back the money. That guarantee is what enables the loan provider to take that risk, and then once the loan is paid back, you can lend out your $25 again. There are some limitations of course - there aren't any loans going in North Korea, because internet access and aid access are so very restricted there. So that won't work for this purpose.
Incidentally, while browsing Kiva, I found my next loan - Mrs Thùy in Vietnam, who wants to build a toilet, bathroom, and water filter system.
Going back to famine and starvation, I want to take part in a fast to better understand and appreciate hunger. I'd also like to raise some money to donate, either to sponsor a child, or to lend through Kiva, or to just straight out donate to a charity which helps to prevent famine. I'm not sure how to do that yet. Have people sponsor me for fasting? I hate asking people for money. Donate any money leftover from my normal food budget for that month? I'm not sure. For the actual fast, I'm planning to follow the basic principles of Ramadan. I'm an atheist, but there are several reasons for doing it this way. Firstly, it's an established time-frame, with set beginning and end points that other people observe, not just me. That'll make it easier to stick with, I think. Secondly, it has set rules and criteria, and although I don't plan to follow all of them, using an existing structure is, again, easier than making up my own. Thirdly, I have family members who are Muslim, and having their support will, again, make life easier.
The reason I won't be sticking strictly to the rules is that, firstly, I'm an atheist, and intend to use the time to better understand human experiences, rather than get closer to god, so those elements will not be a part of it, for me. Secondly, I'm due to donate blood during that time period. Ramadan, this year, begins around June 29th, and my next blood donation will be due on July 7th. I'm not quite sure how to manage this. If I'm eating between sunrise and sunset, will it be okay if I fast the day before, eat a lot before sunrise, eat normally on the day, and then fast the next day, depending on how recovered I feel? Should I avoid fasting for a longer period around then? I'm not sure yet, but I've asked Blood.co.uk's facebook page for their suggestions.
The question of blood donation doesn't normally come up, as losing blood is automatically considered to break the fast during Ramadan, so Muslims would avoid it, if possible - obviously, avoiding menstruation is a little trickier than avoiding a blood donation! That's sensible - people who are losing blood should take in slightly more calories, and they should definitely be replacing iron and various other bits and bobs. We'll see.
I could just donate blood slightly later, but I don't want to. This is partly because I'm taking part in an interval study, which is designed to find the optimal gap between donations. It screws up their records a bit if I leave it too long. Secondly, since the point of this, for me, is to try to understand and help other people, it seems a bit silly to go out of my way to avoid donating blood. We'll see.
Anyway. the book is very powerful and thought-provoking - obviously! - and I highly recommend it. A lot of people have written very powerful reviews here, and I also recommend reading them.
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