Bananas and hunger

[kerravonsen]

As I was contemplating whether I would get myself a banana for part of my lunch today, I remembered a bit out of an SF novel, I think it was "The Eyre Affair", where a time-traveller mentions that he's going to cure world hunger by taking a 24th-century genetically engineered wonder-plant, and take it back in time and introduce it as a food plant centuries ago. From the description it's clear that the plant in question is the banana. And of course, while it's a wonderful plant, it didn't cure world hunger.

Which just points out the usual flaws in schemes to cure world hunger. Curing world hunger is like curing poverty (indeed, it's the same thing, as it's the poor who are starving) -- it can't be done with technological breakthroughs, whether they be solar batteries or GM plants, because it isn't (lack of) technology that causes poverty, it's greed. I remember hearing some rhetoric about how to solve world hunger once, and it seemed to me that it boiled down to "We can't share the pie equally until we have a bigger pie." Nonsense.

Unfortunately, it's much easier to say what's wrong, than to actually provide a solution. I am sick of self-righteous people who say to me "You are rich and you oppress the poor, because you live in a First World country" because everyone in the First World is rich in comparison to the Third World. Fine, so I share the collective guilt of the First World, I am evil just for having been born where I was born. What these people have in common is that they always lay on the guilt, without actually providing any alternative solutions. Apart from voting liberal (however liberal any parties are these days) and supporting charities, what is one supposed to do? Drop out and become a hermit? No, no, of course the correct answer is "go and become a missionary" (or "go and become an aid worker"). As if that's a realistic option for most people.

Don't try and manipulate me, Blake.

It just leaves me feeling angry and helpless.

Comments

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

That was The Eyre Affair, and your point about technological innovation not solving the problem is a good one. Going and becoming an aid worker is not so unrealistic; it just takes a willingness to give up a ton of things we take for granted, like personal future economic security, etc. That's where the unrealistic expectation comes in. :)

On a related topic, I don't think I'd classify Fforde's novels as "SF," per se...more like a literary science fiction humor refreshingly original defies classification novel.

:)

[kerravonsen]

On a related topic, I don't think I'd classify Fforde's novels as "SF," per se...

Yes, well, but in the context of the discussion it was SF, as it involved time travel and I wasn't entirely sure that it was "The Eyre Affair" anyway.

I also wonder what would happen if the entire First World decided to go off and be aid workers. The Invasion Of The Aid Workers!