Celebrate Human Dignity!

Saturday night some I went with some friends to BYU's annual Hunger Banquet. The theme of the night was: Celebrate Human Dignity.

It. Was. Awesome.

The Hunger Banquet is to raise awareness within the BYU community about global poverty and wealth inequality. The goal is for people to see what it is like to be born into an economic situation by chance, given that no one else has the option of choosing where they are born. Before they us in we walked around and they had signs up about global poverty and how so many people throughout the world have so much less than we do. They also had people walking around with signs on their back that said "CORRUPTION" and "GREED". I wasn't too sure what they were all about. But I'm sure they had a purpose. You can figure that out yourself. Anyway, then we went into a room with a bunch of Non-Profit Organizations that wanted us to go to places like India, Thailand, Kenya, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti, and other places to help them. It sounded cool but too much money and they didn't tell us enough about it. But it sounds like a cool idea.

Then we went into the Wilk Ballroom and the decorations were AMAZING! All attendees were randomly seated and served a meal representative of high-, middle-, or low-income areas of the world. They wanted to create a visual representation of the world distribution of resources so 70% sat on the floor and shared a meager meal of rice and beans with people around them and drank a small amount of water from a plastic bag. 20% sat in chairs and ate a modest, one-plate meal. And only 10% were seated at fancy tables and received a lavish meal.

You can guess where I ended up.

But it was actually a lot of fun. They had Aztec dancers perform and a performance from the Sri Radha Krishna Temple Group. That was my favorite part. We sang the Harne Krishna song and virtually all the low-income citizens got up and danced with them. I guess the rich people were too good to dance ;) We got a nice little train going in circles around the middle- and high-class people. It was great!

We also watched some videos that students made when they went to other countries to help the people there. Martin Burt was the keynote speaker. He is an amazing man. In 1999, he was the mayor of the capital city of Paraguay. He believes that if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty. He said its not "us" and "them". We are all equals. Some were just born in the right zip code. It gave me a new perspective on the human condition. Poor people are no less than us. They have the same feelings and desires as we do. They're not helpless, but hopeful. These people have so much more courage and determination than I do or anyone gives them credit for. It's so cool to see how people, who have much harder lives than I do, take their situation and try to change it and make it better. It's so inspiring to see how they deal with it. It's awesome! I'm pretty sure if I ever did go to one of those places to help and teach people, they would help and teach me more than I could help them. Their determination is invigorating. It makes me appreciate everything I have. Even though I may be a meager college student and feel like I don't have a lot, I have a lot more than a lot of people in this big world. So next time you think you have a junky car, or you don't have nice enough clothes, or furniture or anything, just be glad you have any car, or any nice clothes, or any furniture and you don't have to sit on the ground and eat rice and beans day after day. We're all so lucky. If you're reading this, I know you are because you at least have a computer or have access to one. This guy that showed his movie had to show a farmer in a small town somewhere in Africa how to use a plain and simple digital camera. We have so much to be grateful for. We need to be more aware of what's around us and how lucky we are. So let's celebrate human dignity and be grateful for who we are and what we have.