Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thinking Out Loud


I don't know what rock I've been living under, but while driving last night, I heard an interview on the radio about food insecurity.  According to the CDC expert who was speaking with authority, 11 percent of United States households suffered from this affliction in the last year.  I'm not surprised, especially with areas like mine that are struggling with 15% unemployment.  This was bound to happen, but what does it mean?

I understand the terminology for having a secure source of food and thus food security in order to live a healthy life, but when food is taken away, I don't understand the use of insecurity to explain what will happen to me.

Who put lipstick on the word starvation?  Does it look or sound better when we dress it up?  Are at risk human beings less hungry when we tell them they aren't starving, they're just  suffering from a little insecurity?






15 comments:

debra said...

"Who put lipstick on the word starvation?" The same folks who sanitize the horrors of war.

The Crusty Crone said...

Folks in government seem to play the pretty-word game a lot. I always suspected it was to get one over on us, the public. Also to keep people from panic-ing. That use to offend me. "What... we're too stupid to be able to handle the truth?!" Then, after observing the public a little closer, I have a tendency to agree with the don't-panic-the-sheep policy.

If the word 'starvation' was used to describe citizens, the public might start questioning why there is starvation in one of the top three countries in the world. Instead we can admire the lovely shade or coral red lipstick. It reduces the pink tint of the skin.

Gee, and I just meant to say "I hear ya!"

Stephanie V said...

It's so hard to realize that there are people in our own neighborhoods who are hungry - even in the good economic times. It seems odd that this is so and many choose to look for starvation in other parts of the world rather than at home.

Maybe it's not a case of panicking the sheep but taking the blinders off the horses. What we don't know CAN hurt us.

Unknown said...

Amen to Deb's comment. We drape it as "political correctness" but many times it becomes a "sleight of word." I'm crossing my fingers that if we get the Surgeon General I heard speaking on the radio yesterday there will be more plain spoken English in certain areas. A thick Louisiana accent, but she didn't sound like someone who danced around the truth of the situation.

Anonymous said...

I too hope that SG will put the reins on the profit side of the food industry and whoever to put them on the drug industry. Sometimes I think it better not to listen to the news.
A dear friend of ours just retired from the CDC, where the SG might be coming from. Dr. Dixie Snider, I used to babysit him, was at the CDC for many years. Blessings
QMM

Brenda said...

Idiots! They think we are idiots also.....

Rose said...

I haven't heard that term before. My NPR listening has dropped since we got satellite radio; maybe I should listen more often, although I am reading Andrew Sullivan's blog these days, so I'm not totally out of touch.

Renie Burghardt said...

I haven't heard them call it "food insecurity." How stupid is that? I can't believe they would use that term to describe hunger!

willowtree said...

I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but 'food insecurity' would seem to be a nicer term for hunger rather than starvation. America can hardly be accused of having endemic starvation. What the States has, would more correctly be called hunger (which I'm not suggesting isn't an issue). If the CDC were talking about Africa or Asia, then that's a different matter.

Also I think that 'food insecurity' refers to the mental condition, whereas starvation or hunger are more physical.

Pyzahn said...

Well said, Rudee. And very spot on.

Rositta said...

Hunger is hunger, no matter how you dress it up, been there done that...ciao

Joanna said...

These are the same people that call bombing civilians "collateral damage"... I love the image of the pig with lipstick. You keep me thinking Rudee. Thanks.

Kathleen said...

Well put!
Who'd you hear, by the way?

BTW: Tag!

Anonymous said...

Food insecurity?!!??? I thought that was what I had when I ate too much! That's crazy. Loved your post

sandy said...

Ya gotta wonder about a world (media) what have you, that dresses up stavation with this kind of talk. I long for the days when what was said was what was meant.