Hunger and Hope ... a reflection

IM JOINING A GREAT CAUSE TODAY which unite bloggers to contribute on a pressing issue that every nation is battling to solve. For decades, hunger is haunting everyone especially those people in developing countries where poverty is prevalent. Fortunately, Im one of the lucky individuals that have access to the basic needs: food, shelter, clothing, education and health, but some are not. My only contribution for this cause is to share this video clip that will remind us that everyone, one way or another, could share in solving this global problem, maybe driven by any unpredictable circumstances.

On the other hand, I also collected some quotations from prominent individuals, writers/poets and politicians (courtesy of poemhunter.com) that shared their views about hunger, hope and poverty.

There's no sauce in the world like hunger.
[Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616), Spanish author. Teresa Panza (Sancho's wife), in Don Quixote, pt. 2, ch. 5 (1615), trans. by P. Motteux. This well-worn proverb was attributed to Socrates by Cicero in De Finibus, bk. 2, sct. 90.]

The only remedy against hunger is reasonable birth control.
[Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990), Swiss dramatist, novelist, essayist. Trans. by Gerhard P. Knapp (1995). Portrait of a Planet (1971).]

Poverty is obsolete and hunger is abolished—
[Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911), British parodist, librettist. Utopia Unlimited. . . Oxford Book of Satirical Verse, The. Geoffrey Grigson, comp. (1980) Oxford UniversityPress.]

When Christ said: "I was hungry and you fed me," he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger.
[Mother Teresa (b. 1910), Albanian-born Roman Catholic missionary in India. "Imitation of Christ," A Gift for God (1975).]

Geo Mashup Competition 2009 runner-up winner

I WAS LUCKY TO BE CHOSEN AS ONE of the winners of the 2009 Geo Mashup competition organised by Northern Ireland's Department of Finance and Personnel, in cooperation with the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. This annual event encourages students in Northern Ireland to utilise geographic information (spatially generated data) from OSNI with other datasets.

My colleague (also a PhD student from the University of Ulster), David M. got the grand prize for presenting his project proposal on road tax mapping, while the other runner-up, Daniel also a student from UU (Coleraine) presented his idea on how to improve Translink's travel planner.

On the other hand, my proposal was to utilise the data from two existing projects that monitor and assess the level of noise and air pollutants in Northern Ireland's sensitive land uses (residential, institutional, educational, cultural). As a runner-up winner, I received a high-specs HP Business Compag laptop and a pre-incentive £250 cash.

Click the link for last year's(2008) winner: Aidan Higgins

My detailed project proposal is entitled: AIR AND NOISE MAPPING AND MONITORING PROJECT (ANMMP). Air and noise pollution is a pressing issue worldwide and it is given a considerable attention on the impacts to the public health and the mitigations it require in minimising the adverse effects to the environment as a whole.

In particular, there are two programmes established in Northern Ireland that address this issue: (1) Noise Mapping Northern Ireland project, and (2) Local Air Quality Management (LAQM). The Noise Mapping NI project is initiated by both private and public sectors aimed to meet the requirements set by the European Directive: Environmental Noise Directive (END, 2002/49/EC) in terms of assessing and managing environmental noise in major urban transport service areas in Northern Ireland. On the other hand, LAQM provides the guideline for each district councils in Northern Ireland to review and assess the level of air pollutants against the standards set within the Air Quality Strategy released in 1997.

The main output of the Noise Mapping NI is the production of noise maps piloted in 2004/2005 for Belfast area. These detailed maps are generated in various categories covering sound levels both night and day periods. The noise data are plotted using the Ordnance Survey map of Northern Ireland (Crown copyright).

There are 8 pollutants monitored in 2006 from the LAQM's 40 air quality monitoring stations. The data from these stations are combined with the emissions information provided by the UK's National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) which provides a comprehensive record of ambient air quality across the country.

On this premise, the Air and Noise Mapping and Monitoring Project (ANMMP) intends to consolidate the data from the Noise Mapping NI and the LAQM inventory into one detailed map. In terms of originality and adding value to the data from the agencies involved, the author tends to incorporate the existing sensitive land uses of Northern Ireland (or a pilot area within Belfast City) which will be generated as a new dataset for ANMMP. The sensitive land use map will be derived from actual visual survey and will be plotted to form a composite map. The composite map provides a mechanism to investigate the concentrations of noise and pollutants in Northern Ireland; consequently highlights areas for immediate management and planning controls particularly in sensitive land uses.

Some of these mitigation measures will be incorporated into the project site planning and design such as: orientation of building openings, orientation of open spaces associated with sensitive land uses and road networks; construction of perimeter sound walls, provision for setbacks and buffers and restriction of vehicle speeds. This map is essential in the promotion of alternative travel modes in town/city centres like pedestrians and bicycle lanes as well as the promotion for alternative fuel for residential heating and cars. In addition, ANMMP could be the basis for the prioritisation of road infrastructure improvement in terms of the type of materials for roads and acoustic barriers between roads and sensitive land uses (like houses, schools, medical facilities).

Urban vs Rural... which do you prefer to live?

A clever short clip of a poetic comparison between a countryside and a city. A place where green leaves dominates the skyline and a busy place where I earn a living. It is indeed a difficult choice but to tell you, it depends on what you are looking for in life. I was born in the countryside and then when I finished my high school for college I have to live in the city. I still miss my hometown where the sun and the ocean meet every day but I have to stay in the city to survive and support my family who lives in the countryside.

Poverty and Hunger

A short film that depicts the reality of life. It reminds me of my parttime work in one of the biggest food chains in the world. I work until closing time of the store and there is always leftovers of chicken! Sometimes I would ask the manager if I could eat some before I left the store or in some extent I brought it home to eat them next the day. As part of the policy, staff are not allowed to bring them home because these stuff will be checked by the area manager following day as part of the inventory and for health/safety reason. Anyway, Im sharing this true story captured briefly in a film. I dont want to elaborate but you can contemplate what this film is all about. Maybe to some extent, there might be exaggeration from the reaction of people being filmed, but Im sure the message is real that poverty is the root cause of hunger. Personally, I will give my own title for this clip: Chicken Recycling!

Synopsis: This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization. There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition. This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society. The people who lives on the refuse of men to survive. What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left this people.
Director: Ferdinand Dimadura Genre: Drama Produced In: 2005 Location: Philippines