Dumpsters, First and Third Worlds

Last evening I met with a couple of Japanese friends. With everyone in the group being parent to a brat or two conversation soon drifted to challenges of child rearing, stemming the flow of cultural riptide that washes over ancient heritages and such. At some point we were talking about waste and how in some cultures over-eating is considered a sin.

Each time J makes a beeline for the trash-can I swoop down upon her before the deed is done throwing in a lesson on how her action would be viewed by God. There are many in this country that would not think twice to dive into a dumpster to salvage perfectly good food but I wouldn't be able to stomach that. I am right there with them in principle having grown up in India uncomfortably close to indigent families. Wasted food always triggers painful flashbacks in me.

Back home scavenging a dumpster is a often a choice between life and death. I surely haven't heard of thrill of the chase and getting caught being one of the drivers. That a dumpster diver may "technically” be below the poverty line and still maintain a blog can perhaps happen only in America. At some point "poverty" itself may become a life-style choice. How I wish the same were true elsewhere.