What gets half of New Zealand's student life to shut up?
OK, here's a hint: they want to starve. Yeah right. Actually it's money. The money they hope to raise for the '40 hour famine.'
Held across New Zealand last week, the 40 Hour Famine involves hundreds of thousands of young people raising money for the world's poorest.
You could do 40 hours of non-talking. You could live 40 hours without any kind of technology (yes, including your beloved iPod and cell phone). You could do it the classic way: no eating for 40 hours (or 20 for the younger ones), living on water.
The race against global poverty inspired some people months in advance to look out for willing sponsors in order to raise as much money as possible after successfully mastering 40 hours of abstinence.
The '40 hour famine' isn't approved of by everyone though. Some people find the idea of renouncing some kind of comfort for a limited amount of time, is patronising and simplistic.
"So what, people are giving up coffee or hot chocolate? You've got to be kidding me," says Sophie Gilmore, a year 12 student at Logan Park High School. And she has a point there: why experience a comfortable "famine" if doing so is nothing like a real one?
The '40 hour famine' might not make sense to everyone. But if it convinces thousands of students to fight global malnutrition and poverty, then it does have value. Check out the website: www.famine.org.nz
Thomas Forstner
LPHS
