Word: oxfam
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...would like to reply to Steve Lichtman's article concerning the Oxfam fast. In the article he states that there are three reasons that students should skip the fast, all of which I would like to refute. Reason number one is that the dining hall only gives $1.30 to Oxfam out of the $6 we are paying for dinner. Lichtman argues that since most students go out for dinner and spend $5-6, we should merely donate $5 to Oxfam. I agree that would be better, but the fact is that if it were not for the fast, almost nobody...
...conscience soother for pampered students who can go out for a meal and rejoice in their generosity. One counter to this point is that some of us actually do fast or even attend hunger banquets; the other being the pragmatic view that the approximately $4000 raised for Oxfam is $4000 more that is going to aid deprived people that would not be sent if Harvard did not hold the fast...
...WAIT, Oxfam night is also a big social event. It's fun to go out, eat, and rejoice in our generosity. This raises the second objection to the Oxfam fast, the spiritual one. The purpose of the fast, in theory, is for us privileged Harvard students to commune long-distance with those in Africa who go to bed hungry every night. But no one does that anyway. We give away a meal to charity and then go out and buy ourselves an even more expensive dinner to celebrate...
...final argument against the Oxfam fast, and my favorite, is the "to hell with the dining services" one. They rip us off year after year, charging us for scores of meals we never eat. It's understandable that the dining service employees need to be paid, even on Oxfam night. But there are many creative, yet simple, ways we could donate meals and money to Oxfam that would take this into account. Only the greedy and apathetic dining service hierarchy stubbornly refuses to even consider them. Instead, they insist that the Oxfam fast be a college-wide, one-night-only...
...stands, then, the Oxfam fast is a hypocritical excercise in conscience-soothing, ego-inflating giving. Under the current system, the most successful fast would see every dining hall employee getting paid for doing no work, every student painting the town--and starving folk in Africa and elsewhere getting far less than if we avoided the pretense of Oxfam night altogether. So do a starving family in Africa a favor. Skip the Oxfam fast...