(Stepping out of scrapbooking mode here for a minute, please forgive me!)
With all of the election hoopla here in the United States, and the Olympic torch protests over China's treatment of Tibet, international news trends are not exactly making the front page of most U.S. newspapers. That's unfortunate, since a global food crisis is in full swing, and most people I've spoken with about this haven't read about it (or seen it highlighted on television news). The rising cost of fuel has driven food prices up and while we're definitely feeling the pinch here in the United States, the price increases are hitting many less-developed countries very hard. Instead of me going on and on about this I'll refer you to a BBC online news article from this week that provides a brief summary: Assessing the Global Food Crisis.
I encourage any and all of you who can spare some extra cash to consider making a donation to help alleviate this global food crisis. Whether or not you have spare cash to donate, if you have even a spare minute you can play the UN World Food Programme's Free Rice game. It's a multiple-choice vocabulary quiz, and for each word you correctly define, rice is donated. Individuals and corporations fund the donations, and as you play the game the banner at the bottom indicates who is paying for the rice you are helping to donate. The game is pretty addictive, and you get to learn some new words in the process. Habergeon, anyone? Or scissile?
(And, back to scrapbooking...Emily, I think perhaps I can turn this post into a layout with the very first word that came up when I did the random word generator: issue. I just might be doing this week's journaling challenge after all!)
8 comments:
I've been hearing about the food crisis too; I think it's because I listen to BBC in my car. my dad predicted this with the increase in corn-for-fuel-subsidies.
our favorite charity is the spca, but dylan wanted no birthday gifts this year and asked people to donate to birds-of-prey.org. it's interesting to find out other peoples' favorite charities.
just got an email from a friend a few weeks back about this very same issue. definitely an eye-opener, and yes, I'd say it's a worth scrapbook page too :)
I have heard about this too. It's a little eye-opening, to say the least. So, you'll be bringing this page to my house tomorrow? ;-)
Philanthropy through better vocabulary? You know I am IN, sister!
I love the Free Rice site...I've been meaning to blog about it for sometime. I usually try to get to 10,000 everyday at lunch.
okay, we are all addicted to game now! Go Viv, it starts with one!
I saw this on the news tonight - will definitely have to do something to get involved!
scrap away. it's been on NPR a lot lately. makes me sad because we don't even know the half of it i think. thanks for being so responsible :)
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