Tuesday, February 5, 2013 | TechNews

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UTSAV GAN DHI

 

Oxfam Hunger Banquet aims to change perception of hunger

Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

Is hunger about too many people?
Very little food? Global warming? Political
strategy? International development? No.
It is about all of those and none of those at
the same time. Hunger is about power. The
world’s equality graph is quite badly skewed,
and hunger falls somewhere along the line
as a consequence of human rights and
opportunities being not accorded in the right
proportion, and little action being carried out
about it. Companies and governments control
more of the food patterns in today’s world
than the farmers who grow it orthe consumer
who eat it. Resource constraints, a growing
family, gender stereotypes, erratic weather
patterns, and conflicts are driving food prices
up while record numbers of people go hungry

One—third of the grain grown in the
world and one—half of the fish caught are fed
to animals in rich countries. The US. daily
per person calorie supply is 3,671; almost
twice that of Sudan’s 1,974 average daily
caloric intake, fewer calories than needed to
maintain a productive life. In Sub—Saharan
Africa, one in three people are malnourished,
half live on less than $1 a day and 30 million

Vedic Vision

Sneha Saraf
STAFF WRITER

On Friday, February 1, speaker
Nityananda Pran began this semester’s lecture
series with “Love & iPhone: Spiritual vs.
Material Love.” He first asked the audience to
write down, in descending order, what would
be most diflicult for them to give up — some of
the audience members gave answers such as
family, friends, education and some material
possessions that they had. The speaker then
explained that in the material world, we are
very attached to things and use people, when
instead we should be attached to people and
use things. The “iPhone” referred to in the title
of the lecture represents a most coveted piece
of material: those who desire it most will do
anything to obtain it, sometimes to the point
where they will camp out right outside the
Apple store waiting for the latest release! From
an elevated conscimlsness, however, material
things don’t have much value — its relationships
that do.

Before moving on to the next point,
Nityananda Pran introduced the audience to
the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is a
timeless classic of a conversation between two
friends: one of them is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, Krishna, and the other is His
friend, Arjuna, who asks the same questions

Caribbean Visionaries sponsor2nd

Travon Cooman
TECHNEWS WRITER

On Saturday, February 2, 2013,
Caribbean Visionaries hosted their second
Annual FIFA Competition which was held
in the MSV McCormick Lounge.

The competition was organized
by Roselle Grant, Caribbean Visionaries’
Athletics Coordinator, and her team. Sixty—
four enthusiastic participants with a passion
for playing soccer video games entered the
competition in pursuit of the winning prize
of a (40—1)” TV, a crown, and team jersey of
their choice. The competition commenced at
4 pm, ended at 10 pm. and both full time
and part—time IIT students were eligible to
participate. There were four rounds which
included 32 matches in the first round, 16
matches in the second round, eight matches
in the third round and four matches in the
fourth round.

Defending champion and Ricardo
Gradilla who was seeking to defend his title

people required emergency food aid (in 2005)

The Office of Service Learning
hosted an eye—opening event on the January
25, in the MTCC Ballroom in partnership
with Oxfam America, an international relief
and development organization “that creates
lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and
injustice.” The event, frequently organized
around college campuses and public venues
across the United States is a free dinner
organized in the attempt of spreading
awareness about income inequality. Guests
are randomly assigned a ticket as soon as they
enter and placed accordingly in either of the
three subsets of income levels: low income
level, middle income level and high income
level. The lower class sits on the ground, isn’t
allowed the use of cutlery and gets two cups
of white rice (along with a glass of water.)
The middle class gets a table to sit on, a fork,
brown rice instead of white and some extra
nutrition in the form of beans. The upper class
is seated on well catered tables and is served
a three course meal including bread, salad,
pasta, and a choice of beverage representing
fine wine.

If you ended up in the high—income
group, you represented the 15 percent of the
world’s population fortunate enough to afford

a nutritious daily diet (including many of
our students at IIT.) They live primarily in
countries like the United States, Australia,
France, Switzerland, and most countries in
Western Europe. The leading cause of death
here, ironically, is heart disease, diabetes and
obesity; linked directly to over consumption
of food. Healthcare is more readily available
to them. In the US. there is one doctor to
every 470 people, compared with one doctor
per 7,140 people in Haiti.

In general, their children are
healthy, and infant mortality rate is low.
Though they are well—off, millions of their
fellow citizens live below the poverty line.
Most of them are women and children who
lack access to adequate services.

Those in the middle income
group represent roughly 25% of the world’s
population. There are more countries in
this group than in the high—income group
countries like Bolivia, the Philippines, Turkey,
Costa Rica, and Iran. Their average income
ranges from $912—9,095. Their children are six
times more likely to die of hunger and related
diseases than if they lived in a high—income
country. They use 35% of your income to
feed themselves, compared with the 15%
people in high—income countries spend. Their

Society: ‘Love 8 iPhone'

about life that every human being asks or
should ask. Within this conversation, there
are many spiritual principles given which are
unaffected by time, circumstances, or people.
In other words, the principles described 5,000
years ago still applicable today, regardless
of our skin )lor, gender or nationality. The
speaker mentioned that many references will
be made from the Bhagavad Gita throughout
the semester.

Coming back to the lecture, Nityananda
Pran explained that everything we see around
us is made of five elements: earth, water, fire,
air, and ether (space.) Everything we come
across has some combination of these elements.
For example, the human body has earth in the
form of flesh and bone (carbon, calcium, iron,
etc.); water, which composes 70% of the human
body; fire in the form of body heat; air in the
form of breathing; and space (inter-molecular,
intercellular, etc.). But the difference between
a human being and, say, a chair, is that the
human being has COILCIOUSIIGSS — and that
consciousness is due to the presence of the
soul. Whenever we see some manifestation of
conscimlsness, this is an indication that there
is this material-s )iritual combination.

According to the speaker, there
are also three subtle material elements
which contribute to the material-spiritual
combination: mind, intelligence, and (false)
ego. The mind in itself is not conscious, but
becomes activated with the presence of the

 

was disappointed that he was knocked out in
the first round by Akosa Okwusiafel. Ricardo
was only able to score two goals whilst his
opponent scored five goals.

Spectators were amused and
enjoyed the entertainment by the participants.
Despite all the wonderful games that were
played, only Hector Rios demonstrated the
ability to defeat all his opponents. Rios won
the final convincingly against Kraig Van
Wieringen. Rios scored six goals and his
attacking and defending abilities did not
allow Van Wieringen to score a single goal.
Although disappointed, Van Wieringen will
be receiving a team jersey of his choice and
a match ball for his achievement. The third
place winner will be receiving a team jersey
of his choice whilst fourth to eighth place
winners will be receiving AMC movie tickets.

Athletic coordinator Roselle Grant
expressed her gratitude toward all the
participants and the spectators for making the
second Annual FIFA Competition a success.
This event is only one of the many events the

soul. For example, a car is inanimate unless
there is a driver to turn on the ignition.
Similarly the soul is the life-force that brings
the body into action, and when the soul leaves
(death), the bodybecomes n 1 functic al and
disintegrates. Thus we say, ) and so passed
away. Who passed away? The soul. So, clearly
we are not this body. We are the spiritual being
(soul) that is eternal, coonizant and blissful in
its original state as descrlbed by the Bhagavad
Gita.

So false ego is the false sense of
identity based on the material conception of
“I am this body” which translates to “I am a
woman,” “I am rich,” “I am an engineer,” etc.
In absence of a different conception, the soul
is under the influence of this false ego and acts
in a certain way according to the identification.
For example, someone might be performing
in a drama, let’s say as a queen. So according
to that role the actress will act like a queen,
but that’s not the real identity Hopefully she
wouldn’t act like a queen when she gets home.
Likewise, given we are spiritual beings, living
a life on the bodily conception cannot lead to
happiness, peace and satisfaction.

In the next article, you can look
forward to hearing about how this knowledge is
received and shared in a descending process. As
always, everyone is welcome to hear, discuss,
debate, and eat a tasty lunch every Friday at
Wishnick 117 from 12:45 pm. to 2 pm.

FIFAtournament

Caribbean Visionaries have organized and
they are hoping to have many more events
this semester.

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economies are crippled by foreign debt—
these can consume half of their governments’
earnings.

Those in the low income group
represent the majority of the world’s
population. They live in countries where
the average income is less than $912 a year.
Somalia, Honduras and Vietnam are among
the countries in this group. Government
debt is mounting, people cannot have rights
to buy land (even if tilled for centuries by
their ancestors), chronic malnutrition is
a problem, and unemployment is driving
them to even greater hardships in booming
cities incapable of supporting an influx
of migration. Ironically, this group works
tirelessly for “landlords” in fruit plantations,
typically for export to developed countries.
In exchange they get meager benefits and are
exploited upon for their helpless situation.

At this interactive event, the place
where you sit, and the meal that you eat, are
determined by the luck of the draw—just as
in real life some of us are born into relative
prosperity and others into poverty A lively
discussion followed the meal and students
left with a better understanding of the world’s
skewed equality ratio and a renewed drive to
help tackle it.

Fueling Innovation
campaign aims to
fundraise

Monica LaBelle
IIT OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

IIT students, faculty, and staff are
invited to join community leaders and other
friends of the university from 3 pm. to 5 pm.
this Friday, February 8 in the MTCC and
The Bog to launch “Fueling Innovation: The
Campaign for IIT.”

An ambitious fundraising
campaign, Fueling Innovation will provide
the power that IIT needs to transform the
future through upgraded and new facilities
in an effort to continue to attract innovative
minds.

To celebrate this important
moment in the university’s history, the
campus will be lively with activities. Read on
to find out what’s in store.

The Winter Wonderland Carnival
at 3 pm. will offer ice skating, ice sculptures,
and alife-sized snow globe—all in the MTCC.
Stick around for half an hour to witness
President John L. Anderson announce the
remarkable progress and ambitious nature of
the campaign, then watch the world-premiere
of an IIT Video featuring current students.
Finally, cap off this historic celebration in
The Bog at 4 pm. with refreshments and live
entertainment.

Friday’s launch events will also be
featured live online with activities such as a
Virtual scavenger hunt. Faculty, students and
staff are encouraged to share their experiences
in live social media feeds; use #iitinnovates
on Twitter to make this campaign go Viral.

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Photo by Travon Cooman