The Well-Fed Does Not Understand The Lean.

Ní thuigheann an Sach an Seang, translates as “The Well-Fed Does Not Understand The Lean.”

Ireland has suffered under many famines in its past, yet there is only one known as An Gorta Mór, or the Great Hunger. The famine of 1845-1850 changed the landscape of not just Ireland, but the world as many Irish took great risks to travel to other countries and struggle to survive there. Though many point at the potato blight as the cause of the millions of deaths and millions of migrants, the question of why the Irish were so reliant on the imported tuber should really be considered. The British rulers of the occupied Ireland intentionally adopted an economic policy of laissez-faire capitalism, meaning that there would be no governance of the supply and demand forces at play in the an open market. As such demand for basic food stuff skyrocketed, driving price increases which the Irish people could never hope to meet in order to survive. The population of Ireland was decimated, because those who had, could not understand the trials of those who didn't.

This may be a very real example of a physical imbalance of power, but we have continued to make the same error in presumption over an over again. Ethnic and racial minorities go without representation. Sex and gender bias denies the very existence of many of our fellow humans. Everywhere around our world there is poverty and privation because of this imbalance. There are some who have prosperity and power, holding to a belief that they are not anymore privileged than their fellow humans, or worse again those who know they are and choose to use their power and influence to maintain this imbalance.

All over our world, people are starved of recognition, compassion, acceptance, and shockingly hundred of years on, basic food and water. We pride ourselves on the marvels of our modern world and its technological progressiveness, but all of these advances are still benefiting only a potion of our world and leaving the rest to suffer and struggle for their very survival.

Today we still exist in a world where time and again we are reminded that the well-fed do not understand the lean.

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