There is a popular saying that a hungry man
is an angry man. This has been a way of describing the frustration a hungry man
faces and how he might go ahead to express it like an angry person would do. It
is also said in my local dialect that, when someone eats a meal that is not
properly cooked, it is because the person is famished. All these portray the
fact that hunger can lead to certain unguarded behaviours.
These notwithstanding, I sometimes wonder
the extent to which a hungry person may go in expressing their frustrations.
Does being hungry really justify being corrupt? Does it really justify criminal
acts like murder, suicide, kidnapping, armed robbery and the likes. Does being
hungry justify the sale of own or others’ children? Well these are the
scenarios we seem to be seeing in our society.
A couple was arrested in Lagos recently for
selling someone’s children. They confessed to the crime and said it was hunger
that led them to the act. The woman was also reported to have said that she is
seven months pregnant and the husband has already sold the unborn baby. The story
I featured in the first part of this article is another example of bizarre
things people do today in the name of hunger. I have also seen a story of kidnapping
suspects who said it was lack of job that led them to the crime.
Though many of these people choose such
reasons in other to attract people’s sympathy and spite the government, I believe
that it is a reflection of poor value for law and ethics. It is also a result
of poor value for human life. We preserve what is more valuable and do away
with what is less valuable. Does that mean we prefer food to human beings? Is this
the proof of value exchange in our society, where we trade reputation and honesty
for material wealth?
Should people continue perpetuating
corruption because of low pay? How about posterity? Do the people who engage in
these acts realize that they are not the only hungry people around? Instead of
using the brain to plan evil, why not engage it in more productive use?
Government may not provide everything the
people need. Yet the people should not lose their conscience because of hunger.
Throwing caution to the wind and acting bizarre in the name of hunger is a
remote proof of lack of value and morals in the society. Hunger is meant to
push people to work hard, not to commit crime. There is a saying that when
Laziness goes to sleep; hunger wakes it up. Of course when a lazy person is
forced out of sleep because of hunger, he should be expected to look for food
to eat, which is by legitimate work.
To solve the problem of hunger, turn your
brain to innovative ideas instead of evil inventions. The only lasting solution
to hunger is legitimate work. Crimes and begging can only take you so far, till
you are caught either on earth or in eternity.
Talks
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