Please join me in undertaking a time-out from comfortable eating -- or over-consuming? -- by donating food money you would have spent for one, two, or more days. The unfortunate Haitians need your help. Together we can do this and make a difference.
You would be aiding your health simultaneously. Fasting on just water is a most healing, meditative experience. Hunger is not such a problem, for when the elimination of toxins gets underway the desire for food wanes.
However, maintaining an active or stressful routine for more than a day or two is tiring without eating.
An older and larger person can fast much longer than a younger and thinner one. The end of a fast is signaled by a bowel movement, and no more elimination (e.g., throat mucus or white tongue). A complete fast yields feelings of energy and happiness. I recommend the article Fasting for Healing and Inner Peace.
Please send me (at jan "at" culturechange.org) your name and city, and number of days you think you'll fast this month in support of the Haitians. The list of fasting donors will go on our website and circulated via email. Please put messages out on your fast on Facebook and Twitter to spread the word.
If one day of fasting can represent for you 10,000 victims of the Port-au-Prince earthquake, this would mean a ten day fast if it is true 100,000 lives have been lost. This puts into perspective the scope of a sacrifice we can make as fellow human beings. The longer you fast, the more money for food you save to donate. Our food expense-amounts in the USA are much larger than in poorer countries. Your donation can represent great purchasing power or amount of aid for Haitian recipients.
For simplicity we recommend your sending a donation to the American Red Cross, the charity specified by the White House for Haiti aid. Or pick another charity. This is the honor system. If you have no funds to provide, because you can hardly afford food, fasting in solidarity with the suffering Haitians still helps their cause and educates those around you. People will know you are fasting by signs your body exhibits (appearance and smell perhaps). Physiological benefits from the fast can include losing addictions, improved virility, reduced joint-pain, and better vision. And money you save on your own medical care can in turn be used to help others.
You can make a donation to the American Red Cross International Response Fund at redcross.org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. Donors can designate their gifts to Haiti relief. You can also donate $10 to Haiti relief by texting “HAITI” to 90999.
Finally, USAnians should sample what it is like to go without food, because famine can hit the U.S. as early as this year as a consequence of poor policies involving petroleum dependence at this historical juncture of peaked global oil supplies. And with the financial meltdown of 2008 along with climate-change related weather disasters for farmland in 2009, U.S. food supply is tenuous as of this year onward.
My fast is starting now. I once fasted 23 days, water only, for a 2007 Climate Emergency Fast. I do not know how long I will fast this winter, but it will be posted on www.culturechange.org. I don't know how much help I will be to the Haitians, but fasting is a meaningful gesture. The International Red Cross estimates that the Haiti earthquake may have affected about three million people in total, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Jan Lundberg
Oil-industry analyst
Culture Change
Sail Transport Network
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Our subsequent article, "Participants in Fast for Haiti to Raise $ for Aid / Relief Organizations Recommended" is available by clicking here.
Background on Haiti's crisis:
Bill Quigley's Truthout article, Jan. 16, 2009, "Too Little Too Late for Haiti? Six Sobering Points"
Culture Change mailing address: P.O. Box 3387, Santa Cruz, California, 95063, USA, Telephone 1-215-243-3144 (and fax). Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit organization.
Some articles are published under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. See Fair Use Notice for more information.
