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13 Nature of the Problem of Hunger

The peasants’ reflection on Matthew 25 does not end with that note. In more and more barrio meetings, peasants ask themselves more questions like: we are the hungry, and we are the thirsty; what then do we do to feed ourselves and our children? If solving the problem of hunger and poverty is so essential to the Christian vision, what is our special task and role? What is the precise nature of the problem of hunger?

Mang Tibo says we can’t escape the inevitable conclusion: we need to gather courage to struggle effectively and eliminate the oppressive arrangements.

The present arrangements are such that, whatever we do, only a few get richer and the majority of us get poorer. Some of us still say, “It’s really like that; that is the course of fate.” Now, of course, we know: it need not be like that, and it should not be like that at all. We must live up to our dignity as human beings and children of God.

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Consider the landlord-tenant arrangement, Mang Tibo continues. The harder we work in order to produce more, the more are the fruits of our labor taken away from us. Or consider the loan arrangements and the arbitrary behaviour of the price of our crops. We are continually in debt. The things we don’t produce and buy from others are getting more expensive. The things we do produce are always dipping in value.

We are like a fish in a polluted sea. As a fish, I like to swim and I can swim. But now, I find that no matter how hard I try, I cannot swim as fast or as properly as I should. And I dare say that this happens not because something is wrong with the sea I swim in.

It is now clear to many of us, I think, that we do live in an ocean of social arrangements. Often, we are not aware of this, just as we ordinarily take for granted the existence of air in which we breathe and live.

Too often, we just go about trying to accomplish the impossible task of living a decent human life in the midst of inhuman and unjust relationships. In fact, we do hear from time the phrase, “Magkasosyo tayo” (we are business partners) referring to the fact of social partnership. And yet, how often are we aware that we suffer the unjust portion of such partnership?

We are often unaware, Mang Tibo's voice has lowered to a whisper and everyone in the room has to listen hard, except

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when a crisis strikes. Too seldom do we realize that the present problem of hunger is a social and not merely an individual problem.

As a social problem, it affects the broad masses of the people, and not just a few individuals. It is not caused merely by accidents like fires, or by emergencies like typhoons. Don’t we see, my friends, that it is caused mainly by the social arrangements, the concepts, the attitudes that we accept?

Of course, now that we are discussing these things, it becomes clear to all of us. Now we see more clearly, Mang Tibo’s voice is still calm and even, what we suspected all along - - - that the main causes of our problem include the unjust notion of ownership that we often discuss; the haughty attitudes of the powerful and our own subservient assent to everything they say; the landlord-tenant arrangement that we detest so much; the usurious practices of the middlemen that we abhor; and the mysterious manipulation of price behavior that we find hard to comprehend.

Somebody in the group hands Mang Tibo a glass of water to increase what they call “Tibo’s saliva power.”