# Where were "people starving" when you were a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432 "2019-02-13T00:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/1 "2019-02-13T00:47:03Z")
When I was a kid in the post-WWII world, I had to clean my plate, because “people are starving in Europe.” Until the day I said “Name one”, and my father smacked me so hard he knocked me over. I could never figure out how cleaning my plate reduced starvation in Europe. Where were people starving when you were a kid, and where are they starving for today’s kids? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/2 "2019-02-13T01:02:50Z")
My family version was “think of the starving millions in China”. This was the 70’s, so … a little behind the curve there. Wikipedia tells me it _should_ have been Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Cambodia. My kids only know that other kids are starving in Japan 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/3 "2019-02-13T01:03:32Z")
Africa ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/4 "2019-02-13T01:43:51Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > My family version was “think of the starving millions in China”. This was the 70’s, so … a little behind the curve there. > > Wikipedia tells me it _should_ have been Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Cambodia. > > My kids only know that other kids are starving in Japan 😉 Yep, China for us,too. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/5 "2019-02-13T02:05:14Z")
Ethiopia. We used to get big guilt trips in school if we didn’t finish our lunches because of the famine. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/6 "2019-02-13T02:41:28Z")
Another Ethiopia. Though lately I’ve been hearing Somalia more. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/8 "2019-02-13T05:41:54Z")
Moved from Thread Games to IMHO. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/9 "2019-02-13T05:58:48Z")
Armenia. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/10 "2019-02-13T06:36:01Z")
Biafra. It was the late 1960s, and the news was full of civil war in Nigeria, and children starving in Biafra as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/11 "2019-02-13T06:43:43Z")
In the 80s it was Africa, although my parents - intelligent people who understood the concept of logical fallacies - never actually used it on me un-ironically. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/12 "2019-02-13T06:43:54Z")
Since my family has a legacy of local charity work, there was never any need to look far. The standard speech was “eat your dinner, all of it! You should know how lucky you are to have parents who can provide the things you need, not every child around here is as lucky as you are to have liver to complain about eating. They would love to have that right now. So stop your whining and blubbering and eat, you’re not leaving the table till you do.” 1970s. My god, I still remember it today, and I still hate liver today as well. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/13 "2019-02-13T06:56:54Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Biafra. It was the late 1960s, and the news was full of civil war in Nigeria, and children starving in Biafra as a result. Same here — Biafra. This was in 1969, when I lived in Upstate New York. I hadn’t even heard of Biafra. > **[Biafra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra)** > > Biafra (/biˈæfrə/ bee-AF-frə), officially the Republic of Biafra, was a partially recognised state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970. Its territory consisted of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria, predominantly inhabited by the Igbo ethnic group. Biafra was established on 30 May 1967 by Igbo military officer and Eastern Region governor C. Odumegwu Ojukwu under his presidency, following a series of ethnic tensions and milit Igbo nationali... ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/14 "2019-02-13T07:20:07Z")
Ethiopia …all you had to do was watch the news in the 80s … ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/15 "2019-02-13T07:30:39Z")
Ethiopia when I was a kid. Band Aid and all of that. Nowadays I believe it’s [Yemen](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/famine-in-yemen-could-become-one-of-worst-in-living-memory-un-says). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/16 "2019-02-13T07:34:03Z")
Ethiopia. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/17 "2019-02-13T08:10:02Z")
India, I think. I told my mother to send them all the peas. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/18 "2019-02-13T08:17:31Z")
China — presumably Nationalist China, not the Godless Commies — in the 1950s. As an added bonus, being RCC, we were admonished to “offer it up for the poor souls in Purgatory” when faced with something unpleasant. Never could figure out how raking a pile of soggy leaves would get someone out of hock, but it wasn’t a question one asked. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/19 "2019-02-13T09:55:50Z")
Am I right in thinking that this thing – with its usually ineffective means of admonishing kids to “eat up” – took off in a big way in the USA, in World War I, a propos Belgium? --said country’s German occupiers stripped it rather bare, and the US government supplied large-scale food aid to Belgium, including before the US’s entering the war; and it’s been a prominent “meme”, re various parts of the world, ever since. (I’m not that old :), and I’m not American – just “stuff that I’ve heard”.) From my 1950s British childhood, I don’t remember my parents ever pulling this one on me, concerning any country (and I was a dreadfully picky eater) – that kind of thing, wasn’t their way. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/20 "2019-02-13T10:14:32Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > From my 1950s British childhood, I don’t remember my parents ever pulling this one on me, concerning any country (and I was a dreadfully picky eater) – that kind of thing, wasn’t their way. Weren’t you kind of short on food yourselves, back in 1950s Britain? ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432/21 "2019-02-13T10:25:51Z")
It wasn’t brilliant, early ’ 50s; but plenty of others had it worse. Small kids no doubt got the best of what there was. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-people-starving-when-you-were-a-kid/829432.md?page=2)