I read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune recently. It was a tender story of a 16 year-old mother in Haiti that had no food. She was eating mud cookies.
The story was a systems thinking story. It began with increase oil prices. At this point I feel the core question — what does increased oil prices have to do with a 16 year-old mother in Haiti eating mud cakes and mud cookies?
Oil prices go up. Among other things, this increases the cost of food production — machinery. Increased cost of production increases the cost of the food, including staples such as rice. This mother can’t afford the increased price of such a staple. She eats cookies made of mud with some salt and shortening. And what might be the impact of this? Disease. Malnourished babies. A pattern of physical suffering.
What does rising oil prices have to do with a poor mother in Haiti? Lots from the systems view.
