I think the article "Food for Thought" by Daniel Stone in his interview with a former United Nations political affairs officer: Chris Fair reflects how the Americans see others. In my opinion food reflects the cultural aspect of the nations, but it is not a main factor that determines the inter-relationships between nations. I think there are other important factors that we should consider. Some rich countries use the food as a mean to control poor country's policy.
I totally agree if food is replaced by oil.
Can America's strained relationships with the Axis of Evil—Iran, Iraq and, until recently, North Korea—be explained by what we eat?
The examples he mentioned are misleading. The food for oil was forced by UN in order to help the suffering Iraqis. In contrast, the Iraqis suffer because of the UN sanction!!
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3 comments:
I agree with you that food is not the main factor that determine relation between different countries. There are others factors like culture, religion, economical situation, etc.
I agree with you that the powerful countries should not build their ambition on other weaker countries.
And just use "food" to explain the sensetive relationship between country and country, it is to easy that considering polity and society.
"Food culture" is a way to understand a part of country. However, it is not whole thing we can use to judge "Axis of Evil".
I agree with you all that using food alone to determine international relationships should not be the primary factor. And I think that Chris Fair, the woman who was interviewed would agree. Notice that at the end of the interview she says, "Saying food is predictive might be a bit contrived, but food is one of the symbols that nations employ. When we look at countries and how they think about their food, it tells us what they think is important. It tells us a bit about their history and in some sense, about their future."
When she says "bit contrived" she admits that food isn't the only thing to determine future conflicts or resolutions between countries. So, it's more complicated than just food.
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