Recent Segment on "The West Wing" Features Heifer International & Delivers Powerful Punch on Foreign Aid and World Hunger
| January, 2003 |
Media Contacts:
Carpenters & Associates
Jean Carpenter or Christine Volkmer
214-520-3666
carpentrpr@aol.com
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The popular Emmy award-winning series "The West Wing" recently featured a presidential quandary in a segment titled, "Guns, not Butter" which illustrates the US government tendency to be more in favor of money for military action than foreign aid. Indeed, the statistic of the United States being dead last among 21 nations in terms of giving to foreign aid for the needs of the poor was clearly stated in the script. Less than 1% of the (1.7) trillion dollar US budget goes to foreign aid.
The producers for the leading political series " "The West Wing" " decided to write in a part for a leading world hunger organization, Heifer International, to illustrate the reality of the world hunger crisis and the political decisions that influence our country's foreign aid for the thousands of people who die from conditions related to hunger everyday. Says the fictional president Bartlett to the Senate in "Guns, Not Butter" episode:
"We live in an interdependent world and we should act like it. We live in a global community and we should sustain it. We should cross borders. We should cross borders and build sustainable Democracies that can banish privation and fear. And we should cross borders to bring food and medicine and roads and schools and teachers to parts of the world forgotten by all but the warlords. We're going to pass the Foreign Ops bill. This should be a century of hope and prosperity everywhere. And America's going to lead the world and not just bully it."
" A dairy goat waited patiently throughout the show to be in a photo shoot with "The West Wing's" President Bartlett. After his 17 billion dollar Foreign Aid bill was defeated, and the opposing party's military budget increase was passed, he and his staff members still posed with the goat, showing solidarity with the goal of ending world hunger.
Instrumental to "The West Wing" producers becoming familiar with Heifer International is Bradley Whitford who plays the character Josh Lyman, President Bartlett's advisor. Whitford, and wife, Jane Kaczmarek, are avid supporters of Heifer International. Says Whitford, "Heifer's work makes sense. It's a sustainable, life changing opportunity for those facing horrific barriers to a dependable supply of food and income."
Stranger than fiction to most Americans is that war is often rooted in the crisis of hunger, and hunger is a direct result of war - a vicious cycle that must be broken if we are ever to see real world peace. It's not an "either/or" solution - war or butter. The goal of Heifer International, and the imaginary presidential staff of "The West Wing" is to address the needs of the desperately hungry in a sustainable way. If the power of imagination and media suggestion wins out, the world will someday be a better place.
Heifer International supplies sustainable resources of livestock and agricultural training to communities in 47 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.heifer.org.
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