value of food

In a culture where so many are soooo poor they really do not have enough to eat a tradition has developed which gives food a very high status.

In a way it reminds me of when my mum used to give me a row when i didn't want to eat all my dinner- that was to think about all those starving kids in Africa............ meaning I shoud take what i was given and not complain since I was lucky enough to be born in Scotland rather than in lands of famine........

What I couldn't understand then was how was the food I had left on my plate going to make a jot of difference to anyone starving anywhere- unless they were sitting next to me then in which case they would have been welcome to it.

Of course the whole idea was to teach a respect for food and reduce wastefulness.

Here the respect for food is so great that last night when I drop a few crisps on the ground by accident last night- and went to kick them off the boat into the Nile, my girl shouted at me... 'Haram' (ie- it is forbidden by Allah)- you can't treat food like that- so she lovingly picked up each crisp by hand and then flung it into the Nile anyway since no one would eat it when it had been on the ground......

It's something to do with food being from Allah- therefore its wrong both to drop it on the ground, throw it away or touch it with your feet................ even if you are only about to put in the rubbish bin..............

which is all fine, well and good..............

BUT.........

where does that respect come in when you see Egyptians at a buffet meal with their plates heaped up so high that 4 people couldn't even finish it- then leaving it all on the plate at the end of the meal........?

do the kitchen staff get it? do they want it? what????? do they put it all in a big box and give it to the other starving people in Africa?!