Shanty towns laudable

By Staff Editorial     9/3/09 7:00pm

At some point next Friday, around dinner time, a truck full of deodorant will stop by Rice, unload and make a heavy profit. Why? Because that is when Rice's shanty town will shutter its doors and leave its inhabitants, as it were, homeless, letting loose a week's worth of un-showered masses to roam the campus (see story, page 1).Ok, the part of the truck may be wishful thinking. But the shanty town is real. If all goes according to plan, those in the shanty town will be able to relax after spending a week admirably raising both awareness and funds in the hopes of ameliorating the lives of those who have to actually live under such conditions. They will have gone four days without showering, eating nothing more than rice and beans and forgoing all the modern comforts we take for granted.

If any of us were to go without e-mail for even more than a few hours, the structure of our lives would crumble, so we freely admit our approbation for those involved in the shanty town. We discussed whether or not all the money, all the effort, all the man- and woman-hours poured into the project were worth it, whether or not they could be put toward directly bettering the lives of the impoverished - and we determined that this effort, spearheaded as it is, was the best method of raising awareness. Rice will be hosting tours of the shanty town, and it is our highest hope that it will be easy for both the groups coming through and the students passing by to donate and converse with the inhabitants.

The only thing we ask is that the members of the project remain dedicated enough to make their time, and our donations, worth every penny. We hope that they will stay during nights, eat nothing but the minimum and forgo showers even when Fondren beckons. We have every reason to believe they will. This project will be aesthetically displeasing, but its message should be shouted, loud and clear.

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And, if possible, smelled.

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