FOOD FOR THOUGHT

the roadkill posts cudgeled this bit from the dark and dusty places of my
mind.

here is some real food for thought, about what hungry folks in the USA or
elsewhere will eat, and the risks they will take to get "food" that most of
you cannot concieve of eating.

one of the first duties i got stuck wiht in the RVN at base camp (aside from
shit detail but THAT is another horror story!) was being stuck on guard at the
GARBAGE DUMP.

THE GARBAGE DUMP was inside the brigade base camp perimeter, and like
all guardpost in  III CORPS   warzone  north of  SAIGON was a live ammo
shoot to kill post 24 hours a day.

my post was in one of two sandbagged bunkers flanking a big double
wire gate that opened up to the outside   world of PHOUC VINH PROVINCE.

every day at about 1000 hours, the little people (who had been lining up since
about 0800 hours, wer allowd inside the garbag dump 100 at a time and escorted
over to the huge pit where the brigade dumped its left over chow daily after
each meal.

each native  was   body searched before  entering the  dump for
weapons/explosives, and  allowed to bring on dummy stick and two empty
buckets into the dump.

they were allowed to fill these buckets with left over food from the pit, and
then to leave the GARBAGE DUMP with their treasure. they could come back as
many times as they wanted to fill their buckets while the dump was open to
them.

some folks were taking the food left over from the messhalls home to feed
their pigs, just like the farmers in the States did.

but it soon became evident to every enlisted man and NCO who pulled dump duty,
that a awful lot of folks were taking our food garbage home to EAT....

this was an awfull revelation for any American soldier, black, white, brown,
red, yellow, from a rich, middle class or dirt poor family. none of us had
ever come across anyone that desprate before.

and to make things even worse, the VC would try and use these poor folks as
camouflage to carry out their own aggendas. sometimes they succeeded, most of
the time they did not.

either way usually resulted in death or injury or hardship to the poor folks
coming for the food for themselves or their pigs.

eventually the brasshats pulled their heads out of their butts and realized
that there were DESPERATELY HUNGRY natives living in grinding poverty nearby,
and implemented some decent but dangerous civic action food programs for them
to go with the medical programs already being run.

this was an eye opening experience, one of the first of my (then) young life.

this life event has always had me wondering about places and events where
starvation stalks the land from the angle of soldiers, civilians, and
guerillas.

there is some game scenario potential here for those who are into scenarios
that the players think come from dope smoking or meds reactions.

good guys, bad guys, gray guys, and just desperately hungry folks too.

you could also run MEDCAP scenarios   too.

food riots!

find and eliminate cannibals living off their fellow man, too.

lots of thoughts.

DAWGIE

From:  DAWGFACE47@webtv.net
> here is some real food for thought, about what hungry folks in the
that most of you cannot concieve of eating.

<snip>

Reminds me of Courtship Rite (Donald Kingsbury), on a planet where it was
considered unethical to kill more enemies than could be eaten. Interesting
society.

In examples of other scenarios, I think most of us probably run "clean" wars
most of the time, where both sides are professionals who (mostly) follow the
rules. You could arrange a scenario where the GM side is busily committing
atrocities, and the players' side has to decide
whether to divert from/compromise their mission to stop it.

Isn't this Black Hawk Down? Military personnel sent into to guard food convoys
and capture warlords... Various Heavily Armed Warlords... Lots of innocent and
not so innocent civilians caught in the middle. Crowded urban environment.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
<<<SNIP>>>
> there is some game scenario potential here for those who are into