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Hunger Affects Us All
Of all the marks of difference that separate humans, none is so drastic as hunger. Not only does the physical sensation of being famished set a person off from those who are sated, but the well-fed are hard put even to imagine the desperation that goes with an empty stomach. Among the relatively well-off, hunger is like a vague rumor, having little more substance than the report of bad weather in a distant part of the globe.
Last week, at an emergency summit meeting in London, a UN official described a present global food shortage as a "silent tsunami," affecting millions of people in dozens of nations. As if out of nowhere, a world-historic crisis has arisen. In recent months, there have been food riots in such diverse places as Haiti, Cairo, Cameroon, Senegal, and Bangladesh. In Mexico, people speak of the "tortilla crisis," as the skyrocketing price of corn has made that staple too expensive. In the last two months, the price of rice has doubled in world markets. Store shelves across the southern hemisphere are empty, and foodstuffs in many places are being severely rationed. Economists define a general spike in commodity prices as the sharpest in 30 years. Without notice, the situation of hundreds of millions of chronically hungry people has become acute. The United Nations warns that 20 million children are at immediate risk of starvation.This dramatic reversal of hopes that world hunger was being overcome is a result of what a Salvadoran official called "a perfect storm" combination of factors: bad weather, decline in agricultural investment by governments, rising "protein" demands of large populations in India and China, fertilizer shortages, and, especially, the higher price of oil. Ironically, the transfer of countless acres of farmland from the growing of food to the production of bio-fuels is a particular culprit.
As the starving throng into streets around the world clamoring for something to feed their children, one hears the voice of humanity itself crying out, "What the hell is happening to us?"
Here in Massachusetts, where the shelves of food stores are well stocked, it may seem that hunger is a phenomenon of the distant poor, but that is wrong. Government studies suggested in 2007 that nearly half a million residents of this state do not have enough to eat. In a place where the income gap between the richest and the poorest is vast, the high cost of living puts the supply of basic nutritional needs beyond the reach of many. If a silent tsunami has struck the globe, a quiet Katrina rolls in on Massachusetts families every day. In many households, three meals have become two.
Compounding the profoundly physical problem of those who are deprived is the imprisoning moral problem of those who are well fed, for the culture of consumption, while it overfeeds appetite, starves the imagination. Here's where the divide between those who are hungry and those who eat enough is most manifest. Not only do the well fed fail to perceive the despair and fear that hunger breeds, until it explodes in riots of rage, but the well fed are equally incapable of seeing the causal link between their own privilege and the suffering of the dispossessed - although the substitution of bio-fuel corn production for the growing of edible wheat makes that link unusually apparent. Filling gas tanks of automobiles matters, in effect, more than filling bellies of children.
Given all of this, what is a person of good will to do?
Next Sunday, Boston offers an answer to that question. In its streets, tens of thousands of people will embark on the 40th Walk for Hunger - an annual event that, since it was founded by a young Catholic priest named Patrick Hughes in 1969, has raised tens of millions of dollars to feed the hungry. Last year, 43,000 participants raised funds for 42 million meals, administered by Project Bread. Yet more than raising money, the Walk feeds the imagination, as walkers bring to mind the normally forgotten people, here and far away, who have too little to eat. Overcoming this cruel divide requires, first, an urgent acknowledgment that it exists. Walk for Hunger next Sunday.
9 Comments so far
Show AllThe plan to make food free again
The school year is coming to a close and many children will not be getting their one "good" meal each day (and how good that school lunch is, is debatable, but it fills an empty stomach). I urge every one to drop some food off at their local food pantries and as you plant your gardens, plant a row for the hungry. Or take that stimulus check and donate some to a hunger program/pantry in your area.
That's a beautiful idea, Recycle1: if we all planted an extra row of vegetables in our gardens, imagine how many we could benefit here at home. If only we could do the same for others around the world.
I'll be planting my extra row this week.
One way in which to act would be to check local food bank groups on local crisis. I can't save the world but I can at least reach out to those in my community who are hungry. The big food bank in my area is the Eastern Michigan Food Bank... what's yours?
What the hell is happening to us?
Bear Sterns gets a $30 billion reward for lying, cheating and stealing, while the hungry get a whopping $200 million from The Decider. That's not $200 million for Americans, that's $200 million international.
Meanwhile, the top hedge fund gambler rakes in $1.7 BILLION in 2007 for betting against the subprime market, which, being an "insider," he knew was destined to collapse.
What the hell's happening to us? It's called an epidemic of the still unrecognized mental disorder called Greed-aholism, defined as an insatiable desire for MORE than one could ever need no matter who suffers as a result.
Of course, in this country, Greed-aholism is defined as "The American Way"...
Nothing of the current economic situation is unintended; the neoconservative's economic policies have always been designed to concentrate wealth into the hands of the elite at the expense of the Middle Class and the working poor. World grain consumption has exceeded world grain production in six of the last seven years; world grain stocks are at all time lows. So what does Congress do, it gives ethanol producers a $.51 per gallon tax credit. The neoconservatives are intentionally attempting to weaponized food so the elite will have another tool to control the masses.
Ask yourself a question; if the neocons are willing to starve a billion of the world's poorest to fuel gas guzzling SUVs is there any doubt that they are going to take out Iran with nuclear weapons to maintain their control of the oil of the Middle East?
The U.S. had three aircraft carrier attack groups near Taiwan during the recent elections there, the Kitty Hawk (America's oldest aircraft carrier) the Abe Lincoln and the Nimitz. While I can find articles that say the carriers have left the Taiwan area I have found only one that says where they are going; to the Middle East.
Iran is the last objective on the neocon "to do" list, with Iraq destroyed there is no power in the Middle East to counterbalance Iran except the military of the U.S. With the war in Iraq dragging on and with no end in sight the people of the U.S. are ready to pull out the troops and bring them home which would leave Iraq as a very juicy plum for Iran to pluck. What is the neocon solution to this problem? Nuke Iran into oblivion.
What's the neocon solution to stealing the resources of the third world? Starve them and take whatever they want.
One of the most political acts one can do right now is Garden. As in growing one's own food. Even in pots on the porch in lieu of a yard. Second is supporting the local Farmers Market gardeners.
But there is a major dilemma. Seeing as how Bush redefined the concept of "Victory" as in that elusive "Victory in Iraq" or "Victory in the War on Terror" (just what is "Victory" anyway?), a "Victory Garden" may not be such a useful concept. In one sense we Seattleites have our own "Victory Gardens" in that we have a perennial non-ending War on Slugs and so we in the Northwest may be able to get away with calling our gardens by that name. The Slugs will always come back irregardless of how many billions of dollars we spend and how much Blackwater we spray on them.
But a new name is needed - now that "Victory" is a tarnished concept, thanks to the slimy Pulmonate bastards in the other Washington who deserve their dose of salt - quickly. Beer is too nice for them!
Perhaps "Global Warming Gardens" or "Survival Gardens" or simply "Gardens". Anybody?
frank1569 - you're on the right track, but the rest of these guys are either looking out for themselves (home gardeners) or trying to plug a hole in a dike with a marshmallow. Food isn't the problem - fascism is. And until Americans are willing to call this heinous atrocious government by its right name - FASCISM - we're going nowhere but down.
We can't save the world - or even ourselves - by growing more food. Enough food isn't the problem - there is no great shortage, it's just the priorities that are skewed. And that's because fascists always put their beloved milltary FIRST - and I don't mean soldiers. I mean weapons budgets. We have to put PEOPLE first - and we can't do that until we get rid of fascism. Not just in the US, where it is strongest - but throughout the world. Fascism wasn't defeated by WWII - it just moved to greener pastures. And now we're held in its thrall - with nowhere to go but down.
I know hunger. My family knows hunger. We were on speaking terms at one time - living with hunger, sleeping with hunger, waking up with hunger. My mother weighed 96 pounds - al 5'6" of her - when the Brits liberated her town. I was down to 112 once - but I'm an inch taller, and heavier boned. My father was down to 140# - and he's over 6'. But we never knew the kind of hunger you see in the Third World - that's true STARVATION. That only happened in the Camps - my uncle never came back, so we don't know how bad it got.
Millions of people starve to death all the time. Children are especially vulnerable, and next are the workers. I've seen the kind of starvation that leaves you sobbing hysterically - because there's nothing else you can do. And on this rich planet. Even in this wealthy country. That's what fascism does - it takes from the weakest and most vulnerable to give to the fattest, strongest, and most immoral - the psychopaths. Look at the neo-Nazis in our own government - fat slobs, all of them. And they know there are millions - maybe billions - of people starving every single day. Do you think they care? Do you care? Do you know if there are people in your own town (or township or parish) that are hungry - even starving?
Fascism - and the fascist mindset - is what's infected this country since Reagan brought it into fashion again with his senile lies. Remember all those walking skeletons liberated from the camps? That's what fascism looks like. And that's what we're allowing in this country. We - Americans - brought fascism to the world. Read 'I Was An Economic Hit Man' to see how it's done. There is plenty of literature out there - about the real problem. And it's not about planting victory gardens. Get real. It's about planting fascism - and keeping it there, underground, buried, for the rest of our lives.
amen frank1569.
armybrat - moving post. Hunger is hard to understand if you have not experienced it. I remember hunger too. Every time I take a bite of food I am so thankful, I know it may not last, and it is like a cutting sword that at that very moment millions of children and adults are not able to do the same. The problem is dire and requires huge solutions.
But for an individual I do think that doing some little thing like planting an extra row of vegetables for the hungry is good too. If for nothing else than it keeps us sane.