Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

[shireen]

Source: NYT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti’s presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger sent the country’s prime minister packing.

Haiti’s hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures.

Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.”

That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html

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This is too horrible. Not just in countries like Haiti, but even here in the US where food banks are struggling to keep up with demand.

Many of us are trying to keep our heads above water, financially, but if you can afford to chip in just a few bucks a month, all those small contributions will make a difference to so many people out there who are hurting. Other ideas ... organize a food drive at work. Get kids involved in fundraising projects.

Please post ideas; we need creative innovative ways to deal with this crisis, at home and abroad.

As an aside, while trying to learn more about the situation in Haiti, I found an interesting blog: http://www.haitiinnovation.org/

[cliffordu]

1. I fully expect starvation on a global scale in the next five years.

I live in western Washington...80% of the honeybees are gone in places - just disappeared in the last two years....

I read they are down 25% nationwide.

If they go critical, 1/3 of all our food is history.

And then we're done.

The folks examining this problem don't have a clue as to how it's happening.

[melody]

2. There are actually a number of theories and a number of remedies

Areas of great poverty will see mass starvation, as they always have. Everywhere else will survive.

[mac2]

3. Dig a little deeper for compassion

The people of Haiti are hungry because of Bush policies and interference. Not as they've always been.

[melody]

4. I work with hunger charities, son, so watch to whom you're lecturing

Dig a little deeper for rationality.

A contention was made and I responded to it. Not everyone has to fake tears in public over every issue -- are you
so insecure of your own feelings that you must attack others?

Why not come to the Appalachian Hunger Project -- our own third world here in America? If you have that
much compassion, we'd be happy to have you on board.

[mac2]

5. Oops I'm afraid.

I don't care your post was cold. Maybe you didn't mean it?

[melody]

6. Some of the worst things have been created by overly emotional, irrational declarations

Real change is brought about through reason and action.

If you have to go around being "warm" to convince people of your compassion, I wonder who you're trying to convince.
Maybe yourself?

Obviously, we were having a grown-up, dispassionate discussion on the mechanics of the situation. Your reaction
reminds me of the jerks who go to funerals and then gossip about the people who aren't acting "sad enough". Everyone
grieves and acts in their own way. Lots of sociopaths can cry on cue -- that doesn't make them "compassionate".

[mac2]

7. I didn't make that remark you did.

Don't try to blame me.

[melody]

Oh, come on, you must be a troll

Go away -- welcome to my ignore list. You're only here to cause trouble.

[mac2]

9. What an arrogant poster you are.

I am fearful for the starving who need your action. Bye.

[mac2]

I tried to get my village to raise some bees since they are

dying but they sit there acting like it is someone else's problem.

[mac2]

8. deleted

[jaksavage]

13. The harder they look

the less they see.

That tunnel vision that comes with specialization (usually) seems to be our undoing.

[cliss]

15. I agree.

Re: starvation. I'm expecting things to happen very quickly. I think by this summer, we're going to see things spiral out of control in many countries. And I think it's going to be massive. Add to that drought conditions in many countries. Also, water seems to be short in many places = an absolute disaster.

That's why we are stocking up as quickly as we can before prices go out of control.

Washington: your state is awesome. I'm sorry to hear about the honey bees. Washington is an amazing producer of an enormous amount of Agricultural products; in my opinion they are the best in the country. The wine coming out of the Grandview-Prosser area is turning into one of the best in the world.
I'm in Oregon, and I think WA has better products than even us.

In fact, I export WA state apples to other countries (the best in the world). If anything happens to our crop, we're toast.

[More_liberal_than_mo]

10. Results of over-population.

The future is here now. One of the worst aspects of Global Warming is that sudden changes in rain patterns disrupt the farming of staple crops. It takes many years to readjust to the new patterns and since us humans need a steady stable source of food we should be prepared for more of this.

I just read yesterday that the longest drought in Australia’s history has wiped out 98 per cent of its rice production.

Food crops are going to fail in areas of the world that have traditionally produced them. It will take decades for farmers to move production to northern parts of Canada and Russia, while millions starve. When people starve on a mass scale such as this there will be more wars. Competition for water and food will soon thin out the over-population of our planet. Earth simply can’t handle 6 billion people’s hunger during a world-wide climatic cycle change.

[The2ndWheel]

11. When you create a universal, one-size-fits-all world

You're going to end up with universal, one-size-fits-all world problems. In the quest for the most efficient single way of organizing life, when that one way no longer works, there is no place left to turn. Until things find a balance, but that process isn't going to be easy.

We live in a globalizing world built on very concentrated, cheap(economically, not environmentally), non-human energy. Most of the people alive today wouldn't be here if we only used our species fair share. Most of us are a burden on the ecological system, whether we consume massive amounts of resources or not. I know that I'm part of the problem. I don't have a car, and pretty much walk everywhere I go, but I still buy food that I had no physical link in getting, and my clothes are most likely the product of some 7 year old girl, whom I will never meet, in SE Asia.

It's a hell of a reality we've built. There is no simple answer either. We can't stop doing what we're doing, as that would kill billions voluntarily, but we can't continue to do what we've been doing, which is trying to have all 6.5 billion+ people have everything that everyone has access to. We want everything, but don't want to pay the price for it, which only ends up making the environmental problem worse.

[More_liberal_than_mo]

12. Well said!

We are trapped by our own devices. We have never gone through a major climatic change such as we are just now starting to experience. Even without climate change 6.5 billion people are way too many for the earth to support.

I just saw a report on ABC with the National Geographic channel http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-footprint/ that the population of the USA which comprises only 5% of the world’s population use 25% of the world’s resources. That worked ok for a few decades while the rest of the world struggled just to feed itself. Now that India and China are literally taking over production of almost everything we use they now have the wealth to try and match our greed.

If we were able to maintain our current overuse of resources and they managed to match us it would take 4 earth sized planets to satisfy all of us. Ain’t gonna happen… we Americans are going to have to lower our standard of living and lower it fast to make room for the rest of the planet’s peoples. The alternatives are not pretty either,,,, war and famine.

[lovuian]

14. starving people are desperate people

they will be storming these governments

[Name removed]

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