Perspective
April 15th, 2008 | by Jet | Published in Human Rights, Politics | 1 Comment
Today on our planet, people are rioting because they are staring into the maw of starvation. They riot now, because soon they won’t have the strength. They are fighting for their survival. In Haiti, they are eating dirt.
“The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend,” he said on CNN’s “American Morning,” in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. “There are riots all over the world in the poor countries … and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States.” - CNN
This isn’t a pocket of hunger; this is affecting multiple countries (Egypt, Haiti, Bangladesh and others) simultaneously. (And yeah, we shouldn’t be making gas out of corn, but I’ve been saying that for 18 months or more. Methanol is the better option. We will never run out of shit, witness DC, but that’s another post.) Besides, the primary issues are rice and wheat.
Some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last week that rice prices have risen around seventy-five percent in just two months, to near historical levels. Wheat prices have risen one hundred twenty percent in the past year. - VOA
Of course, all of this stuff is interconnected. The price of oil impacts the costs of farming, fertilizers, shipping, etc. Emerging economies such as China are eating more meat, which diverts grain from people to animals. The weather is impacting crop production and viability in some areas, and disease has decimated crops in others. This is big. Haiti’s government has already toppled over this. In America, one in eight people living in the state of Michigan is on food stamps.
As a human being, and as a Christian, this is a terrible abyss to stand at. We are failing as an evolved species. We either feed our race, our human race, or we free fall into Darwinian struggle. There is no compassion in survival of the fittest, and it is the damnation of civilization and Chrisitan principles if we choose that path.
Crossposted at Bring It On!
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Big Fella, thanks for the link and the smile. There are definitely some upsides to going...
April 15th, 2008at 10:37 pm(#)
Even our World Atlas mentions Haiti as one of the most impoverished places on earth. There is no reason why the rest of the world can’t get some kind of basic aid to this country. I remember seeing a team of remote medical workers who were seeing children dying of starvation- but still sick after raw grains (rice) were shipped to their area because the water was contaminated. They invemted this peanut butter, grain/water mixture that they packaged. It can be eaten or drank- it came in it’s own ready to consume packet. That was the answer. they then had the basic bulk manufacturing machines and raw materials brought to the region & suddenly the mortality rate was majorly turned around.
Hell- even if the US gave a fraction of the military budget for this life saving humanitarian effort, it would make a huge difference.
fran’s last blog post..Thanks for the Memories