Millions Will Starve as Rich Nations Cut Food Aid Funding, Warns UN

[babylonsister]

Millions Will Starve as Rich Nations Cut Food Aid Funding, Warns UN

by John Vidal, in Bangkok


Tens of millions of the world's poor will have their food rations cut or cancelled in the next few weeks because rich countries have slashed aid funding.


A woman and a child suffering from Acute Water Diarrhea in the Wanleweyn district, southern Somalia, April 5, 2009. (Photograph: Abdurashid Abikar/AFP/Getty Images)

The result, says Josette Sheeran, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), could be the "loss of a generation" of children to malnutrition, food riots and political destabilisation. "We are facing a silent tsunami," said Sheeran in an exclusive interview with the Observer. "A humanitarian disaster is unrolling." The WFP feeds nearly 100 million people a year.

Food riots in more than 20 countries last year persuaded rich countries to give a record $5bn to the WFP to help avert a global food crisis brought on by record oil prices and the growth of biofuel crops. But new data seen by the Observer show that food aid is now at its lowest in 20 years. Countries have offered only $2.7bn in the first 10 months of 2009.

The US, by far the world's biggest contributor to food aid, has so far pledged $800m less than in 2008; Saudi Arabia has paid only $10m in 2009 compared with $500m in 2008; and the EU has given $130m less. Britain's promise of $69m (£43.5m) this year is nearly $100m (£63m) less than 2008, and, if nothing more is given, will be its lowest contribution since 2001.

"Even under our best scenarios, we will end the year $2bn short," said Sheeran. "Many of our funders do not feel that they need to give on the level of last year. They think the world food crisis is over, but in 80% of countries food prices are actually higher than one year ago."

World food supplies are under increased strain this year following a succession of droughts, typhoons, floods and earthquakes that have destroyed crops in Africa and south-east Asia. But human needs are also greater because the financial crisis has led to widespread unemployment. In addition, the remittances from foreign nationals living in rich countries to their families at home are 20% lower than last year.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/11-0

[Yehonala]

1. Sticking My Neck Out

I'm going to stick my neck out and sound heartless, but a lot of the people in these 'rich' countries are losing their jobs and a lot of countries are tightening their belts. This is the worst possible time for the UN to say stuff like this. The Third World has been dependent for too long.

[lonestarnot]

3. So K I have an axe.

What a cold mother fucking heartless thing to say to starving children.

[Obamanaut]

7. The rest of the world has come to depend on the deep pockets of the

United States. The sad truth is, there is not much in those pockets any more but lint. The US has been the police, the mainstay of defense (over 700 military sites in 39 countries), the grocer - and it must slow down soon.

There are thousands losing their jobs here every week. Have become and are becoming homeless. Food pantries have ever increasing customers with dwindling products on the shelves. Adults and children even in the US are going hungry.

The numbers in this link are not even for the current year, and they are dismal.

edited to add link

<snip>
In 2007, 36.2 million Americans (up from 35.5 million in 2006), including 12.4 million children, are food insecure, or didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives.


Almost a third of those, 11.9 million adults and children, went hungry at some point. That’s 691,000 children who went hungry in 2007, up from 430,000 in 2006. Of those 35.5 million, 22.9 million were adults and 12. 6 million were children.



<More at link> http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-hunger-us

[G_j]

8. so will we still capitalize on their resources, their sweat shops?

while they learn to be "independent".

[omega minimo]

14. Dayum bleedin heart libruls

:hug:

[G_j]

21. I know..

now, I'm on my way out to hug a tree.

[omega minimo]

13. The comforts of "these 'rich' countries" often depend heavily on the exploitation of the poor and

defenseless.

These people are not animals, they are human beings. If you think long enough to have some gratitude for what you have and consider where it REALLY comes from, yes back to the source........... your heart might open enough to have some compassion.

[malaise]

2. The IMF and their rich backers spent 30 years

destroying the agricultural sector in developing countries. Perhaps the stupid local politicians should have listened to the leftists who warned them this would happen.
You never put yourself in a position where you have to depend on others for your food.

[jwirr]

9. Yes, it is not the people of those starving nations who made the deals

with the corporations and sold out their own economy. But then my friends can't we say the same about our own leaders? They have outsourced us into the mess we are in now and destroyed the native cultures of this world in order to populate their factories. "Hey there, mr nigerian, leave your farm plot and move into Lagos. We will give you a job --- or a home in our ghetto. Either way you won't have to be a poor farmer anymore."

[malaise]

12. Yep that's 100% correct n/t

[jwirr]

16. I had several African friends back in college and they taught me a lot. nt

[babylonsister]

18. Tell that to the people who are starving, who had no say in what

was happening in their country, from civil war to genocide.

Pretty cold.

[scarletwoman]

4. I wish had adequate words...

I lay all this misery at the feet of the greedy wealthy 1%.

I know they don't cause the earthquakes and tsumanis, but what they do to the global ecosystem in their rape and pillage in the name of profit -- deforestation, draining aquifers, polluting fresh water, destroying topsoil with chemical-based farming, and burning fossil fuels with abandon -- DOES effect the global weather system.

And the banksters grabbing all the wealth of the world for themselves, leaving everyone else either jobless or struggling -- it's all of a piece.

It's all of a piece, and if we don't start fighting back HARD against these vampires, there won't be anything left to sustain life for the other 99% of us.

sw

[omega minimo]

15. "We are the World, We are the Children......." how many decades has this been going on?

[PDJane]

5. Read Confessions of an economic hit man.

We have done this. Since we have, it behooves us to help fix it.

[SpiralHawk]

20. Go to the movies and watch "American Casino"

You will see the same principles -- I call it Republiconism or Republiconomics -- at work, tossing Americans out of their homes and onto the street, while bailing out the Fatcats with our tax money.

Same kind of sick 'Republicon-minded' BS, this time applied to Ag and food.

[JonQ]

6. I really don't think all that food aid has been helping

considering the fact that they are still starving. Maybe more investment in infrastructure, education of farmers, equipment, modern seed strains and fertilizers and less emphasis on simply giving them free foods that wipes out their local farmers.

[babylonsister]

10. 'Not Whether We Can End Hunger, It's Whether We Will'; Aid Group Endorses Admin. Plan

snip//

"Now, our initiative is, admittedly, ambitious, because we intend to address the root causes of hunger by investing in technologies and infrastructure that will make farming more productive and profitable in developing countries, while making it easier for food to reach the people who need it," Clinton adds. "It will enhance nutrition, so children are healthy enough to learn and adults are strong enough to work. And we’ll maintain our deep commitment to emergency food assistance, to answer the urgent cry for help when tragedies and disasters take their toll—as is happening now in the Horn of Africa, where drought, crop failures, and civil war have caused the worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years."

A leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty founded in 1945, CARE says in a statement that the plan outlined by Clinton is closely aligned with CARE's own.

more...

http://onthehillblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/not-whether-we-can-end-hunger-its.html


Seems like this isn't happening fast enough. :(

[cutlassmama]

17. Agreed. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

11. whose solution makes more sense- sam kinison, or sarah silverman...?

sam: "...instead of us always bringing food to you people- you need to move to where the food is"

sara: "sell the vatican, feed the world."

[Omnibus]

19. Maybe a combination of the two?

All the world's hungry should move to the Vatican?

:silly: