World Hunger and Poverty

Elizabeth Schulte writes about people being killed in a world of plenty:

EVERY MINUTE of every day, 13 children die around the world of hunger and malnutrition. That’s the finding of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Its latest report shows that 18,000 children die each day–or 750 each hour–of malnutrition and its related diseases.

According to WFP, 850 million people are hungry or malnourished around the world on any given day. That is one in six of the world’s population–or more than the combined population of the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain and France. Half of the world’s hungry are children.

In the world’s wealthiest country, the United States, nearly 16 million people are living in deep or severe poverty, according to an analysis of 2005 census figures by the McClatchy Newspapers. That’s more than the total population of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

What’s so striking about this study is how many people had fallen into even deeper poverty than before. Today, 43 percent of the 37 million poor people in the U.S. have plunged into deep poverty–the highest rate since at least 1975.

[...]

Meanwhile, the U.S. government plans to spend at least $650 billion this year on the military.

If this starve-the-poor-to-feed-Corporate-America policy continues, the future is a grim one for working America.

Read entire article by Elizabeth Schulte.

I find it odd to call the United States wealthy.

Why judge a nation by how we treat its highest citizens? Since the rich usually control the government, doesn’t their well-being most often correlate with the amount of corruption?

I say, judge a nation by how it treats its lowest citizens – the poor, the sick, the wrongfully imprisoned. From this perspective, I do NOT see the socially unequal United States, with its high rising poverty rates, as wealthy.

I am not a religous person, but still I agree with the Christian message that says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.” (Matthew 24:40)

Jesse Jackson recently wrote an article in which he says America has a poor excuse for poverty. He writes:

We glimpsed misery in America during Katrina, as the poor were stranded in the storm. But those shocking pictures were misleading. America has a growing poverty problem, but it doesn’t look like New Orleans.

Most poor people are not black or brown. Most poor people are white. They are disproportionately young, female and single. Most of them are not on welfare. They work every day that they can — but they still cannot lift their families out of poverty.

An analysis of 2005 census figures by Tony Pugh for McClatchy Newspapers revealed almost 16 million Americans living in “deep or severe poverty,” with the percentage of the poor living in severe poverty reaching a 32-year high. Our rich are getting richer and our poor, poorer.

Read entire article by Jesse Jackson.

I highly recommend reading the entire article.

Jesse Jackson points out a serious misconception. Many people think of poor people as minorities, criminals, or the unemployed. I think that the corporate-owned media portrays this falsehood, because it makes people less upset about poverty and hunger. Sadly, if we look at the true of face of poverty, we see a young, tired, and overworked single mother, who will probably never have the opportunity escape the rat race.

What do you think?

The Hunger & Poverty Forums are currently having a post contest in which you can win $40.

March Post Contest – Win $40

At the Hunger & Poverty Forums we’re having a contest. The poster with the most amount of posts by the end of March wins $40! (Second place gets $20, and third gets $10.) Joining the forums is free, so join now and start posting for a chance to win.

All view-points are welcome at the Hunger & Poverty Forums. Come now to talk about serious social issues and get a chance to win $40!

At the forums, we talk about many important subjects such as hunger, poverty, education, healthcare, and HIV/AIDS.

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A recent America Magazine editorial addresses homelessness:

While most people think of homelessness in terms of single men, roughly a third of the homeless population is made up of families, many of them headed by single parents. Families represent an especially vulnerable segment of the homeless population because of the presence of children. Advocates for the homeless point out that the disruption in the lives of children from living in shelters can lead to such health problems as respiratory and intestinal infections, along with psychological trauma. Their overall health status is far worse than that of children in homes. The trauma can be exacerbated when family members must separate upon entering shelters, with fathers and older male children often sent to shelters for men. Hardest of all is the fact that because of “lack of resources,” 86 percent of families may be turned away. Little wonder that families have resorted to sleeping in cars, under bridges or in wooded areas.

Adding to the struggles of homeless people is a strong sentiment against them. This has led to municipal ordinances that punish homeless people primarily because they have no stable housing. Aimed at banishing them from public places, statutes of this kind prohibit begging, lying down, sitting or “loitering.” Las Vegas offers an example. In July 2006 it passed an ordinance that makes sharing food with destitute or homeless people in public places a crime. Violation of the statute can be punishable by up to six months in jail. Nevada’s A.C.L.U. has filed a federal suit against Las Vegas, claiming that the ordinance violates the constitutional right to free assembly and free speech.

Homelessness is a solvable national problem, but the needed resources have not been forthcoming from the federal government.

Read entire America Magazine editorial.

Nobody has an obligation to help homeless people, but for the government to make laws that outlaw helping them seems absurdly atrocious. Regardless of these laws, let’s put an end to homelessness, a preventable problem.

Passive indignation cannot suffice. We must actively work to get homes for the poor innocent children who suffer on the brutal streets of America. These children cannot grow into healthy, happy, self-sufficient adults if they grow up in such devastating conditions. We all benefit by helping put an end to this preventable problem.

What do you think?

Hindu.com reports on the new UN anthem for the fight against poverty:

Poverty has no caste or gender, but it now has a voice in the form of music virtuoso A R Rahman, whose English single “Pray For Me Brother” will be the UN’s anthem for its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) campaign.

The MDGs comprise a set of eight promises by world governments to end poverty, hunger and disease by 2015.

After rocking India with his “Vande Mataram”, Rahman’s first English song, released by Universal Music, is his call to wipe poverty off the face of the earth.

Read entire Hindu.com article.

The power of music and art can help raise awareness and concern. The UN can’t end poverty and hunger on its own. Hopefully powerful songs such as Rahman’s will inspire more people to get involved.

What do you think?

Malungelo Booi reports that students in South African schools commit suicide due to hunger:

HUNGER and desperation are driving pupils at a school near Mthatha to commit suicide, according to the principal.

More than a quarter of the pupils at Upper Corana High School, in Misty Mount near Mthatha, may be HIV/Aids orphans, and the high scholar suicide rate has become a matter of concern to provincial authorities.

Suthukazi Lujabe, the school’s principal, said most of the pupils walk long distances on empty stomachs to get to school.

She said every year from 2001 to 2006, one or two pupils killed themselves at the school due to hunger.

Read entire article by Malungelo Booi.

Such suicides demonstrate the terrible agony of which these poor children suffer. Even worse, think of the 18,000 children who involuntarily die from hunger. They suffer in hunger pains that would drive some to suicide, which leads to their slow death.

How can we expect children to learn in a school with such hunger?

The world has more than enough food to feed everyone. Why do we allow hunger to continue?!

What do you think?

The AP reports that the UN says 18,000 children die daily from hunger:

It is “a terrible indictment of the world in 2007″ that 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition, and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, the head of the UN food agency said on Friday.

James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate and eliminate hunger – especially among children.

“Addressing the hunger issue is the most powerful way to break the poverty cycle,” he said in an interview. “We all simply have to do more.”

Read entire AP article on Gulf News.

Almost anyone would work any terrible job for the lowest of pay, if it meant avoiding the agony of hunger. That anyone goes hungry says something about the lack of fair opportunity in the world. Nonetheless, our society denies proper food to children, so extremely that 18,000 children die every day from hunger. Even more sickeningly, the world has more than enough food to feed everyone.

The people of this world need to organize non-governmentally and change the socioeconomic system so that no child goes hungry, and so that every child has access to the necessities including food, clothes, shelter, healthcare and education.

What do you think?

In a recent press release the Green Party calls for fresh fruit in all primary schools (of New Zealand).

The Green Party is calling for the Free Fruit in Schools programme to be extended to all primary schools in New Zealand, and for the Government to make available free, healthy breakfasts in all schools, Green Party Health Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

Currently only 268 of the 2,662 schools that have children of primary school age on their rolls have access to the Fruit in Schools programme.

“If thousands of children are going to school hungry every day, this will adversely affect their health and well being, as well as their ability to learn. Hungry children won’t be able to concentrate and learn properly, and chronically hungry children inevitably develop nutritional deficiencies and health problems, ” Ms Kedgley says.

“That’s why most developed nations offer free lunches in schools, and it is a tragedy that we don’t have that programme here. The cost would be miniscule, compared to the health and education benefits,” Ms Kedgley says.

Read entire press release.

I find it absurd to expect children to learn while hunger, undernourished, or malnourished. To run a school properly, the children need access to healthy food. Rather than waste time futilely appealing to the government to fix up the under-funded hell-holds that they call schools, we the people need to make our own private schools. We need to ensure that every child has access to education, and that education must come with food, clothes, and shelter. I believe we can best provide this through student loans and boarding schools.

What do you think?

Approximately 500,000 teens across the country intend to participate in the 2007 World Vision 30-Hour Famine.

For 30 hours, starting at noon Feb. 23, the participants plan to go without food, consuming only liquids, learn about world hunger and poverty and perform service projects in their communities.

The money raised by each participant contributes to the national goal of $12 million.

What do you think?

Larry Ault recently wrote an article describing the especially harsh effect HIV/AIDS has on blacks in the United States:

The National Center for Health Statistics 2006 report says HIV/AIDS is one of the top 10 causes of death for African-Americans.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has indicated HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 in the United States. Black youth ages 13-19 account for 73 percent of the young people infected with HIV/AIDS, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported.

In 2006, it was estimated 54 percent of new HIV cases nationwide were African-Americans who are more likely to test later than other races according to Kaiser Foundation reports and are more likely to receive a diagnosis of AIDS from the initial positive test.

Read entire article by Larry Ault.

This global killer hurts all of us, but it especially harms the black community. Additionally, the HIV/AIDS epidemic spreads faster and harsher through poor communities in which the people cannot afford testing and treatment. Although we have no cure, for the most part we can prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS by abstaining from unprotected sex, unless in a monogamous relationship where both participations have passed the HIV/AIDS test.

Sadly, in the United States, approximately 25% of people infected with AIDS do not even know.

What do you think?