World Hunger and Poverty

Anti-poverty activists and civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit against the city of Las Vegas this week challenging an ordinance that makes it illegal to feed homeless people in public. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed the suit Wednesday on behalf of activists with Food Not Bombs, a grassroots anti-poverty group that provides free, vegetarian meals in hundreds of city parks across the country. Plaintiffs claim the new law, passed July 19 , violates constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, free assembly, due process of law and equal protection under the law. Las Vegas joins a growing number of cities passing laws and ordinances that target the homeless and their advocates. City councilors in Orlando, Florida also recently voted 5-2 in favor of a measure making it illegal to feed homeless people in public parks and other downtown areas. The Orlando ordinance bans dispensing food to large groups within a two-mile radius of City Hall without a permit, and limits permits to “two per user per park in a 12 month period.” The ordinance states that feeding groups in public parks creates “hazards to the health and welfare of citizens, birds and animals, and is detrimental to the aesthetic atmosphere of parks.” As previously reported by The NewStandard, a growing number of cities are passing laws and ordinances intended to push homeless people out of public places. In addition to anti-panhandling, anti-camping and anti-loitering ordinances, feeding programs in public parks are the latest targets. Homeless-rights advocate Michael Stoops described this trend as “a big battle in downtown American between the interests of low-income people and the interests of the business community.”

Read Article more at:

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3503

by Lance Winslow

This week 500 human beings died in China and a massive flood, but no one seems to care because they are too worried about the Israel-Hezbollah War. In the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon 300 people have died over a 10-day period, where as in China 500 people died in a single afternoon due to flooding. There was hardly mention of it even in that world news.

In fact Chinese officials believe the death toll may be much more than 500 and might be triple. Yet the world is fixed to the TV sets in their living rooms watching the war between Arabs and Jews.

There will never be peace in the Middle East and is probably time that people on the planet observed that truth. Israel will eventually defeat Hezbolla and yet the president of Lebanon stated that if Israel’s army invades Lebanon fan in the Lebanese army will join in with Hezbolla and another revolutionary group and fight Israel’s army.

Yet at the same time Lebanon and Hezbollah are asking the United Nations to intervene and call for a cease-fire. Meanwhile, Israel is already passed the border by three or 4 miles and in some places 10 miles. In fact Israel has already crossed the border. This is another case of Arabs joining their Arab brother who normally they would try to kill in a Machiavellian tight unity where; the enemy of my enemy is my friend. At least for a few weeks.

It appears that neither side wants peace and both sides want total victory and therefore there can be no political negotiation and any possible negotiation can only end in impasse causing another war and both sides know this. Meanwhile Israel does not wish to give Hezbolla time to regroup or the Lebanese army time to join up with Hezbolla and therefore things are about to get worse and go to the next step.

Additionally, you can expect that if the Lebanese army joins up with Hezbolla to fight against Israel, that serious and Iran will be entering this conflict soon. This could be the start of World War III, however I would like to make a point about human life.

If we are all of the same genetics then all human life is important whether it is during that time of need of a massive flood caused by Mother Nature or two different groups of people who have never gotten along trying to kill one another. Please consider this philosophical point for a moment as we watch events unfold into a resolution or a World War.

by Lance Winslow

by Lance Winslow

We have a serious crisis in feeding the world as we approach some 10 billion humans on the planet. That is a lot of people and mouths to feed. Then there are the locust plagues, water issue and agricultural problems they face in the third world, specifically Africa.

Indeed and perhaps there a way to stop locust plagues and help us catch up and solve this problem, as the World Bank and researchers are looking for way to stop the Locust Plagues and re-establish agriculture as a way to feed the African Continent.

It is kind of a tough job once you have everything going and the Locust Plague comes along and eats all your crops. In fact in reading the World Bank white papers of David J. Spielman on private-public agriculture partnerships it appears to me that they would love to lick this problem once and for all. Especially considering the lack of water issues and the loss of lake, river and surface water in Africa.

If there is funding available to solve the African Locust Problem then shouldn’t it be done? Can’t we find a way to prevent millions from starving simply because a locust plague wiped out a season or year’s worth of crops? There has to be a way to figure this out and funds are available for someone who has the answers. Consider this in 2006.

by Nathan T. Lynch

We’ve all heard about the disgrace of sweatshops in Asia and other countries. Until you get first hand news of the horrible conditions in these places, it probably doesn’t seem ‘real’. Well it is. And it’s an ongoing tragedy throughout those countries. Following is an account of what Asian women are going through in these situations, specifically in the country of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that was formerly known as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Even though the country has gone through domestic and international efforts to improve its economic situation, Bangladesh remains an underdeveloped and overpopulated country. For the majority of people who live there, the annual income is only $440US, and lower still for others.

Bangladesh grows massive quantities of rice, tea and mustard. Although two-thirds of its people are farmers, more than three quarters of the country’s earnings come from exports through the garment industry. The ‘industry’, which employs more than 3 million workers, exports an average of $5 billion worth of products! 90% of of its employees, or slaves if you will, are Asian women.

Rents are very high in Bangladesh, especially for the factory workers who only earn about $38 US per month. To try to make ends meet, many of the women in the rural areas trek to the city’s sweatshops that offer horrible working conditions. At these sweatshops, the women work between 10 and 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not including their additional household duties either.

Needless to say, the atrocious working and living conditions take their toll on the health of these Asian women. As many as 68% of them complain of constant weakness and fatigue which is related to the long hours of work. The second major problem is gastric ulcers which are mainly due to low incomes and irregular eating habits. Chest pain, backaches, eye trouble, headaches and joint pain are other common ailments stemming from their work environment. Asian women working in these horrid conditions are also prone to urinary infections which are a direct result of not having enough access to toilets at work. There are strong restrictions on the number of times they are even allowed to take bathroom breaks.

Believe it or not, these women have a union. The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers’ and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said factory owners had prepared a master plan to start addressing these awful work-place conditions. That is yet to be seen. Sexual harassment is also very common in garment factories and the women there are threatened with being fired if they say anything or try to defend themselves. Exploited at work and living in poverty, many of these female workers have turned to prostitution as a way to make some extra money.

All in all, no matter how much you dislike the job you have, you’ve got to be thankful, at least, that you’re not an Asian woman living and working in Bangladesh.

Discover exotic culture asian culture at asian women

by ANDnetwork.com

SADC has called on donor governments worldwide to respond quickly and generously with food aid donations in kind or cash to avoid widespread hunger from developing into a humanitarian disaster.

More than 10 million people will need humanitarian assistance in six countries across Southern Africa over the coming year following yet another year of poor agricultural production caused by erratic weather together with late and, in some cases, unaffordable inputs, such as fertiliser and seeds, two United Nations agencies and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have warned. Reports compiled by the UN agencies Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) — following recent joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Missions (CFSAMs) in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia — show that countries were not able to grow enough food to meet domestic needs and that even allowing for considerable commercial imports, serious food shortages will persist until the next harvest in May 2006.

Other Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) reports — compiled by SADC together with the UN, non-government organisations (NGOs), and the governments of Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe — confirm the need for large-scale food assistance across the region at the household level. The region also needs to formulate national policies on staple food prices, agricultural reform, and trade at the national and regional level. Collectively, the 13 member states of SADC produced a cereal surplus of 2,1 million tones compared with 1,1 million tonnes a year ago. Most of the excess was produced by South Africa, which harvested a surplus of about 5,5 million tones this year.

Read ANDnetwork.com Article

In the late 1800’s, Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant in the United States, set out to document New York City’s teeming tenements on the Lower East Side. His finished product, How the Other Half Lives, was an immediate success and is now recognized as a canonical work of American sociology. By calling attention to the day-to-day activities of New York City’s forgotten underclass, Riis, along with a handful of other Progressive Era reformers like Upton Sinclair, catalyzed a political movement that would change the course of American history.

At Nextbillion, my colleagues are working on an equally ambitious project, which, in many ways, mirrors Riis’s 19th century work. From what I have seen, their project, Tomorrow’s Markets, is a 21st century answer to the problems that Riis first identified in the 1890s…

-Read Nextbillions Article-

The European Commission has allocated an extra €10 million in humanitarian aid for vulnerable children in Niger. The aim is to reduce child malnutrition and mortality. Since the beginning of this year, more than 150,000 children in Niger have been admitted to nutritional centres, many of which are supported by the Commission’s aid. The aid is also being used to improve access to primary health care for young children and their mothers, and to help the poorest families regain their food self-sufficiency, for example through distributing seeds to families who visit nutrition centres. A recent culling of chickens due to an outbreak of avian flu has contributed to the food shortage. The €10 million in aid comes on top of €8.3 million of humanitarian assistance the Commission has granted to Niger since the start of the food crisis in 2005.

The Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, said ‘Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, and this decision is a concrete expression of our solidarity towards children there who have little to eat. But if we are to achieve the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, we must do more than help children suffering from malnutrition today. Through our ongoing development work in Niger, the Commission is supporting the people of Niger to achieve food security to prevent children from suffering in the future.’

Niger is home to an estimated half a million malnourished children under five years old, of whom more than ten percent are severely malnourished. The food shortage in 2005 has left especially poor families heavily indebted at a time when the price of food in local markets is very high. This means that the most vulnerable cannot access food. The Commission’s humanitarian aid responds to these immediate life threatening circumstances. All funds are channelled through the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department, ECHO, under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel.

Niger has suffered from recurrent malnutrition with consequent high infant mortality for years. In order to help prevent these crises from happening again, the humanitarian aid will be followed closely by support to help families grow their own food, through the 9th European Development Fund (EDF). In the long run, food security has been identified as a priority objective for the 10th EDF (2008-2013).

Avian flu adds to the problems

Many of the poorest families in Niger were dependent on poultry as a source of protein and revenue. A recent outbreak of avian influenza in Niger resulted in a massive culling of chickens for which families were not compensated, causing additional hardship for the households concerned.
For further information:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/index_en.htm

From: NextBillion.net – Development Through Enterprise

In this Sunday’s Business section of the New York Times, Daniel Gross from Slate Magazine writes about the latest trend in international development: the $2 a day job. He begins his article discussing A to Z Manufacturing, a mosquito bed-netting business from Tanzania that pays its 2,000 female employees $1.80 a day. Gross explains that many of the women who have low-paying jobs at this Tanzanian manufacturer earn almost twice as much as they did as street vendors and domestic employees.

By American standards, a $1.80 a day job would be outright exploitation. But in a country where 80% of the population earns less than $2 a day, A to Z’s wages actually place their workers in the top quartile of earners. In his article, Gross quotes the New York University economist Willliam Easterly, who explains somewhat rhetorically that, “To put it in the baldest possible terms, the more sweatshops the better. As you increase the number of factories demanding labor, wages will be driven up.”

You can check out Mark Thoma’s post at the Economist’s View for commentary on Gross’s article. The Acumen Fund, which has invested in A to Z, also has a blog worth checking out.

NextBillion.net

By Thomas Sullivan

Where does starvation exist in the world today? What are some of the causes of world hunger? Are citizens of developed countries donating monetarily to the ongoing relief efforts? In this article I will address these questions with the hope that by creating an understanding of the current world hunger situation, morally conscious individuals will do their part in contributing to the eradication of this unseen suffering.

It is a well known fact that there is enough food in the world to feed every human being on earth. Sadly, malnutrition and hunger still afflict one out of every seven people in the world today. No matter how you examine the issue, a current crisis is at hand. Why is this so?

The causes of starvation are complex, but there are some common threads that seem to be associated with this problem. First and foremost, starvation is caused by poverty. To address the problem of world hunger then the problem of global poverty must be addressed. Therefore, the question that we should examine is what are the causes of poverty. A thorough discussion on the causes of global poverty is outside the purview of this article. Entire textbooks have been written on the subject. For our discussion, it is suffice to say that one of the major causes of poverty is governments pursuing policies that inhibit self sufficiency.

Areas of starvation are also characterized by persistent problems in cultivating food from lack of seed, arable land, and tools. Those that can grow food, must deal with insects, drought, floods, and war, which can result in complete destruction of crops. Historically, areas of Africa have experienced periodic locusts infestations, which can completely destroy crops.

Other causes of world hunger are related to the globalize system of food production. The globalize system of food production and trade favors a reliance on export crops while discriminating against small-scale farmers and subsistence crops. Many third world countries export out to much food while concomitantly not keeping enough food to sustain their own people.

AIDS is a significant cause of hunger. In societies affected by AIDS, famine is more deadly and difficult to combat. Why is this so? AIDS attacks the most productive individuals within society. Fewer productive people within society means fewer individuals to work the jobs that involve food production. This is one contributor to the starvation currently taking place in Africa.

Weather plays a major role in terms of the prevalence of starvation. Areas of drought leads to non-useable land with subsequent famine. This is well known. But less well known is that floods can also lead to starvation. Crops can be flooded and therefore destroyed, which in essence produces the same result as drought. In both cases, weather can produce a complete lack of self sufficiency.

Military conflicts, both internal and between neighboring countries, can lead to starvation. These conflicts can result in destruction of crops. Government money is directed at funding the conflict at the expense of the starving people. Funds are diverted from social and economic development. Military conflicts can also result in the displacement of large groups of people, removing them from their farms and their way of life. People can end up in refugee camps, completely dependent on relief aid.

The causative factors of world hunger are numerous, and certain factors change from year to year, therefore at any given time, some areas may be more prone then others. The extent of drought, flood, internal conflicts, and war with neighboring countries can vary over time. Therefore, these factors incorporate a variable affect on the degree to which inhabitants of susceptible countries suffer from starvation.

A combination of these causative factors in a particular region is a formula for disaster. When this occurs, large scale starvation can take place. A case in point. The Horn of Africa has seen severe drought coupled with internal conflicts. This is leading to the development of a tragedy. In this region currently 11 million people are on the brink of starvation.

Historically, certain areas of the world have had a high prevalence of hunger and starvation. These areas are the central region of South America, large areas of East, Central, and Southern Africa, and regions of South Asia. As of 2006, the current hot spots, those areas which are suffering the greatest degree of starvation, are as follows:

Niger:
This area in central Africa has been struggling to cope with the devastating impact of drought and locusts infestations.

Haiti:
In this region extreme poverty has been further exacerbated by a political crisis, floods, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

Horn of Africa:
An estimated 11 million people in the Horn of Africa “are on the brink of starvation” because of severe drought and war. Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia need food aid, water, new livestock and seeds. This is a major hunger crisis in development.

Afghanistan:
Poverty in Afghanistan, made worse by drought, has contributed greatly to their hunger problem.

Pakistan:
The recent earthquake coupled with a severe winter have produced starvation conditions. Recently, mud slides have hampered relief efforts.

North Korea:
Food insecurity caused by the countries economic problems, is compounded by unpredictable and severe weather conditions. To date, the North Korean government has failed in its duty to provide for it‘s starving people. The North Korean government has actually refused foreign aid.

Columbia:
A 40 year civil conflict and the illegal drug trade have caused mass displacement and poverty.

Democratic Republic of Congo:
3.4 million people have been internally displaced as a result of a continuing internal conflict.

Mali:
They are struggling to cope with the devastating impact of a recent drought.

Southern Africa:
Erratic weather, lack of seed and fertilizer, chronic poverty, and AIDS have been contributing factors to starvation.

These are the areas of the world which are currently suffering the highest levels of malnutrition and hunger. With this understanding of where relief efforts are needed, we must address the question of individual response. Are individuals of developed countries donating to relief efforts? Most morally conscious individuals donate to relief efforts when the problem is presented to them.

A major problem in the relief effort is the general population of developed countries not knowing about the current hunger crisis. News organizations, more specifically television news, are not giving enough attention to the global hunger situation. While an in depth discussion as to the reasons for this is outside the purview of this article, a few points can be made.

Evidently, the American TV news organizations, do not think world hunger is much of a story since starvation is a daily occurrence. I suspect, from the perspective of these news organizations, that 24,000 people per day dying from hunger is not a big enough news story. When 1,386 people died from hurricane Katrina, the news coverage was enormous. Five months after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, TV news organizations were still squeezing all they could out of this story. Granted this was an obvious tragedy, but an even bigger tragedy, much bigger, is going on in Africa and the general public does not even know about it.

I have seen little to almost no coverage given by American TV news organizations on the devastating hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. I have only learned of this crisis through RSS feeds on the Internet. Television news organizations such as CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC are thus far not reporting on this crisis. Hopefully this will change.

It is evident that the American TV news organizations do not really provide total and complete news, rather they screen the events and only provide what they feel may be interesting to their audience. News organizations should present the news and concomitantly maintain high journalistic standards. Maybe these news organizations need to incorporate a higher level of moral obligation into their decision making process, when deciding which stories to cover. In any case, people can not donate if they do not know the problem exists.

We have addressed some key questions in order to characterize the current status of the world hunger situation. We have examined where hunger is the most prevalent in the world today, and we have identified some of the causative factors which contribute to malnutrition, hunger, and starvation. We have concluded that most morally conscious individuals would contribute to the elimination of hunger, if they knew about the crisis. Finally, we have observed that the degree of world hunger coverage by TV news organizations is very much lacking.

Even though TV news organizations have not been covering the current world hunger crisis, by reading this article, you have developed an understanding of the degree to which starvation is prevalent in the world today. If you are reading this in a developed country, which is highly likely since you are reading it on a computer which has Internet access, you have a moral obligation to donate either time or money to help in the elimination of unseen suffering. Winston Churchill once said “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” We must all do our part to eliminate world hunger.

About the Author:

Thomas Sullivan is a Webmaster, and activist for world hunger elimination. He has built and currently maintains several websites. A relevant website he currently manages is located at http://hungerrelieforganizations.atspace.com. For questions or comments his email can be found on his website.

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) – Hunger kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and keeps millions of children out of school, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The U.N. World Food Programme, which provides food aid to about 90 million people every year, estimated that 25,000 people die each day from malnutrition-related diseases.

“The number of hungry people is rising at a rate of 4 to 5 million a year, despite a marked reduction in poverty,” Sheila Sisulu, the WFP’s deputy executive director, told a news conference at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva.

Humanitarian crises account for about 10 percent of hunger suffered worldwide, and the rest suffer “silent emergencies” of chronic undernutrition and ill-health that have persisted despite a broad economic upswing in past years, Sisulu said.

“There needs to be a very targeted effort to address issues of hunger and malnutrition,” she said.

In a report on the links between malnutrition and education, WFP said one third of the 300 million children worldwide who go to bed hungry on a regular basis are not attending school.

“Even if they do manage to go to school, undernourished children are unable to concentrate on their lessons,” the report said, urging school feeding programmes and other measures to improve students’ prospects — particularly in poor areas.

“The meal acts as an incentive to attend, leading to increased school enrolment, particularly for girls, in places where hunger and undernutrition are problems,” it said.

The report urged nutrition and health training, better access to deworming programmes in affected areas, particularly Africa, and efforts to educate women and families about the importance of good early childhood nutrition.

Paul Howe, a WFP policy adviser involved in the production of the report, said it was essential that governments introduce specific programmes to curb chronic hunger and malnutrition, which can act as a drag on overall development.

“Economic growth on its own is not enough to eliminate problems of under-nutrition. You really do, in addition to that, need some targeted interventions,” he said.