Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday called on world leaders attending the annual UN debate to take action against hunger and poverty by providing funds and fostering fair trade.
The Brazilian president asserted that the widespread hunger prevailing in the world today lies at the root of a host of other global ills.
“Hunger nurtures violence and fanaticism,” he said. “A world where people starve will never be safe.”
Lula argued that the international community has the 50 billion U.S. dollars needed to combat the hunger now plaguing 840 million people worldwide.
“Think of the cost of wars and other conflicts. All here know that the second Gulf War may also have cost hundreds of billions of dollars to date. With much less we could change the sad reality of a large share of the world’s population,” he said. “We could save millions of lives.”