UN - Nearly 1 billion people are starving
The Telegraph
Please spare a thought for these people, when tucking into your Xmas dinner....................................................
Almost 1 billion people in the world are going hungry each day after the rising food costs have pushed 40 million more people into chronic hunger this year, the UN food agency's chief said Tuesday.
The goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 has suffered a "serious setback" as the food crisis has pushed more people, particularly in the developing world, toward hunger.
"For many countries, the world goal of reducing hunger by half is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve," Food and Agriculture Organisation Director-General Jacques Diouf said, referring to one of the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000.
"This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st century," he said, unveiling the Rome-based agency's annual report on world food insecurity . He added: "Even the objective of cutting by half the number of hungry by 2015 is morally unacceptable."
An estimated 963 million people, or 14 per cent of the world's population, are unable to afford to eat enough calories to lead a normal life, the report found - with 65 per cent of those living in seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
The crisis affects mainly the poorest, the landless and female-headed households, says the report, "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008."
Mr Diouf, who has called on wealthy countries to invest $30 billion (£20 billion) a year in agriculture, said the figure was only eight percent of agricultural subsidies paid out in developed countries.
"Thirty billion dollars is nothing compared to subsidies and support in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, ... nothing compared to the billions of dollars being spent in all developing countries to face the (ongoing global) financial crisis," he said.
"I don't think that (30 billion dollars) is asking too much," Mr Diouf said.
Mr Diouf said he had asked US President-Elect Barack Obama to take the lead in the goal of "eradicating hunger from the face of the earth," beginning with a summit next year "to find the ways and means for mobilising 30 billion dollars a year."
Echoing Mr Obama's campaign slogan "Yes We Can," Mr Diouf said: "We can do it ... if we give priority to world food security."
I must admit that I have to agree somewhat with my American cousin..
It si clear that the aid has not been working.. We have to perhaps think about new ways of helping them..
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
if it were that simple, don't you think the problem would be fixed by now?
agriculture is the backbone of most developing economies. it also happens to be the industry where developed nations have the most barriers to trade.
it is estimated that unfair trade takes away from the third world about twice as much as given to them in aid.
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
gordon brown has recently been very critical of GCC states for not doing enough to help, considering all the money they have.
most western nations are also not living up to their pledge to donate 0.7% of their GDP to help the third world.
this won't get better until people start demanding better from their governments (in both rich and poor countries).
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
I will Donate 30 billion dollars worth of agricultural farm equipment, then some basic necessities, technical advisory, seeds and start growing your own shi# and stop depending on the western world to save your sorry ass all the time.
For 40 years the western world has fed the starving people, is time for them to do something for themselves.
Mr Diouf said he had asked US President-Elect Barack Obama to take the lead in the goal of "eradicating hunger from the face of the earth," beginning with a summit next year "to find the ways and means for mobilising 30 billion dollars a year."
I love women, I really do. I like my women like I like my coffee: tied up in a sack and thrown on the back of a donkey by Juan Valdez.
This is gift of Capitalist Rules of Law....
Make profit... make more profit... make even more profit.... on cost of human life, culture and social value.....
this is the NWO...
this is just sad,...