World hunger – are we getting anywhere?
We can frequently view TV programs showing the hungry and the starving in the Sudan and other locations around the world. Millions of people are starving. We briefly watch before we change channels saying something like, “that same program again” to see that $35 per month will save a child and provide food and education for them. Something to think about; if we stop sending does the child die? It will continue to struggle to survive the best way that it can. Do you really think that is enough from us?
Think back 40-50 years to Andrea Hitchminova’s voice on the radio asking for donations to be sent to 76 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario. Has there been any change to this global problem?
Then, entertainment was tried to feed the hungry. To feed the world! Simply stated, when the music stopped, so did we and the giving. There is an important question we should ponder. What has changed? How many sacks of grain have been sent here or there? To what end? Let’s further ponder those sacks of grain and ask why do we feel like our responsibility is over when we hear that it was sent to this region or that?
As I write my thoughts, I invite you to see and feel the flaws in our present system that is now in place to help the needy around the world. A hit and miss approach at best.
Can you imagine hearing at the refugee camp that food has finally arrived, only to find that it is sacks of wheat. How do you eat that? You are weak and so are your children. Do you grind it? Do you gnaw on it? How do you and your family digest it? Remember, chewed wheat turns to gum.
Still, we from Canada who have heard that shiploads of wheat are on their way to the starving area feel like all is well and we all did our part.
I, for one, am ashamed and my intelligence is insulted by this hit and miss approach. I see a feeble attempt at best to solve this horrendous and complex problem. If we are trying to make Mother Nature weep, this will do it.
Have you ever heard of a political platform that stated, “I will end starvation? First at home and then abroad? Vote for me.”
That person would certainly receive my vote. To end starvation is directly proportional to strengthening a nation. Building national strength from within will win the day for all.
There are today, ready, prepared to eat nutritional meals that require no refrigeration and have a fresh shelf life of over five years. These foods are also available in various religious standards such as Muslem Halal or Jewish Kosher. Disaster relief also comes to mind here for fast transport and emergency distribution.
In other words, no longer can our politicians say we can’t because they from other nations won’t touch our standard of food preparation. We can now meet their rightful food prep requirements and thus the food choices for them have just expanded.
On a positive note, the Corporate world has stepped up recently with Microsoft founder Bill Gates saying in July that his charity, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was pledging $287 million in a bid to speed-up the development of a vaccine for the HIV/Aids virus; US billionaire investor Warren Buffett donating a whopping $37 billion to charity in June of this year (5/6 of this going to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); and UK billionaire Sir Richard Branson said he would commit all profits from his travel firms, such as airline Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, over the next 10 years to develop new renewable energy technologies, through an investment unit called Virgin Fuels. Branson has also given money to educational charities in Africa.