- Tambra Tice
- Poway, CA
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What is the REASON behind world hunger?
I understand that there is poverty in the world, and I understand that in some of these places there is no water and the soil is not very good. But it seems incomprehensible to me that with all the wealth and excess food stored up in developed countries, and boats and planes and trains and automobiles to transport the stuff, WHY is it not being done? And how can we MAKE it happen? Please help me to understand this.
Topics:
Hunger poverty starvation
Rafi Amin 20+
Jacob Miller 10+
Michael M 30+
I have been mulling over an answer for several hours now. I wish I had one now. There is no one reason. Like most complex problems, it takes some strange twists and turns to find a real answer.
What it will take on one level is enough political will by enough people to make real changes in about a ton of government programs and policies including ethanol, wheat subsidies and who it is we choose to help feed in another country. I still believe it can happen on this level, but not until people get really serious about the problem.
Start writing your congressperson and Senators. Let them know how you feel.
Start giving to a group who is actually feeding people who are hungry and not just sending letters copied from chalkboards by kids in their "program." There are lots of groups trying to get food out there to people who need it. Support those programs. You can't feed everyone, but you can give food to someone.
Get a group of people around you who are willing to do the same thing, then let them start writing letters and giving money.
No one should die of starvation.
Tambra Tice
"Again I tell you, it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24
Gisela McKay 30+
It is what makes having what others do not have appealing to some - particularly those who cannot find the pleasure/value intrinsic to the item they have.
(I'm supposed to be finishing a book on this broader subject, but feeling somewhat unmotivated.)
Frans Kellner 100+
Gisela McKay 30+
So, if I head to the kitchen for a sandwich, that is fulfilling a direct need.
If I head to a specific restaurant for dinner, that could be to fulfill a craving - or if I don't actually derive any pleasure from eating there, but instead I go there to be seen at that restaurant, it's about validation.
People who buy, for example, large screen televisions, not because they derive pleasure from watching them, but from inspiring envy in their social circle, or for because it marks some achievement, are operating from this same space.
Any time it is not enough that I have something (money or objects, whatever), but I require that others do not have it, then I am operating out of this need.
So, when you ship grain or whatever aid to a nation, and the dictator stores it rather than allowing it to be distributed to the people, it is because of this peculiarity of the human psyche.
(It manifests in myriad other ways as well: people having jobs they hate but are socially desirable, hiding homosexuality while preaching anti-gay marriage, embracing NAIRU, and so on and so forth.)
There's no actual need for people starving, other than human beings. (In 50 years with the population expansion as it is, maybe.)
Frans Kellner 100+
At least I understand you now.
In my view all those people that are like what you describe, crave for a bit of love. They haven't got it and they can't give it.
They substitute it with other things as many parents do with their children to give them things rather than a hug, respect, time and attention.
This is a social issue that has much to do with the structure of Western societies and for a part is forced upon other societies as well.
E G 10+
Sidharth Hariharan
Frans Kellner 100+
The cause of it is a big story but in short I can say that it's due to the interference of the Western world. in the past as well as today. I would love to tell the whole story because much of it is unknown to most of the people and not popular by the media and especially so in the U.S.A.
To solve it however will need a lot more than simply to send food over there.
Tambra Tice
I question how could this situation ever have come into being in the first place, that millions of people are literally starving to death and the whole world (whom ever is able) is not coming to their rescue? And for this to have been going on for so LONG and not be 'fixed' by now...well, it blows my mind. If you have a story to tell, I would be very interested to hear it! (along with how you got the info!)
Frans Kellner 100+
What I can tell about the cause of hunger in the world I can only tell in general to keep it short . I can’t give any source for it because it is an accumulation out of the hundreds of documents and stories over many years. I hope this will give any insight.
Before the 15th century AD all lands we called primitive then and we now call the third world were relative harmonious. There were low scale conflicts and native cultures which were relative beneficial for the sustainability of the communities. Those cultures were grown out the conditions of the landscape dictated and their natural demands on the habitat. Hunger was periodically and natural as the pressure became too much on what nature could provide.
As missionaries tried to convert those peoples their cultures were replaced with a strange culture that was devastating for their way of life. They could only survive if they adapted to farming and commerce as it was normal in Europe. Following the track of those missionaries were merchants and soldiers. They occupied the land founded nations at their own choice and forced those people to work as hard as possible. Governments made deals with the most corrupt native leaders and exported all goods home: spices, wood, minerals, slaves and all they liked. Later on there were some reforms and later again planters that organized it all on their behalf without making it any better. After the world wars those countries got one by one their independence which meant that they could choose their own flag.
Michael M 30+
I cannot say I agree much with you. The indigenous people's were not living some idyllic existence. Most fought other tribes or groups, most of the time they did have enough food to eat, but were actually victims of weather, disasters and everything else we are.
If you will really examine history, you will see that not all missionaries fit your scheme. Thousands went out and brought a better life to people. Large companies are an integral part of today's problems, but they are not the only "bad guys" here.
There are corrupt leaders here and there, in developed and non-developed countries. Food has been used as weapon and a carrot to coax "good" behavior from almost ever developed country.
The answer is not to return to some non-existent idyllic past, but create enough political will, change foreign policies, and feed as many people, men, women and children as we can. For every child we save, we save a human being.
Frans Kellner 100+
These were no nations to begin with but a bunch of peoples that lost their cultural foundation and land. Most of these nations were and still are mismanaged by corrupt leaders that no longer deal with foreign governments but with big companies. Companies that for almost free export their: spices, minerals, wood, slaves and all they like. Governments abroad as those of these nations profit from this robbery, they support this, sustain this and prolong this as much as they can. In this last part the US plays the biggest part which gave rise to the term of imperialism used by those who suffer from this policy. Wars and conflicts in the past to change things made things worse in most cases.
Now after generations with better education on all sides there is some liberation with new dangers coming from companies like Monsanto that are a thread not only for those nations but for the whole world. For this it is better to follow some links on the subject.
http://livestre.am/I3Q1
http://youtu.be/Av6dx9yNiCA
http://youtu.be/kQIw5qkq2QY
Another issue is the way that on both sides of Africa and some other places the ocean is depleted of fish by big trawlers so there’s nothing left for the local fisherman that lived from it for centuries. The pirates on the shore of Somalia are a reaction on this. The list goes on and on and as long as we feed those hungry people without addressing the causes we are deepening the misery, for every child we save it will become an adult for whom there is no place left in our world.
Frans Kellner 100+
I'm glad with your reaction. Indeed it wasn't all paradise but in a relative equilibrium with the environment.
As I said it I gave a overall picture because there are lots of local variations on the theme.
Your remark on the mission isn't relevant because not until the end of the 19th century some missionaries started to alleviate social misery but then "civilization" was already established in the new order and the heart of most cultures had disappeared.
Because of this it is impossible to return to the old ways but instead help to build these countries to modern standards.
The first need is education for children but also for farmers on how to make the best of the local resources and for entrepreneurs to start enterprises on commerce and manufacturing with micro-credits. They need support to build a good infrastructure on the ground as well as in government.
We have to provide them as rich countries access on the world market on a fair basis and get over our hypocrisy.
Michael M 30+
Protestant missions began in the late 18th century particulalry in India and SE Asia. Hospitals and other benevolent efforts were very common place. People like William Carey in India had that as an utmost concern in the early 18th century, not the late. Obviously there was manipulation by companies like the East India Trading Company. There were misguided attempts at "civilizing the natives."
On the problems of hunger, there were people who sought to help.
Many of the people in rural areas in places like Mexico, Central America and South America actually are able to sustain themselves quite well, just not at our "standard of living". They need help making a better quality of life, not quantity of life. They need things like access to clean water, better planting methods, and medical clinics.
I agree that access to world markets should be much freer.
Frans Kellner 100+
Michael, if I gave the impression that missionaries were the bad guys than I must correct myself.
They had the best intentions but were ignorant of the effects of their work. Also they had no respect for those peoples and their values. They didn't understand that some people had sometimes strange ways because that was the only way to survive under those local and harsh conditions. With their belief they converted the people also into the Western culture which didn't fit unless they got land for farming.
By doing all this they created without intention the circumstances that were ideal for merchants and traders to exploit those people.
Of course with all those Christians there also were intelligent people and mystics that disapproved all that but they were and are few.
Being Dutch we had the VOC which as far as I know was the first multinational and gave our country the golden age but it was all on expense of forced labor.
To your remark on South and Central America I will say for two decades it is going better now since the US changed their foreign policy.
Salim Solaiman 50+
Food used as weapon
Wastage of food
are 3 main reasons behind hunger that what I feel.
Long discussions on the same were there in following thread , can check http://www.ted.com/conversations/3969/what_should_be_done_about_the.html
http://www.ted.com/conversations/3616/is_it_our_responsibility_to_he.html
Erol Toksoy 10+
Walter Radtke
Tambra Tice
Walter Radtke
Buying these foods on the open market is more expensive than raising it your self. So the lender makes money from the interest on the loan while the country goes further into debt by borrowing more money from guess who? It's a con game and our news agencies don't educate us, so I blame them as well.
If you want to know how big and powerful these global food distribution companies are, research nested corporate ownership via the Standard and Poore's reference books in any library and online. For example, 90% of all global foods are stored in facilities owned by 5 food giants: Bunge, Cargil, Dreyfus, Continental and Nestles. They are ALL headquartered in Switzerland. Their power is immense and no one knows or cares. Basically our problem is that we don't know how the world really works, there is far too much that is hidden from us, hidden in plain sight.
Tambra Tice
And you are probably very right about all the stuff being hidden from us in plain sight; I don't doubt that for a second.
Jacob Miller 10+
Tambra Tice
Frans Kellner 100+
Tambra Tice
Dema Karim
Tambra Tice
1) " The fact that food costs money is among the biggest, because extreme poverty makes it impossible to get food for most people where starvation is most prominent."
I don't see why those who HAVE money do not/can not spend it on getting the food to the 'have nots'. The fact that 'food costs money' is really 'no object' to those who have the money to begin with, so why is it so hard to GET IT to them?
2) While there are harsh droughts in such places, I would think that with our modern day technology, we could come up with a way to grow plants & raise animals in those harsh environments...I mean we put men on the moon, mapped the human genome, and have cloned animals...and yet we can't figure out how to grow food in drought stricken areas? Seems something is terribly amiss.
What about drilling wells? Surely if you dig deep enough you can find water there, right? And irrigation systems for when it DOES rain, or what about building a great pipeline? If the gas companies can do it to get gas from one place to the next over thousands of miles, why couldn't they do it to get these people water? And I can hear people who are reading this say, "Where is the money coming from to do all this?" To that I say, "From all those who HAVE it!" And even as a last resort, if all else fails or cannot be done (which I find preposterous) why don't we relocate these people to places that DO have food and water? (I'm fairly certain that if you asked the parents of starving children if they would be willing to leave their 'home' and move somewhere else if they knew it would save their children, that they would say yes.)
Dema Karim
Chris Aldon 20+
But just shipping food off to starving countries will do little good in the long run.
Regardless of soil quality if people are living there it is habitable, stop growing westernized crops to sell and start going local crops to consume would be the first step in the right direction.
Tambra Tice