Features
Spectre of world hunger acquires greater visibility
Hunger has been the taboo subject for local and international political and social elites over the decades. Fortunately, though, there are sections of influential opinion that occasionally broach the subject, thereby keeping it alive to some extent.
World hunger was in the news once again recently when the governments of Canada, Bangladesh and Japan virtually launched what was termed the ‘Nutrition for Growth Year of Action’. A news feature published in this newspaper titled ‘Addressing the hunger and nutrition crisis’ on December 31, 2020, on page 6 provided detailed information on the international project. Among other things, the feature article announced a year-long effort ‘to address a global hunger and nutrition crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic’.
The key word in this extract is ‘exacerbated’. To be sure, the pandemic has triggered a plethora of worries for the world, but hunger and deprivation has stubbornly persisted over the decades though progressively less spoken of by governments and those who matter in this connection. The silence has been so palpable that the unsuspecting among us are likely to run away with the impression that global hunger is no more as a result of the problem having been dealt with effectively.
However, the article in question makes no bones of the fact that the spectre of global hunger is very much alive and well. It adds: ‘Hunger is on the rise and poor diets are now the leading risk factor of death world wide – responsible for one in every five deaths globally, more than tobacco, high blood pressure, or any other health risk.’ This is ‘food for thought’ indeed but a question that needs to be asked by discerning readers is why the problem of hunger has been kept under wraps as it were, considering the foregoing disclosures in particular. It’s this conspiracy of silence that the public spirited everywhere should find most intriguing.
There is no denying that the UN system, for one, has been keeping the issue of world hunger in focus and been engaged in efforts aimed at eradicating or alleviating the problem. But the blight persists and one is compelled to conclude that the diagnoses of the malaise and the attendant prescriptive remedies do not go far enough to enable a substantial dent to be made in the nagging and now silent crisis. But it would be unfair to single out only the UN as an actor who falls short of expectations in this connection. Besides other international quarters, there are the governments the world over who have a lot of explaining to do. Governments are prone to pay lip service to aiding the poor but the indications are that these efforts are far from effective. Hunger is not only persisting but proving to be foremost among killers.
A revelation made by George by garnering the necessary historical evidence is that even in times of the most devastating of famines in modern times the ruling strata of the relevant countries were ‘living it up’. They continued to indulge in their eating and drinking orgies in their palaces and high places while the mass of the population outside withered and died of hunger and disease. So, there were bastions of plenty and over-indulgent living amid seas of poverty and deprivation. Likewise, in contemporary times the ruling classes anywhere never go hungry. The reason is because these classes always appropriate unto themselves the lion’s share of a country’s wealth and adamantly retain it at whatever cost.
George is emphatic on the point that hunger and food scarcity is always man-made. Essentially, those sections commanding the means and the power create acute food shortages in times of economic strain by hoarding and stacking-up the relevant resources with the aim of making their prices soar. Thus do these parasitical groups ‘make a killing’ while the majority of their populations starve. With a few variations this pattern of exploitive behaviour manifests itself time and again.
Depending on one’s political convictions and values these disclosures could be seen as ‘sensitive’, controversial or otherwise. But in scientific analyses of socio-political phenomena the notion of ‘political correctness’ has no validity. Only the categories of truth and falsehood exist and the professional, authentic scientist recognizes only them as valid.
Accordingly, the issue of hunger should be seen as intimately and integrally connected to re-distributive justice. Wherever the latter exists hunger and starvation cannot exist on a ‘Biblical’ scale as it were. If governments act sincerely in the furtherance of re-distributive justice and social fairness, the chances of food scarcities and hunger going unaddressed are few. Thus, governmental intervention in these crises for the promotion of social and economic equality is of the first importance.
From the foregoing it could be seen that much will hinge on the ideological orientation of governments. It is only those governments that support re-distributive justice that could help out in the alleviation of hunger and poverty. That is, centre-left governments. Socio-economic equality stands less of a chance of being served by rightist governments that are essentially supportive of class stratifications based on wealth differences.
However, since the early nineties the centre-left cause or socialism has come to be steadily upstaged by political rightism with market economics being almost unreservedly endorsed by governments the world over. Consequently, socio-economic justice has not merited the attention it deserves by governments, resulting in deprivation and hunger going largely unaddressed. But the fact is that hunger and poverty has always been with us. Thanks to parasitic but powerful governments the issue has been virtually forgotten. The pandemic has had the effect of exposing these follies in governance. The international community needs to honestly face-up to the afore outlined roots of socio-economic equality.