In previous blogs I noted the scandalous economics and underlying greed that govern our human lives. Again, this is the underpinning factor in what is presented to us as the world’s present “food crisis” – as a small group of people continue to make billions as a result of astronomic rises in the price of corn, rice, soya and wheat etc. In this part of the jungle, when we shop we are all aware that food prices are rising. Of course, poor people in the South or majority world have been starving long before the West declared a food crisis. Millions of children die every year of malnutrition! What a screwed up world! One where the rich are always calling the shots! They now speak of food crisis and we are all jumping! People in Haiti and Darfur have been going hungry for years!!! Think of Haiti that used to grow its own food to feed itself now living on imports from the US. No wonder Haitians have been rioting for food! "A hungry man (sic) is an angry man", is that famous line from Bob Marley.
At the same time needs continue to rise and waste is the order of the day. Who is trying to tighten their belt and shrink their stomach by eating less? Most likely not any of us who have the choice to do so – only those who do not have a choice. Try calculating how many kilos of food leave our tables, kitchens, refrigerators and supermarkets as waste. “Waste not, want not” could not be more appropriate for the West and the affluent, while the poor will scramble for the crumbs that fall off our overfilled tables. The cynic in me wants to reason: “it’s pay-back time. We reap what we sow: So let’s stuff our stomachs with our credit-cards, gadgets and trinkets and see how well that digest”. The problem with such cynicism, however, is that it is still the poor people who are sufferings and will continue to do so.
The pundits, including the world bank (who are desperately seeking a facelift or image makeover) are informing us of a host of reasons why we are in this state: farm lands are being lost to industrialisation and urbanisation; global warming and change of weather patterns (floods and cold weather) are hurting production. Rising oil prices (which should read more like the wasted war on Iraq and terror) and fears over climate change have resulted in turning to maize to make bio-fuels 'jacking up' the prices. And as if we are unaware, the pundits then inform us that there will be billions of mouths to feed.
Indeed there are billions mouths to feed and how to sustain this is a problem. Yes, and we need to control population growth: but this is not about birth control only: it is also about our preoccupation with longevity – living longer lives to the extent that the liturgical line at funeral services should now read: “to live we must (have to), to die we may”. So while the west will look to the majority world and cry “forced sterilization” the majority world can rightly respond, “forced euthanasia”.
Yet, the pertinent question is: are we really interested in changing habits and re-orienting our life styles to so that the enough food we have can be more than enough for all? Perhaps we should re-visit Psalm 23 to read, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want more than I need”. This, of course, will be a difficult proposition as one significant implication is the need to rethink our whole economic system.
If one takes the logic of simple economics and applies it to a country like Guyana (as one example), then the fact that their rice production is increasing ought to mean that with rice shortage and increasing demands, Guyana may soon strike it rich. But it is here where the logic gets skewed and becomes illogic – for Guyana will remain poor while the rich companies in west with some stooge native company will reap profits till their eyeballs pop trying to follow the numbers in their bank account, while the farmers rot in their swamps and the government try pay off long standing debts.
The writing is on the wall for us to read and it is not an asteroid that will wipe the human population out. It is our self-denial about the greed that has taken over our lives, to the extent that we all want everything immediately and not only that: we want more and more of it all. So what the head of the World Bank needs to know is that “putting our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths” will get us nowhere until our hearts are in the right place. Our economic theories need a heart-beat to offer life.
© Copyright Jagessar (April 2008)
