By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Have you ever been hungry? I mean really hungry -- not because of medical, religious, or dietary reasons. Not because you would not, but could not, because there was not enough food for adequate nourishment. The first stages of hunger take 12 -- 24 hours of starvation, resulting in an unpleasant mildly painful sensation in the pit of your stomach muscles, known as 'hunger pangs.' A single hunger contraction lasts about 30 seconds and continues for about 30 -- 45 minutes, reaching their greatest intensity in 3-4 days. How we admire those you induce self hunger as a form of opposition against a political, religious, or social repression! However 850 million people did not choose to be hungry -- they are hungry because there is not enough food to go around. This report was issued by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 2003. Despite the stated intentions of world leaders to end hunger, it is on the rise worldwide. Where does the blame lie, and where the shame? It is claimed by organizations such as "Food First" that every country on earth (with the possible exception of some city states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, economists, and various institutions would have none of it. Is this a condemnation of death or a prohibition of going on living? Their argument is that the best way for such countries "to break the cycle of poverty and malnutrition," is to build export led economics that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market. At the "World Food Summit," the President of Sri Lanka, Rahinda Majapaksa begged to disagree. His argument is that the blame lies on Western policies. In the past his country, amongst others "produced sufficient food to nourish their population well, and even an excess output for trading against other goods with other states." It was during colonial rule that "the path of advance was halted, and was directed rather towards selective commercial cultivation of alien crops." Now he maintains that colonial countries have excess food, while these traditionally agricultural countries starve. Could there be no truce between the have and the have-nots? Nobel laureate Amyrta Sen (1998), argues that "famine is not typically the product of lack of food," rather the problem arises from food distribution networks or governmental policies in the developing world. His point is validated by success in countries that were opened to international trade, such as China, Vietnam, and Peru, having greatly reduced their undernourishment as measured by the WHO. On the other hand N. Korea which remained closed to international trade experienced a decline in food saturation. Besides, how would some of the richest countries in the world like the UK, USA, Sweden, or even Saudi Arabia survive, if they had to depend on their internal food production alone? Yet most of the wasted food results from their excess. "One wonders whether the free market is supposed to work only one way," commented Rahinda Majapaksa. The question that begs to be asked, is if there are such food shortages causing the death of almost 1/6 of the world population, how come there are one billion overweight and obese adults (WHO report, 2003). More than 60 per cent of US citizens over the age of 20 are overweight, and 25 per cent of adults are obese. Children's obesity continues to rise. 20 per cent of world children under five are overweight, an alarming rate by any measure. WHO describes obesity as "the greatest globally unrecognized health problem in the world." Obesity leads to debilitating problems and fatal diseases. Consuming large amounts of saturated fats and sugars leave us undernourished, or malnourished. The addiction to junk food is only one of the culprits. Ironically, the other is our modern technological and economical growth. The globalisation of food markets and automated transportation has distributed disease instead of health and nutrition. What else has our advanced technologies bestowed on humanity? The magic of television and the internet have become our main leisure pursuits, leaving us homebound, inactive, with the refrigerator close by. India, with 200 million undernourished, could not suffer the curse of obesity. It does. With 1.1 billion population, 50 per cent are under 25, working at sedentary jobs, eating at fast food joints, and developing diabetes at a staggering rate. Therefore bad food habits plague not only the affluent, but the developing countries with high percentages dying from hunger. Lazy, inactive, and gulping the wrong foods -- what a painful human drama we have created for ourselves! Fat food, bad food, no food -- plagues of an advanced and highly sophisticated rich world society. How can it be that we can fly into space, treat untreatable diseases, conduct efficient wars, but are incapable of managing food production, distribution, and consumption? How can we so callously discard enormous amounts of foods from hotels, restaurants, homes, while millions die of starvation? How can the life, welfare, and diet of a pet dog or cat take priority over the welfare of a human? Cat food for a day can nourish one human for a week. Some populations are so compassionate and humane, they have established a "special police" force to monitor the malnourishment and abuse of animals, with penalties, fines, and sometimes imprisonment. Have the animal police of any city heard of Darfur or Uganda? Have they never seen a mother watch helplessly as her child's face turns yellow, his lips blue, his eyes hollow? Have they never seen her frail arms embrace him before she lays him underground? We have the capacity to purposely bury out of sight the dolorous plight of fellow humans. Amidst so much beauty on this planet Earth how many man-made horrors have we created? Who is responsible for the outcome? Unless we all share the blame and the shame, neither FAO, WHO, UNESO, UN, or any other well-meaning organisations will make a difference. A balanced diet for all! Is that so hard to accomplish, for consumers to comprehend, for governments to enforce? Is this the tragic odyssey of mankind? Is this Dante's inferno, or rather his Divine Comedy? The fires of despair consume us as we watch and wonder how it is all going to end! Oh God that bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap -- Thomas Hood (1799 -- 1845)
