The Current Status of World Hunger
Where does starvation exist in the world today? What are some of
the causes of world hunger? Are citizens of developed countries
donating monetarily to the ongoing relief efforts? In this
article I will address these questions with the hope that by
creating an understanding of the current world hunger situation,
morally conscious individuals will do their part in contributing
to the eradication of this unseen suffering.
It is a well known fact that there is enough food in the world
to feed every human being on earth. Sadly, malnutrition and
hunger still afflict one out of every seven people in the world
today. Or, from a slightly different statistical perspective,
the current world population is 4,712,200,000. The number of
malnourished is 797,900,000. Therefore 17% of the world
population is currently malnourished or starving. No matter how
you examine the issue, a current crisis is at hand. Why is this
so?
The causes of starvation are complex, but there are some common
threads that seem to be associated with this problem. First and
foremost, starvation is caused by poverty. To address the
problem of world hunger then the problem of global poverty must
be addressed. Therefore, the question that we should examine is
what are the causes of poverty. A thorough discussion on the
causes of global poverty is outside the purview of this article.
Entire textbooks have been written on the subject. For our
discussion, it is suffice to say that one of the major causes of
poverty is governments pursuing policies that inhibit self
sufficiency.
Areas of starvation are also characterized by persistent
problems in cultivating food from lack of seed, arable land, and
tools. Those that can grow food, must deal with insects,
drought, floods, and war, which can result in complete
destruction of crops. Historically, areas of Africa have
experienced periodic locusts infestations, which can completely
destroy crops.
Other causes of world hunger are related to the globalize system
of food production. The globalize system of food production and
trade favors a reliance on export crops while discriminating
against small-scale farmers and subsistence crops. Many third
world countries export out to much food while concomitantly not
keeping enough food to sustain their own people.
AIDS is a significant cause of hunger. In societies affected by
AIDS, famine is more deadly and difficult to combat. Why is this
so? AIDS attacks the most productive individuals within society.
Fewer productive people within society means fewer individuals
to work the jobs that involve food production. This is one
contributor to the starvation currently taking place in Africa.
Weather plays a major role in terms of the prevalence of
starvation. Areas of drought leads to non-useable land with
subsequent famine. This is well known. But less well known is
that floods can also lead to starvation. Crops can be flooded
and therefore destroyed, which in essence produces the same
result as drought. In both cases, weather can produce a complete
lack of self sufficiency.
Military conflicts, both internal and between neighboring
countries, can lead to starvation. These conflicts can result in
destruction of crops. Government money is directed at funding
the conflict at the expense of the starving people. Funds are
diverted from social and economic development. Military
conflicts can also result in the displacement of large groups of
people, removing them from their farms and their way of life.
People can end up in refugee camps, completely dependent on
relief aid.
The causative factors of world hunger are numerous, and certain
factors change from year to year, therefore at any given time,
some areas may be more prone then others. The extent of drought,
flood, internal conflicts, and war with neighboring countries
can vary over time. Therefore, these factors incorporate a
variable affect on the degree to which inhabitants of
susceptible countries suffer from starvation.
A combination of these causative factors in a particular region
is a formula for disaster. When this occurs, large scale
starvation can take place. A case in point. The Horn of Africa
has seen severe drought coupled with internal conflicts. This is
leading to the development of a tragedy. In this region
currently 11 million people are on the brink of starvation.
Historically, certain areas of the world have had a high
prevalence of hunger and starvation. These areas are the central
region of South America, large areas of East, Central, and
Southern Africa, and regions of South Asia. As of 2006, the
current hot spots, those areas which are suffering the greatest
degree of starvation, are as follows:
Niger: This area in central Africa has been struggling to cope
with the devastating impact of drought and locusts infestations.
Haiti: In this region extreme poverty has been further
exacerbated by a political crisis, floods, tropical storms, and
hurricanes.
Horn of Africa: An estimated 11 million people in the Horn of
Africa "are on the brink of starvation" because of severe
drought and war. Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia need food
aid, water, new livestock and seeds. This is a major hunger
crisis in development.
Afghanistan: Poverty in Afghanistan, made worse by drought, has
contributed greatly to their hunger problem.
Pakistan: The recent earthquake coupled with a severe winter
have produced starvation conditions. Recently, mud slides have
hampered relief efforts.
North Korea: Food insecurity caused by the countries economic
problems, is compounded by unpredictable and severe weather
conditions. To date, the North Korean government has failed in
its duty to provide for it's starving people. The North Korean
government has actually refused foreign aid.
Columbia: A 40 year civil conflict and the illegal drug trade
have caused mass displacement and poverty.
Democratic Republic of Congo: 3.4 million people have been
internally displaced as a result of a continuing internal
conflict.
Mali: They are struggling to cope with the devastating impact of
a recent drought.
Southern Africa: Erratic weather, lack of seed and fertilizer,
chronic poverty, and AIDS have been contributing factors to
starvation.
These are the areas of the world which are currently suffering
the highest levels of malnutrition and hunger. With this
understanding of where relief efforts are needed, we must
address the question of individual response. Are individuals of
developed countries donating to relief efforts? Most morally
conscious individuals donate to relief efforts when the problem
is presented to them.
A major problem in the relief effort is the general population
of developed countries not knowing about the current hunger
crisis. News organizations, more specifically television news,
are not giving enough attention to the global hunger situation.
While an in depth discussion as to the reasons for this is
outside the purview of this article, a few points can be made.
Evidently, the American TV news organizations, do not think
world hunger is much of a story since starvation is a daily
occurrence. I suspect, from the perspective of these news
organizations, that 24,000 people per day dying from hunger is
not a big enough news story. When 1,386 people died from
hurricane Katrina, the news coverage was enormous. Five months
after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, TV news organizations
were still squeezing all they could out of this story. Granted
this was an obvious tragedy, but an even bigger tragedy, much
bigger, is going on in Africa and the general public does not
even know about it.
I have seen little to almost no coverage given by American TV
news organizations on the devastating hunger crisis in the Horn
of Africa. I have only learned of this crisis through RSS feeds
on the Internet. Television news organizations such as CNN, ABC,
CBS, and NBC are thus far not reporting on this crisis.
Hopefully this will change.
It is evident that the American TV news organizations do not
really provide total and complete news, rather they screen the
events and only provide what they feel may be interesting to
their audience. News organizations should present the news and
concomitantly maintain high journalistic standards. Maybe these
news organizations need to incorporate a higher level of moral
obligation into their decision making process, when deciding
which stories to cover. In any case, people can not donate if
they do not know the problem exists.
We have addressed some key questions in order to characterize
the current status of the world hunger situation. We have
examined where hunger is the most prevalent in the world today,
and we have identified some of the causative factors which
contribute to malnutrition, hunger, and starvation. We have
concluded that most morally conscious individuals would
contribute to the elimination of hunger, if they knew about the
crisis. Finally, we have observed that the degree of world
hunger coverage by TV news organizations is very much lacking.
Even though TV news organizations have not been covering the
current world hunger crisis, by reading this article, you have
developed an understanding of the degree to which starvation is
prevalent in the world today. If you are reading this in a
developed country, which is highly likely since you are reading
it on a computer which has Internet access, you have a moral
obligation to donate either time or money to help in the
elimination of unseen suffering. Winston Churchill once said "we
make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we
give." We must all do our part to eliminate world hunger.