>LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE - November 1998 > > The politics of hunger > > by IGNACIO RAMONET > > Now here's a statistic you might have missed. The total wealth of > the world's three richest individuals is greater than the > combined gross domestic product (1) of the 48 poorest countries - > a quarter of all the world's states. > > Everybody knows inequality has increased over the last 20 years > of unfettered ultra-liberalism. But who could have imagined the > gap had widened so far? In 1960 the income of the 20 % of the > world's population living in the richest countries was 30 times > greater than that of the 20 % in the poorest countries. Now we > learn that in 1995 it was 82 times greater (2). In over 70 > countries, per capita income is lower today than it was 20 years > ago. Almost three billion people - half the world's population - > live on less than two dollars a day. > > While goods are more abundant than ever before, the number of > people without shelter, work or enough to eat is constantly > growing. Of the 4_ billion people living in developing countries, > almost a third have no drinking water. A fifth of all children > receive an insufficient intake of calories or protein. And two > billion people - a third of the human race - are suffering from > anaemia. > > Is this the way it has to be? The answer is no. The UN calculates > that the whole of the world population's basic needs for food, > drinking water, education and medical care could be covered by a > levy of less than 4 % on the accumulated wealth of the 225 > largest fortunes. To satisfy all the world's sanitation and food > requirements would cost only $13 billion, hardly as much as the > people of the United States and the European Union spend each > year on perfume. > > Next month will see the 50th anniversary of the Universal > Declaration on Human Rights, which states that "everyone has the > right to a standard of living adequate for the health and > well-being of himself and of his family, including food, > clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social > services". But for most of humanity, these rights are > increasingly inaccessible. > > Consider, for example, the right to food. Food is not in short > supply. In fact, food products have never been so abundant. There > is enough available to provide each of the Earth's inhabitants > with at least 2,700 calories a day. But production alone is not > enough. The people who need the food must be able to buy it and > consume it. And that is precisely the problem. Thirty million > people a year die of hunger. And 800 million suffer from chronic > malnutrition. > > Again, there is nothing inevitable about this. Climatic problems > are often predictable. When humanitarian organisations like > Action Against Hunger (3) are able to intervene, they can often > nip a famine in the bud in a matter of weeks. And yet hunger > continues to decimate whole populations. > > Why? Because hunger has become a political weapon. In today's > world, no famine is gratuitous. Hunger is a strategy pursued with > unbelievable cynicism by governments and military regimes whom > the end of the cold war has deprived of a steady income. Rather > than starving the enemy, as Sylvie Brunel points out (4), they > are starving their own populations in order to cash in on media > coverage and international compassion, an inexhaustible source of > money, food and political platforms. > > In Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, North Korea, Burma and Afghanistan, > governments and military leaders are holding innocent people > hostage and starving them for political ends, sometimes with > appalling cruelty. In Sierra Leone, the men of ex-Corporal Foday > Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), in a horrific > year-long campaign of terror, have been systematically chopping > off peasants' hands with machetes to prevent them cultivating the > land. Climate has become a marginal factor in major famines. It > is man who is starving man. > > Amartya Sen, the winner of this year's Nobel prize for economics, > is renowned for showing how government policies can cause famine > even when food is abundant. On several occasions, he has stressed > "the remarkable fact that, in the terrible history of famines in > the world, no substantial famine has ever occurred in any > independent and democratic country with a relatively free press > (5)". Rejecting the arguments of the neo-liberals, Professor Sen > contends that greater responsibility for the well-being of > society must be given, not to the market, but to the state. A > state that must be sensitive to the needs of its citizens and, at > the same time, concerned with human development throughout the > world. > ____________________________________________________________ > > Translated by Barry Smerin > > (1) Overall national production of goods and services. > > (2) Human Development Report 1998, United Nations Development > Programme, New York, September 1998. See also Dominique Vidal, > "Dans le Sud, diveloppement ou rigression?", Le Monde > diplomatique, October 1998. > > (3) UK office: 1, Catton Street, London WC1R 4AB, email > [EMAIL PROTECTED]; US office: 875 avenue of the Americas, Suite > 1905, New York NY 10001, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > (4) See Sylvie Brunel and Jean-Luc Bodin, Giopolitique de la > faim. Quand la faim est une arme, (annual report by Action > Against Hunger), PUF, Paris, 1998, 310 p., 125 F, soon to be > available in English as "The Hunger Report". > > (5) See "Human Rights and Asian Values: What Lee Kuan Yew and Le > Peng don't understand about Asia", The New Republic, July 14, > 1997. > > > > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ) 1998 Le Monde diplomatique > ><http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/1998/11/01leader.html> > > >
