Starving Forever
On the front page of the BBC site there was a photo of a woman holding two infants. The headline was "Ethiopia demands food aid for 6.2 million people" and the accompanying story said the country needed $120 million worth of food by year’s end or we might be witness to starvation on the level of the one million deaths suffered in that country 25 years ago.
The tragedy of the situation where malnourishment has already caused permanent damage to millions of souls is that it is likely to never be resolved. Not until the society changes. Not until women stop getting pregnant with babies they haven’t the resources to feed. No, this isn't pointing a scarlet finger at free-wheeling sex. The problem is inherent in the culture and a lack of education and consciousness, and it is endemic across much of the southern hemisphere.
One can’t look at the photo of the desperate mother and the likely-condemned children without wincing, at least inside. These circumstances are repeated in so many places it’s almost impossible to allow one’s self to feel the pain intrinsic in seeing helpless children who can’t be helped.
The simple truth is that there isn’t enough food to feed everyone. We are five billion over-populated on our dear blue planet Earth. We are destroying the Amazon rain forests to raise cattle to supply fast food restaurants. We have over-fished vast regions of our oceans to the point now some species may not come back for several generations, if ever.
The dilemma then is who of the current crop is to be save, and how do we act to prevent this choice from having to be made in the future. Can we tie aid to population reduction? Will "tough love" lift people out of primitive thinking and raise them to a level of consciousness that will mean life instead of death?
Dunno, but what we’re doing isn’t working.
©2010 SetonnoteS
.