Guns or Butter

It's the age old economic argument - guns or butter.

Now, Samuel Loewenberg tell us in Salon that the hunger season has come early in Niger, yet another African country facing a pandemic of hunger.  And the guns or butter debate has taken on a new dynamic.  He points out that any aid directed toward fighting hunger tends to go to those countries torn by war as opposed to those who are at peace.  Loewenberg writes:

"It is often worse for a starving child to live in a country at peace and with a stable government, because war-torn countries attract most of the funding, said Morris.  (James Morris, who heads the World Food Programme) The hundreds of millions suffering from simple poverty are overlooked. Meanwhile, sites of horrendous conflict like Darfur, in Sudan, receive media attention, but usually only of the "it's horrible and there's nothing we can do about it" kind.

But in the case of peaceful Niger, and its neighbors in Western and Southern Africa, there is something that can be done -- and relatively cheaply, at that. In the seven countries in Southern Africa facing a hunger crisis, for instance, the WFP needs $637 million to feed Southern Africans for the next three years. So far it has only half that amount. The absence of that money is catastrophic: In Zambia, food distributions were halved in the week before Christmas.

To put these millions of dollars in perspective, the cost of the occupation in Iraq is more than $150 million a day. So five days of war, a work week, would feed more than 12 million people for three years."

Ironic isn't it?  If you live in an African country, pick up a gun and start a skirmish, you are more likely to get food aid than if you don't pick up a gun.  And if we put our guns down in Iraq for one week, we could make at least a dent in the hunger pandemic that is decimating an entire continent.

It's obvious that governments cannot solve this problem.  Where are the corporations and nonprofits ready to partner to solve this most basic of causes in our world.

Comments

[russkirby]

I recently posted on world hunger. I appreciated your post.

b blessed
russ

[Mike Swenson]

Thanks Russ. I just read your latest post on hunger and likewise, appreciate your point of view. I would encourage others to visit your site as well.

[Christi Woodworth]

Mike - this dialogue is so misunderstood in the US where as a culture, we neither know nor wish to know about the developing world.

The key word in that sentence is "develop" ... development organizations like Heifer International and World Neighbors, and to some degree, some of CARE's programs, flourish one person, one family unit, one village at a time because they work for years when the crisis (war) is over ... there's a difference between relief and development. We need to start understanding what it is.

Thanks for bringing this topic to light.
-christi

[Mike Swenson]

Thanks for your comment Christi. I will check into the programs you mention and talk about this topic some more. Glad to have you aboard Citizen Brand!

Mike