Can famine and poverty be eliminated?

Hunger and poverty plague millions of people. Read about measures to fight hunger and poverty and help people

- (Matt 24:7,8) For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

As we read the words of Jesus above, they tell of famine and other problems in the world. The same issues, in particular hunger and related poverty, we intend to address in the next lines. We must not forget the people living in poverty and hunger. For it has been estimated that half of the people on earth are malnourished and almost a billion people suffer outright hunger. This is despite the fact that too much food is being produced in many Western countries and hundreds of millions of people are obese. Wellbeing is not evenly distributed.

Is it possible to eliminate poverty and hunger? People often think that it is not possible, even though it is. Many experts on this subject (most of the ideas below are theirs) have noticed that the problem most often lies in organisational structures and people’s unwillingness to make the correct choices rather than the amount of food being produced. There is enough food, but it is not available to everybody.

MYTH: Even though the food production resources in many parts of the world are stretched to the extreme, there is simply not enough food for everyone and some people must, regrettably, be hungry.

REALITY: Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,500 calories a day. Most of us would become obese with such a huge amount of calories! That doesn't even count many other commonly eaten foods – vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide about two kilos (at least 4.3 pounds) of food per person a day worldwide. A little over half of this would be grain and the rest vegetable and animal products. (1)

Poverty and stock market speculation

- (Prov 11:24-26) There is that scatters, and yet increases; and there is that withholds more than is meet, but it tends to poverty.

25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that waters shall be watered also himself.

26 He that withholds corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be on the head of him that sells it.

In an effort to eradicate famine from the world, people often think that a famine is always caused by drought, flood or another natural catastrophe. People take it for granted that a famine is caused by factors people are unable to influence.

This is only part of the truth, however. When studying famines, it has been observed that food would have been available nearby but some of the people were unable to buy it. The price of food had become too high or the people had become unemployed and thus were unable to buy food. The following example from India shows how the famine of 1943 was mainly due to rising prices and speculation. Famines are not always caused just by the forces of nature:

As a child, during the great Bengal famine of 1943 in which five million perished, Amartya Sen handed out cigarette tins of rice to starving refugees as they passed his grandfather’s house. Thirty years later, still haunted by those images, his research revealed that India’s food supplies at that time were not unusually low. Rather, the famine resulted from a run-up in food prices spurred by wartime panic and manipulative speculation. The British colonial rulers, immune to democratic pressures, simply stood by.

In his seminal study on the causes of famine, Poverty and Famine, Sen demonstrates that famine is not just a consequence of acts of nature, such as drought or flood, which often precede it; rather it is an avoidable economic and political catastrophe in which the poorest people can no longer afford to buy food because they lose their jobs or because food prices soar. (2)

Expensive healthcare can also be another factor that increases poverty. People may be impoverished when they need to receive health care. After paying for healthcare they no longer have money to buy food. The studies of WHO show how this problem affects around 100 million people every year:

According to the WHO, 100 million people fall back to poverty each year due to healthcare expenses. Healthcare charges (user charges) and the trip to a distant hospital, not to mention the lost income, may be an insurmountable obstacle in many poor countries. In Nepal, a normal childbirth in a hospital, travel expenses included, costs around a quarter of the average annual income of one person – this is way too much for many poor families. In Bangladesh a difficult childbirth that may include a Caesarean section may cost 90% to 140 percent of the average annual income. (3)

One of the key reasons for famine and the expensive price of food is stock market speculation. It seems to be a key reason why food is so expensive for people. Since most of the people in the world consume less than two dollars per day and spend 60% to 80% of their earnings on food, a price increase of a mere 20- to 40 cents will be a catastrophe. The fact that the grain prices have sharply risen recently has caused a predicament for many people. Consider: the price of grain has increased 88% from its March 2007 price; the price of wheat has increased 181% over a period of three years; the price of rice has increased 50% within three months (according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO). These increases have also caused food riots in several countries. The most important underlying cause is stockmarket speculation with the price of food:

Another factor is speculation with the price of food: it is used as a stock market speculation tool and it causes short-term food price spikes.

The media has misled people when describing why the price of food has increased. The media says that the price of food has increased because of the increased production costs, the climate and other factors – that naturally do influence the price to some extent – but left out the main reason: market manipulation. The global market price of grain is mainly influenced by speculation at the New York and Chicago stock markets.

(...) The current food crisis has mainly been caused by speculation with market prices. Speculation is not meant to cause a food crisis. Instead, the crisis is caused by the lack of regulation. There is no law regulating speculation. If a political decision on speculation with foodstuffs were to be made, the prices would immediately start to decrease. This has not been proposed by the World Bank Group or the IMF, however. (4)

Lack of democracy and insecurity

- (James 5:1-4) Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3 Your gold and silver is corroded; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

- (Mal 3:5) And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, said the LORD of hosts.

- (Deut 24:14) You shall not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your strangers that are in your land within your gates.

The solution to eliminating poverty that is most often proposed is financial growth. People think that the only way to eliminate poverty is to increase people’s income, and the preconditions for financial growth in poor countries must be improved to achieve this. People consider it self-evident that all citizens would benefit if economic growth were to be supported by means of investments.

This is only part of the truth, however. In many countries the economy has improved but only a small number of people – the elite – have been able to reap the benefits. Wealth has not been evenly distributed; instead, it is in the hands of a couple of groups that hold all the power and control the security forces. Some of these groups or governments are supported by Western investors. The everyday life of the rest of the population may include rapes, insecurity, police oppression, constant threats of violence, ruthless landowners, forceful evictions, and a government that oppresses the people. Indeed, many perceive the state as a frightening oppressor, not a safety. They believe that they should keep as far away from the legal system as possible. They do not receive justice because it is only available to the rich and powerful elite.

In our opinion, democracy is the 'all in all' of the hunger problem. In a democratic system, people can participate in decision-making regarding the matters most important to their well-being, and the decision-makers are responsible to their constituents. In an undemocratic system, power is concentrated in a small minority and the majority practically has no say. The decision-makers are responsible for their actions only to the ruling elite.

...So, in our opinion, the root cause of world hunger is not a lack of food, but an ever-worsening lack of democracy - by democracy we also understand that questions of life and death in the economy are decided democratically. Still, we have to go even deeper. Why do we allow the current development to continue even though it causes millions of people to die needlessly every year?

(...) The elite in power have made the majority even more vulnerable to natural disasters. The poor have been driven to marginal, drought-stricken lands, or their lands have been taken away from them completely. They are indebted to moneylenders or rich landowners who take most of their crops, they are unemployed or earn so little that there is nothing left for a bad day, they are weakened by constant hunger. That's why they die by the millions when some natural disaster breaks the camel's back. (5)

Unfair world trade is one of the main causes of poverty and hunger. This has been proven in many ways:

Low producer prices are a problem. The prices paid for export products and raw materials in third world countries have decreased while import prices have increased. This maintains poverty. It has been estimated that an increase of five percent in raw material prices would cover all the subsidies currently paid to third world countries. At present, a producer in a third world country will get very little for the work he or she has done.

There is yet a fourth level on which democracy is scarce – the international arena of commerce and finance. A handful of corporations dominate world trade in those commodities that are the lifeblood of third world economies. Efforts by third world governments to bargain for higher producer prices have repeatedly failed in the face of the supremacy of the global corporations and the trade policy of the industrial countries. Industrial countries import $60 billion a year worth of food from the third world, but the transport-, processing-, and sales businesses of industrial countries reap most of the profit. For every dollar a U.S. consumer spends to buy cantaloupes grown in El Salvador, less than a penny goes to the farmer, while importers and traders receive eighty-eight cents. (6)

Export restrictions and export subsidies. Underlying reasons for the problems in third world countries are import restrictions and customs duties that the rich countries have set for commodities in order to protect their own production. Each country should be self-sufficient in terms of the basic foodstuffs, for example, but unreasonable restrictions can be the reason why poverty still exists.

Many rich countries set these restrictions while demanding that the third world countries open their markets to the products of the rich countries, and this can be considered wrong. If customs duties were lowered and some restrictions were lifted, the third world countries would receive more money than they currently get as development aid from rich countries.

In 1994, UNDP researchers calculated that third world countries lose around $72 billion per year in the clothing, textile and agricultural trade alone due to duties set by the Western countries. According to 1992 calculations by OECD researchers, a simple cut of 30% in the duties for products from third world countries would bring around $90 billion more for the third world countries. Both of these figures clearly exceed the annual amount of aid to third world countries from the OECD countries.

President of the World Bank Group Lewis Preston stated in 1993 that he considers it highly ironic that the developed world is protecting itself by setting obstacles to trade while the third world countries are opening up their markets. (7)

All the countries in the world could agree, for example, that handicraft will be freed from all customs duties and other export/import restrictions and simultaneously the customs duties of industrial products will be retained or even be raised. This would save the hundreds of millions of people who receive their income from handicraft or village industries, and whose livelihood is in danger because of the modern industrial production and free trade policy. Similarly, governments could limit the fishing quotas of large fishing vessels and fleets and reduce the amount of fish imported and exported with protective tariffs and import restrictions. This would save the fifteen or twenty million families whose income from fishing is threatened by free trade and large fishing vessels. (8)

Export subsidies paid by rich countries present a similar problem. Producers in poor countries are unable to protect themselves against rich countries that are supporting their own exporters. These subsidies have caused many people to lose their jobs and become poor.

At the same time, the EC was importing thousands of tonnes of meat to the area with the help of price support. After the mid-1980s, the EC used around 450 million ecu in supporting export to gain markets, particularly in Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Benin. More than 50,000 tonnes of beef was exported to West Africa each year. The annual exports amounted to around 300,000 local cows. The export effectively destroyed the local meat production, robbing the opportunity to a sustainable livelihood from the local stockbreeders. (9)

Production for export. One cause of famine is the practice of producing food for export only. It means that large farms in the third world are being managed by transnational corporations or wealthy nationals and they focus on producing crops that will only be exported. They do not grow food for local sale. Everything grown is exported, which means the growers earn more money. Furthermore, the prevailing policy supports these huge farms devoted to producing for export while ignoring smaller farmers who grow food for themselves. This leads to less availability of locally produced foods and continuing problems with hunger.

Before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank restructured Costa Rica's economic policies in the name of easing its foreign debt problems, Costa Rica was widely known as one of the most equitable countries in Latin America. In Costa Rica the number of small farmers was large compared to other Latin American societies, in which owners of large farms dominated production. The policies imposed by the IMF and the World Bank shifted the economic incentives away from small farms producing foods that Costa Ricans eat toward large estates producing for export. As a consequence, thousands of small farmers have been displaced, their lands have been consolidated into large ranches and agricultural estates producing for export, and Costa Rica's income gap is becoming more like that of the other Latin American countries. An increase in crime and violence has required sharp increases in public expenditures on police and public security. The country now depends on imports to meet basic food requirements, and the foreign debt that structural adjustment was supposed to reduce has doubled. (10)

Structural change programmes of the IMF and the World Bank. Structural change programmes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group for indebted countries are a cause of the increase of famine and misery. This was probably not their intention, but the programmes have in practice caused hundreds of millions of people to fall into poverty and famine. They have had the following effects, for example:

- Cutting subsidies for basic foodstuffs to free up more money to pay back debts. This has made food even more expensive for the poor.

- Making the public health and education systems subject to a charge, or more expensive than before, has increased the number of illiterate people, caused more diseases and increased the death rate.

- Privatisation programmes have caused millions of people to lose their jobs. This has increased poverty because there is no Western welfare system in third world countries.

- Relaxing control of capital has made it easier to move one’s money out of a country. This has only benefited the governments who oppress the poor, and rich people who have large properties in western countries. - Cultivation focuses more on production for export to free up more money that is then used to pay overdue national debts. This has caused locally sold food to become more expensive, thereby increasing famine

- Taking away customs duties from import goods or completely freeing up the trade has brought transnational corporations and their products to the third world countries and caused many local companies to go bankrupt. Furthermore, the level of foreign debt –which structural change programmes were originally designed to relieve – has doubled in some countries.

Medicines and seeds. Patenting of medicines is a cause of misery because patents prevent third world countries from manufacturing cheap generic equivalents to pharmaceutical companies’ products. What this means in practice is that thousands of people in third world countries die because they cannot afford to buy the more expensive products. Naturally, companies should receive something as a reward for their extensive product development efforts, but humanity should not be overlooked either.

The scandalous prohibition on manufacture and distribution of generic pharmaceuticals (to fight AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc.) based on the fact that transnational pharmaceutical corporations have patented the products is simply participation in genocide. It confirms in the eyes of the world the idea that trade, assets and profits are more important than anything, even a human life. This is unacceptable. (11)

Patenting of seeds presents a similar problem. Some companies have demanded the right to patent some seeds and genetic materials and natural medicines. In practice, this would mean that poor people in India and elsewhere who use the patented plants would have to compensate the companies.

Particularly ominous is the extending of international patent rights of GATT-WTO to genetic materials including seeds and natural medicines. U.S. companies have aggressively pursued patent protection for seeds and genetic materials in the United States. They have convinced the U.S. government to extend patent protection to all genetically engineered organisms, from microorganisms to plants and animals, excluding only humans.

(...) Through the ages, farmers have saved seed from one harvest to plant their next crop. Under existing U.S. patent law, a farmer who saves and replants the offspring of a patented seed violates patent law. The corporate move to create global monopolies over seeds and other life-forms through patents has been the subject of massive demonstrations by farmers in India, who realized that under the GATT-WTO agreements, they could be kept from growing corn from their own seed stocks without paying a royalty to a transnational corporation. (12)

Exhaustive fishing. One cause of poverty in the third world countries is exhaustive fishing in their coastal areas by Western countries . For example, the EU has purchased fishing rights on the waters of more than ten third world countries. The vessels used in these waters are so efficient that they empty many areas of fish altogether. Furthermore, plenty of fish that is not exported to the Western countries but that the local people could eat is thrown back into the water.

Such exhaustive fishing can only have one consequence: loss of jobs. Many local fishermen have lost their livelihood because the fish stocks have deteriorated. Their unemployment has increased misery at the local level. Another consequence of the lost livelihood is increased emmigration from these countries to Europe.

Exhaustive fishing aggravates misery in Africa

Highly efficient fishing vessels of many industrial states cruise the shores of Africa. The fishing partially takes place based on agreements with the local powers-that-be.

In some areas, it is purely exhaustive fishing. Super trawlers using positioning devices can suck all the fish from a part of the ocean to such an extent that the local fishermen with their primitive equipment will not catch anything.

- The local residents lose both an important source of protein and their traditional livelihood. Many of the illegal immigrants in Europe are unemployed fishermen. Many of the pirates in Somalia are also former fishermen, says Sampsa Vilhunen, head of WWF Finland’s ocean programme.

An interesting piece of information is that Finnish mine-sweeper Pohjanmaa has been sent to the coast of Somalia to protect sea transport vessels from the dangers that are at least partially caused by exhaustive fishing by European vessels. (Newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 20 February 2011)

CAN POVERTY AND FAMINE BE ELIMINATED?

Some of the major causes of famines were listed above. Famines do not occur simply because there is not enough food. Beneath the shortages we find a root cause: injustice that some people do not want to make right. Making mere financial improvements does not guarantee everyone will be healthy and have enough to eat; people must want to change and correct the flaws. Below are some measures proposed by experts. These measures could alleviate much suffering. We must start with something if we want to change the prevailing situation.

Addressing stock market speculation is necessary. It is wrong that greedy people are allowed to become rich at the expense of others.

Subsidies on basic foodstuffs are useful. Riots have occurred in countries where the subsidies have been withdrawn making food clearly more expensive. People cannot afford to buy more expensive food if they only earn a couple of dollars per day.

Employment should be made a priority over payment of national debts. No state can pay back its loans if a large portion of its population is unemployed. The programmes of IMF and the World Bank Group that are based on privatisation and relaxation of all trade barriers and capital flow controls have in practice caused more unemployment and increased the indebtedness of many countries.

The Indian Government decided to listen to the World Bank. The liberalisation caused imports to India to increase by 30% in a short period of time but the export profits hardly changed. Even though the export profits of India increased in many industries later on, import continued to grow at a faster pace. The annual balance of payments deficit and foreign debt of India started to grow like never before. In 1991, India’s foreign debt exceeded the $80 billion limit.

India’s balance of payments was in the red already before the new export policy was introduced in 1985, but only by around $2 billion per year. If the World Bank had actually aimed at improving India’s balance of payments, it would have encouraged India to regulate imports and protect its market with protective tariffs, import quotas and other forms of protection. Instead, the World Bank encouraged India to liberalise its economy and open the doors to foreign imports and investments.

(...) But the programme had disastrous social consequences. Millions of employees in state-owned enterprises and other Indian companies that ended up in bankruptcy lost their jobs. (13)

Opening up a market too quickly to foreign competition is not wise (see the quote above). Free trade may be a good thing between countries of the same level, but for many developing countries it has been disastrous because it has increased bankruptcies and unemployment in these countries. Free trade is usually beneficial only to large transnational corporations and people who are already rich. It does not help the poorest people. The excerpt below illustrates what this kind of policy could cause in China if this country were to completely remove its market barriers, as many Westerners have demanded.

In April 2000, Time magazine cited a World Bank study according to which China's preparations for WTO membership threaten to wipe out 50 million jobs in the country. What other organisation could force a superpower like China to sacrifice 50 million jobs right out of the box, just as a kind of entrance fee? (...) This doesn’t make any sense, unless China believes that WTO will have a key role in the global financial and political system. (14)

Education must be kept cheap or, preferably, free, because even small tuition fees can be an obstacle for the poor. It has been established that education and literacy contribute to economic well-being.

Healthcare is similarly important. Changing healthcare in such a manner that it becomes subject to a charge – to meet the budget-related demands of a structural change programme – has caused a lot of pain in third world countries. The poorest people cannot afford to pay the medical fees or buy medicine.

Production of food solely for export must be limited. It is shocking that some Third World countries, or large farmers in them, export grains (because of the better price they get on the world market) while hundreds of thousands of people in their own country are gripped by famine. This is why protective tariffs have been suggested for imports of agricultural products from countries where a large part of the population is malnourished.

India ranks near the top among Third World agricultural exporters. While at least 200 million Indians go hungry, in 1995 India exported $625 million worth of wheat and flour, and $1.3 billion worth of rice (5 million metric tons), the two staples of the Indian diet. (16)

In Fishing, benefits to local small-scale fishermen must be ensured. This would clearly improve the employment rate, reduce poverty and assist in retaining fish stocks better than large foreign fishing vessels. Large foreign vessels employ only a small number of people, are expensive to maintain, and waste a lot of fish that could be eaten.

Rights of the poor must be taken into account. Most solutions, which have been made to reduce poverty have been related to trade, new technologies or investments rather than increasing people’s safety, eliminating evictions and preventing the violence that is faced by the poor.

A financial study does not show the whole picture of poverty nor are financial solutions the sole answer to the problem of poverty. You must see the issues economics fails to see – shortages, insecurity, feeling an outsider and lack of own voice – and see them for what they really are: human rights problems. Furthermore, you must see that they are interconnected and create a vicious cycle that makes people even poorer and keeps them in poverty. (17)

Microloans that are given to the poorest of people in Bangladesh, for example, have assisted the needy. Such loans have enabled them to employ themselves in small companies and thus lifted them out of poverty.

The largest civic organisation of the world, BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities), Grameen Bank, the pioneer in microcredits, and Gonoshasthaya Kendra (”The Health Centre of the People”) that is known for community-based health centres, all hail from Bangladesh. Investments in the empowerment of people living in poverty partly explain why Bangladesh has had some success in the fight against poverty despite the country’s poor administration. (18)

Land reforms. In some countries, the problem is that a small number of rich people own most of the land. The vast majority of people work as tenant farmers who receive only half or less of their harvest (tax of more than 50%!). However, it has been established that peaceful land reform, in which the state participates, is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. It also increases the volume and efficiency of production. South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan are good examples. The following description tells about the state of Kerala in India.

State of Kerala, India. The land reform of 1969 in Kerala at one time abolished the land lease system and meant a large-scale distribution of land to small farmers. A system based on the oligarchy and often outright exploitation and subjugation of large landowners living elsewhere was overthrown, laying the foundations for a system based on participatory democracy and respect for human rights. Since 1969, just under one million hectares of land have been allocated to 1.5 million farmers. Thanks to land reform, the quality of life and safety of the vast majority of rural dwellers have improved significantly. (19)

Taxation should favour the poor. When the Indian Government agreed to reduce – on a suggestion of IMF and the World Bank – funds used for healthcare, welfare and food price subsidies, the problems among the poor multiplied. Simultaneously, property tax paid by the rich was abolished and the capital gains tax rate was lowered. This caused the gap between the poor and the rich to become larger.

Basic needs and helping people. The most important basic human needs are food, clothing, a place to live, and access to education and healthcare. Most countries would be able to provide all these if their governments wished to do so. It is not a question of how much is produced; it is a question of how fairly the profits are distributed. We must do more to narrow the gap between the poor and the rich.

People can also personally help others. For example, people in Brazil have been encouraged to do something to stop famine: help people in their own neighbourhood. This would have a major impact if thousands of people were to do so.

- (2 Cor 8:13-15) For I mean not that other men be eased, and you burdened:

14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

- (Luke 3:10,11) And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?

11 He answers and said to them, He that has two coats, let him impart to him that has none; and he that has meat, let him do likewise.

Another way to help is to provide direct aid to third world countries. A relatively small amount of money can have a major impact on national health and literacy. It has been estimated that a mere one percent of the combined national products of the rich countries would be enough to eliminate extreme poverty in the world.

There are many organisations that provide aid to third world countries. One of them is Feed the Hungry. Feed the Hungry focuses on distributing food – mainly through congregations – while preaching the Gospel. It is an organisation doing something for the hungry, which is what this article is about.

Transnational corporations often have a key role in promoting human rights and eliminating poverty. Unfortunately, not all corporations do the right thing; instead, some of them pay low wages, trample on the rights of their employees and fail to respect human rights. They are more interested in their profits and the benefits of their shareholders back home than in the local employees and society.

Some corporations have changed their ways, though. They have started to invest in the local communities to help the needy, and have improved working conditions and increased wages. Such actions are usually very effective in eliminating the hate the locals feel towards foreigners. Furthermore, a corporation that values its employees and their society will have a clearly better reputation. When you lose your reputation, it is difficult to get it back.

Restructuring debt. Lowering the interest rate on loans or forgiving all debts could help third world countries to cope with their poverty. The debt payments of some third world countries are up to three times the amount they invest in healthcare and social services. The high interest rate has also caused thousands of companies to go bankrupt and thus has increased the number of poor people. The strict financial policy that is favoured by many creditors usually only causes more misery. but lowering the interest rate and completely or partly forgiving debt can be more effective means. They can be even more effective than the development money given to the third world countries.

Almost everyone involved in development, even those in the Washington establishment, now agrees that rapid capital market liberalization without accompanying regulation can be dangerous. They agree too that the excessive tightness in fiscal policy in the Asian crisis of 1997 was a mistake. As Bolivia moved into a recession in 2001, caused in part by the global economic slowdown, there were some intimations that a country would not be forced to follow the traditional path of austerity and have to cut governmental spending. Instead, as of January 2002, it looks like Bolivia will be allowed to stimulate its economy, helping it to overcome the recession, using revenues that it is about to receive from its newly discovered natural gas reserves to tide it over until the economy starts to grow again. In the aftermath of the Argentina debacle, the IMF has recognized the failings of the big-bailout strategy and it’s beginning to discuss the use of standstills and restructuring through bankruptcy, the kinds of alternatives that I and others have been advocating for years. Debt forgiveness brought about by the work of the Jubilee movement and the concessions made to initiate a new development round of trade negotiations at Doha represent two more victories. (20)

Leaders of the people

- (Jer 22:15-17) Shall you reign, because you close yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? said the LORD.

17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

- (Isaiah 1:21-23) How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Your silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water:

23 Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

Corrupted leaders are another cause of misery. For example, the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia (in 2011) were caused by the juxtaposition of the misery of the people and the rich elite that held huge assets. A similar situation prevails in many poor countries: the state has become subordinate to the rich. Ruthless landowners, corrupt officers and leaders do not care about the poor and their rights; they only care about their own wellbeing.

Nowadays, people advocate reforms of state structures to standardise and streamline them in the name of “good administration”. The reforms would be much faster, however, if the voices of the people who need the reforms most were not silenced. It is no coincidence that some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most corrupt and most poorly administrated countries. Let’s use Bangladesh as an example again. Under the polish of democracy, you will find greed, corruption and mutual nepotism running rampant among the selfish political and business elite. In my home country, corruption ranging from small-scale bribery to large-scale embezzlement of state funds has robbed the poor and allowed the resources to pool in the hands of the rich. (21)

Hygiene also matters. At this end, we are going to deal with hygiene, because food shortages are not the only problem in developing countries. This means that people in developing countries do not have enough clean drinking water, enough washing water and they do not have the same functioning drainage as in the West.

The scale of this problem is highlighted by news published by Unicef. It estimates that about 3.6 billion people suffer from a lack of clean drinking water and basic sanitation (2006). In addition, an estimated 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhea as a result of poor conditions:

Lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation results in the death of an estimated 1.5 million children each year from diarrhea. There are 425 million children in the world who do not have access to clean water, and 980 million lack basic sanitation, such as toilets. In total, without clean drinking water and basic sanitation, there are about 3.6 billion people. (Unicef 1.10.2006)

Why it is important to invest in clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene; it was already addressed in the previous quote. However, the subject is so important that more facts will be raised next. They show how important this is:

• First, the health revolution in rich countries. It is important to emphasize that Western countries also suffered from the same problems in the past as developing countries. When there was no effective drainage, garbage and human droppings were often thrown directly into the street. People lived in the midst of dirt and debris. Rats thrived under these conditions and this was a favorable medium for infectious diseases.

The importance of proper hygiene was not understood in hospitals either. It was common for doctors to arrive at the maternity ward with autopsy hands. This was devastating for both mothers and children born. It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that the importance of hand washing and how microbes cause disease was begin to be understood. After that the mortality rates in childbirth began to decline.

However, the situation has changed. The importance of hygiene in hospitals is now understood and comprehensive water supply has improved hygienic conditions in homes, hospitals, the food industry and in mass catering. In addition, drainage and waste recycling have made it possible to not have to live in the midst of waste and rubbish. All of these factors have prevented the spread of infectious diseases.

Electricity has also been a decisive factor in terms of hygiene. Where there is a proper and functioning electricity grid, food storage is easier. Food stays in the refrigerator and freezer for longer than in warm conditions. In addition, keeping food in good quality reduces the risk of food poisoning.

Similarly, when developing countries do not have a functioning electricity grid and cold chain, even in cities animals are raised close to people and sold in markets and slaughtered close to people. This has been considered a major cause of recurrent pandemics (new influenzas, SARS…).

• When there are heavy rains in the West, they do not usually cause large-scale epidemics because sewage and stormwater drains have been built that operate even in exceptional circumstances. These sewers divert sewage away from people’s reach and prevent it from accumulating on the streets and inside properties. However, during the biggest floods, it has been necessary to resort to a ban on the use of wells, cooking of drinking water, or instructions have been given to keep as little contact as possible with the mud that has penetrated homes. These measures have prevented the emergence and spread of diseases.

In contrast, in developing countries, the problem is inadequate stormwater drainage. This results in easily appearing of stagnant water that increase the spread of epidemics. For example, the monsoon season increases the incidence of malaria, diarrhea, and dengue fever due to poor drainage.

• The protection provided by clothing and footwear can prevent the spread of disease. For example, hookworms can penetrate through the soles of the feet if there are no footwear. Small measures can reduce morbidity.

• One of the most dangerous and contagious diseases is Ebola, which has occurred in Africa. It has spread e.g. in unhygienic hospitals and because relatives may have washed their loved ones before the funeral.

The importance of good hygiene is now understood among African politicians and people, but the problem at many health care points remains that they do not have running water. Then it is difficult to take care of hygiene.

• What about milk? If cow's milk is drunk directly without hygienization and a heating procedure, there is a risk of the spread of diseases. Raw milk is always a risk-taking and therefore pasteurization and other methods have been used to prevent bacterial activity. These measures have greatly reduced child mortality.

On the other hand, breast milk, which is the best nutrition for children, can be a vector if the mother is HIV-positive. It is estimated that the risk of HIV transmission during breastfeeding is about 10%.

• Vaccinations also matter. For example, measles and smallpox killed up to 7-8 million people annually before mass vaccination programs.

Vaccinations have also had a major impact on the prevention of polio and other diseases. Some of them have almost disappeared from the West due to mass vaccinations.

• One of the biggest problems in developing countries is the indoor problem of homes. This is a global air pollution issue, as indoor air pollution has been estimated to have killed millions of children over the years by increasing pneumonia deaths - pneumonia deaths are the single biggest cause of death among under-fives in developing countries. In addition, indoor air pollution has killed millions of women in developing countries through COPD. It is estimated that 800,000 children under the age of five die each year from pneumonia and 700,000 women from COPD in developing countries.

So where do indoor air pollution come from? One reason is chimney-free huts and another reason is poor quality biofuels. For example, researchers at Columbia University in New York have measured daily averages of 100 to 150 micrograms of the most dangerous fine particles, PM2.5, in Kenyan clay houses. The figures are several times higher than the PM2.5 level in major European cities. An indication of indoor air quality is also the fact that researchers ’filters for collecting air pollutants in New York went clogged in an African hut.

The best option to improve indoor air quality is electrification of the household, and electric stoves for cooking. If this is not possible, the fuel should be as clean as possible from emissions. As early as the 1980s, the WHO (World Health Organization) developed an energy wood model. At its lowest step are animal droppings and firewood. Then comes coal, then kerosene, then liquefied petroleum gas as a fairly clean fuel and last but not least electricity. The difficult indoor problem can also be mitigated with the help of less polluting stoves. New technology can help in this.

• This article deals with famine and how it can be eliminated.

However, malnutrition is not always due to lack of food but to poor hygiene; i.e. the lack of clean drinking water and sufficient washing water, as a result of which e.g. diarrhea occurs (We reported above news by Unicef how “lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation leads to the death of an estimated 1.5 million children each year due to diarrhea”). The WHO has recommended 100-300 liters of water per head, but when this figure is not reached in developing countries, it causes a burden of disease that continues to lead to a decline in nutritional levels. One reason for this is anorexia caused by acute diseases.

Mikko Paunio, a Finnish doctor of medicine and docent of epidemiology, has written about the subject in his significant book Vihreä valhe. He mentions e.g. mothers who may themselves be obese but children are malnourished. This is due to a lack of hygiene and diseases such as diarrhea:

Health engineers Hiram Mills (USA) and Julius Reincke (Germany) had - independently before the early 20th century - noticed that organizing water supply reduced child mortality more than one might expect from deaths directly related to poor hygiene. Thus, the organization of water supply also reduced mortality from diseases that are not directly dependent on poor hygiene. It was found to reduce in particular e.g. pneumonia deaths of urban children.

At the heart of our explanatory model of the Mills-Reincke effect lies in the understanding that malnutrition in infant children is often due to the burden of disease caused by poor hygiene, leading to a decline in nutritional levels. Today, on the other hand, there is a misconception that the malnutrition of 800 million people is due solely to a lack of food. (22)

Perhaps the biggest and, above all, completely undisputed issue in the world is the Greens' Obsession with saving water and energy. This has once again led to enormous suffering, as in previous great ideologies.

Almost on the first day of my arrival at the World Bank, I attended a conference to unveil a Nutrition report prepared by the Bank. A large number of the world's leading nutritionists were present, e.g. several from Harvard University. The expert who presented the report stressed that its content can be adopted by studying only one page of it. This page describes the persistent role of recurrent diarrhea in patients less than one year of age in the Onset and continuation of the overgenerational malnutrition cycle. I have already stated in the introduction, that the Earth's 800 million people's malnutrition is not so much due to lack of food, but poor hygiene.

That report was marketed to the world's media by showing obese mothers carrying their small underweight children. The underweight of children was therefore not due to a lack of food, but to the fact that Mothers have not been able to feed their sick children constantly. (23)

If these global pollution issues were to be prioritized for human health, then the pervasive presence of shit in the daily lives of people in developing countries is the number one health threat. This is because recurrent diarrhea, especially before the first year of life, accelerates the onset of permanent malnutrition, manifested as overgenerational short stature (stunting). Virtually all other infectious diseases preventable by hygienic measures in developing countries, as well as worms and parasites, also impair nutritional status. (24)

REFERENCES:

1. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 20

2. Dada Maheshvarananda: Kapitalismin jälkeen, Proutin näkemys uudenlaisesta yhteiskunnasta (After Capitalism – Prout’s Vision for a New World), p. 95

3. Irene Khan: Kohtalona köyhyys (The Unheard Truth – Poverty and Human Rights), p. 138

4. Michel Chossudovsky, artikkeli Magneetti-lehdessä, viikko 5 / 2011

5. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 14,17,29

6. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 16.17

7. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 195

8. Risto Isomäki: Kohti vuotta 1929?, p. 240

9. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 201

10. David C. Korten: Maailma yhtiöiden vallassa (When Corporations Rule the World) p. 70

11. Susan George: Maailman kauppajärjestö kuriin, p. 94,95

12. David C. Korten: Maailma yhtiöiden vallassa (When Corporations Rule the World) p. 237.238

13. Risto Isomäki: Kohti vuotta 1929?, p. 137.140

14. Risto Isomäki: Kohti vuotta 1929?, p. 63

15. Irene Khan: Kohtalona köyhyys (The Unheard Truth – Poverty and Human Rights), p. 138

16. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 21

17. Irene Khan: Kohtalona köyhyys (The Unheard Truth – Poverty and Human Rights), p. 29

18. Irene Khan: Kohtalona köyhyys (The Unheard Truth – Poverty and Human Rights), p. 32.33

19. Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, Luis Esparza: 12 Myyttiä maailman nälästä (World Hunger: Twelve Myths), p. 131

20. Joseph E. Stiglitz: Globalisaation sivutuotteet (Globalization and Its Discontents), p. 330,331

21. Irene Khan: Kohtalona köyhyys (The Unheard Truth – Poverty and Human Rights), p. 32