Global
Hunger ~ The Bigger Picture
by
Harvey TORDOFF*
"If
we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that
we belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa
To
understand a problem you must be able to see the bigger
picture. To solve a problem you must change the details within the bigger
picture.
The
picture of global hunger is complex.
The world has sufficient food, water and building
materials. One might go on to say that it has a surfeit
of luxury goods and weapons.
To alleviate global hunger (and poverty and disease)
we do not need more of anything ~ except understanding.
We need to remove our blinkers, our tunnel-vision
glasses, our rose-coloured glasses, and look hard at
the current global model.
First
World Countries (FWC’s) lend money to Third World
Countries (TWC’s) to enable them to buy products
from FWC’s. FWC’s maintain high import tariffs, forcing TWC’s
into trade deficits.
TWC’s default on loan repayments and the
economy fails. The resulting power struggle can end in
civil war. FWC’s
write off the loans, donate emergency aid relief, and
send armed forces to maintain or restore law and order.
Nature is an apparent random factor, providing
further complications with floods and draughts.
Progress ~ if any ~ is painfully slow.
The economic cost is enormous. The cost in terms
of human misery is incalculable.
Perhaps
Genetically Modified (GM) crops will change all this,
but the jury is still out. Regardless of the outcome on GM we need
immediate action on several fronts.
FWC’s
need to start dismantling their import barriers to give
TWC’s a greater opportunity to maintain their
trade balance. Rather than provide TWC’s with loans, FWC’s need
to provide cheap energy, seeds and animals. With cheap energy water can be purified and fields irrigated.
And with energy coming from renewable sources
the trend towards deforestation (and soil erosion) can
be reversed. Most
TWC’s have natural resources that can be used
to provide cheap energy: wind, sun, or biomass.
The
current global model is responsible for a certain amount
of prejudice. Why should FWC’s continue to help
out TWC’s when they constantly squander the benefits? Why should FWC’s have such obscene
luxury when TWC’s are starving? These prejudices will be slow to shift, and FWC’s and
TWC’s must work equally hard at changing the facts
and dispelling the myths.
In
fact, by providing primary aid the cost to FWC’s
is likely to be lower than the cost of maintaining the
current model.
And as the economies of TWC’s become more
robust they will provide additional potential markets,
essential to maintain FWC’s ever-increasing affluence.
And
whilst we are looking at the realities of the global
model we would do well to consider the arms industry,
one of the major contributors to global hunger. There are far too many weapons in the
hands of the wrong people.
Let us make a concerted effort to reduce arms
production. There will always be civil unrest, criminals and terrorism,
but by significantly reducing the numbers of weapons
available we can reduce the violence inflicted on innocent
members of society.
Much
suffering is caused because problems often seem insurmountable,
and we freeze, rabbit-like, waiting for the problems
to crush us. When this is the case, we should put the search for a solution
on the back burner and simply start moving in the right
general direction. Eventually the problem will be smaller
and a solution might become self-evident.
Mother Theresa said that while most of us might
not be capable of making great steps, we are capable
of making small steps with great love. We cannot eliminate global hunger overnight,
but we can start to reduce it.
In
our bigger picture it is not enough to move a butter
mountain from A to B. We need to provide TWC’s with
the means of economic independence.
We need to get rid of weapons, loans and tariffs. In their place we need windmills, solar
collectors, infrastructure, animals, seeds.
And
as the world becomes more balanced, perhaps FWC's will
realize that TWC’s have something to offer in
the way of lifestyle. Working together to make the world a better place might help
fill the spiritual and emotional void in many lives,
a void that cannot be filled by fast foods, luxury goods
and reality TV shows. By reducing hunger for food in TWC’s
we might also reduce hunger for meaning in FWC's. Now we are really seeing the bigger picture!
_ . _
Harvey
Tordoff
West Sussex
England
*Harvey Tordoff is author of O Lanoo! ~ an introduction to Blavatsky's
The Secret Doctrine describing the evolution of the
human body and the human soul. He is also a Director
of Energy4All Ltd, an organisation which facilitates
community ownership of renewable energy projects.
Profile of Harvey
Tordoff
http:www.olanoo.com
http:www.bigger-picture.co.uk
E-mail to Harvey Tordoff: harve@bigger-picture.co.uk