Global hunger, global anger
By Jet Hermida on Apr 23, 2008 in Agriculture and Globalization, Food Security
The looming food shortage crisis in the Philippines is giving us pause and a certain nervousness about how things will unfold in the coming months ahead. We’ll be keeping track of how the food shortage crisis is spreading across Asia by devoting a post about it every wednesday of the week hence, HungerWednesday. The first post is a global outlook from IHT about how hunger is affecting social order and instigating changes in the political order in various developing countries as well.
Hunger bashed in the front gate of Haiti’s presidential palace. Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger sent the country’s prime minister packing.
Haiti’s hunger, that burn in the belly that so many here feel, has become fiercer than ever in recent days as global food prices spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006 and turning Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures.
Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.”
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