Hunger


Every day somewhere in the region of 30,000 people die from hunger and related diseases.

This need not happen. Presently there is enough food production globally to feed the world's population. So it should be done.

The main reason it is not is the way trade across the world works.

Poor countries are kept poor by our trading system. The system is largely controlled by America in the guise of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the IMF.

By and large, these organisations spend a serious amount of time focusing on how to get more and more money out of all corners of the globe and situating it in banks or accounts based in America. Many vested interests in Britain do the same.

This is not sustainable and must end. These trends of global capitalism and exploitation have had their day and are now about to be the cause of major amounts of global disruption, through climate change and the end of oil, and probably millions of additional deaths that might other wise be avoided.

The present Labour emphasis on Africa is a sop to these interests. The major imperatives now facing will not be solved by Blair repeating the mantra three times, whether it is "Africa, Africa, Africa…" or the magic words of "Education, education, education…"

Just because you get the media parroting your words, does not make them any truer.

Addressing hunger now must necessarily be bound up with  a complete throttling back of global consumption, as epitomised by crazily "rich" countries such as America and Britain (we are a mere 60 million people and have the world's 4th largest economy).

The extent that this may seem naïve, is the extent to which major catastrophe of one sort or another is coming our way.

We need a drastic change NOW.