War on Hunga

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Note : Hunga is Texanese for Hunger.

By Anwaar Hussain

hunger.gifWhat is hunger?

When the glucose level of the liver falls below a threshold, a feeling is experienced that is called hunger, usually followed by a desire to eat. Although an average nourished human can survive for weeks without food intake, the sensation of hunger typically begins after a couple of hours without eating and is generally considered quite uncomfortable.

When hunger is allowed to persist untreated, it progresses into the next stage of hunger pangs in which contractions occur in the stomach. A single hunger contraction lasts about 30 seconds, and pangs continue for around 30-45 minutes, then hunger subsides for around 30-150 minutes. Hunger pangs usually do not begin until 12 to 24 hours after the last meal. However, if allowed to continue beyond 24 hours, these pangs progress to the next potentially debilitating stage of starvation.

Individuals experiencing starvation lose substantial fat and muscle mass as the body breaks down these tissues for energy in order to keep the vital systems, such as the nervous system and heart muscle, working. This process does not begin until there are no usable sources of energy coming into the body. Vitamin deficiency is also a common result of starvation, often resulting in anemia, beriberi, pellagra, and scurvy. These diseases collectively may cause diarrhea, skin rashes, and edema, ultimately leading to heart failure.

The chain occurrences of hunger, hunger pangs and starvation in a significant mass of population are a direct result of food shortage which may also be called a famine.

Historically, famines have occurred because of drought, crop failure, pestilence, and man-made causes such as war or misguided economic policies. Bad harvests, overpopulation, and epidemic diseases like the Black Death helped cause hundreds of famines in Europe during the Middle Ages, including 95 in the British Isles and 75 in France.

During the 20th century, an estimated 70 million people died from famines across the world, of them an estimated 30 million died during the famine of 1958-61 in China. The other most notable famines of the century included the 1942-1945 disaster in Bengal, famines in China in 1928 and 1942, and a sequence of famines in the Soviet Union, including the Holodomor, Stalin’s famine inflicted on Ukraine in 1932-33. A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the Biafran famine in the 1960s, the disaster in Cambodia in the 1970s, the Ethiopian famine of 1983-85 and the North Korean famine of the 1990s.

Take note please that starvation leads naturally to desperation. Every generation in medieval Europe suffered famine. The poor ate cats, dogs and the droppings of birds; some starving mothers ate their children and as late as in the 20th century, periods of extreme hunger drove Soviet citizens to cannibalism.

A dreadful scenario indeed, but are we there yet? Well, not exactly but we sure are headed in that direction. It is time to sit up and take note.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003, and as of 2001 to 2003, about 800 million people were chronically undernourished. That was when the current global food shortage had yet not begun to hit the world.

There is no doubt any more that we are bang in the midst of the first global food crisis since World War II which the World Food Program says already threatens 20 million of the poorest children.

Consider the following;

The skyrocketing cost of food staples, stoked by rising fuel prices, unpredictable weather and demand from India and China, has already sparked sometimes violent protests across the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The crisis threatens to plunge millions back into poverty and reverse progress on alleviating misery in the developing world.

The price of rice has more than trebled in some parts of the world in the last five weeks. The World Bank estimates food prices have risen generally by 83 percent in the last three years.

Sharply rising prices have triggered food riots in recent weeks in Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania and Yemen. In Cairo, Egypt, the military is being put to work baking bread as rising food prices threaten to become the spark that ignites wider anger at a repressive government. Egypt also decided to suspend rice exports for six months to meet domestic demand and to try to limit price increases.

In Burkina Faso and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, food riots are breaking out as never before. In reasonably affluent Malaysia, the ruling coalition was nearly thrown out by voters who cited food and fuel price increases as their main concerns. In Indonesia, fearing protests, the government has revised its 2008 budget, increasing the amount it will spend on food subsidies by about $280m. Generally in Asia, governments are putting in place measures to limit hoarding of food grains after some shoppers panicked at price increases and bought up everything they could.

The Philippine government has started selling subsidized rice at military bases to ensure soldiers and their families have a sufficient supply of cheap grain, while other supplies are being stockpiled for the poorest members of society. Officials are raiding warehouses in Manila looking for unscrupulous traders hoarding rice, while in South Korea, panicked housewives recently stripped grocery-store shelves of food when the cost of ramen, an instant noodle made from wheat, suddenly rose.

Last month in Senegal, police in riot gear beat and used tear gas against people protesting over high food prices and later raided a television station that broadcast images of the event.

Unrest over the food crisis has already led to deaths in Cameroon and Haiti, cost Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job, and caused hungry textile workers to clash with police in Bangladesh.

Even in Thailand, which produces 10 million more tons of rice than it consumes and is the world’s largest rice exporter, supermarkets have put up signs limiting the amount of rice shoppers are allowed to buy.

In the beginning of this month, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that 36 nations are at risk of social unrest because of the rising prices of food. “For countries where food comprises from half to three-quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival,” he said.

The World Bank has issued an urgent call to rich nations to help stem rising food prices, warning that social unrest in poor countries is spreading and that 100 million people are at risk of being plunged deeper into poverty.

Although the rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces i.e. rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India, the rich world is aggravating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices which jacked up the feed prices. That in turn raised the prices of other crops - mainly soybeans - as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

There are several other reasons for the food crisis:

# The constant growth of the world population Vis-à-Vis the constant decline in the amount of arable land.

# The often irreversible loss of agricultural land caused due to climate change.

# Absence of genuine market reforms that abolish protective tariffs.

# Frantic speculation stampeding the hoarders.

Ironically, the World Food Program(WFP), a U.N. agency, estimates that it will need just $500 million on top of what donor nations have already pledged to fill what the WFP calls a global “food gap.”

The scribe has a simple one-step solution to the Global Food Crisis;

Stop the War on Terra, launch a War on Hunga.

This will not only divert the trillions of dollars from fighting terra to fighting hunga, it will also drain out the swamps of poverty, malnutrition and wretchedness in vast masses of global population, drying out the fertile recruiting grounds for Bin Laden types.

Enough of War on Terra, I say. It is time to launch a War on Hunga.

I am naive, eh?

Beware the fury of the poor then.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain



Comments

17 Responses to “War on Hunga”

  1. Shahid Nisar on April 25th, 2008 9:51 pm

    You sure are naive Anwaar. You think US of A and the neocons would ever do that? Isn’t it these forces who are actually responsible for this state? Wait till you start seeing parts of the world start to go dark. Then, besides food shortage, there wont be no water.

    Cheers.

  2. Odd Pakistani in Newyork,USA on April 26th, 2008 12:48 am

    How would the sole superpower wage war on hunger when its think tanks keep on thinking ways to create chaos in a country to be able to manipulate the govt easily.In history there has been role of white men with black hearts who waged famine and used starvation as weapon.Look in Bengal by Brits and in Ireland by same Brits.Is it not being used as weapon even today?

    You surely elect naiveté in this article. Hoping against hope.

  3. Bob on April 26th, 2008 4:39 am

    There HAS to be some kind of conspiracy—or maybe it
    is in the food that we all eat (except me)

    The answer to most of the world’s problems is
    never—never—never mentioned by anyone.

    Why is that?

    The answer to food shortages—to oil shortages—to
    too much carbon dioxide being pumped into the
    atmosphere—

    they are ALL a consequence of one single problem—the
    problem that everyone refuses to mention—

    TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY
    PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!!
    TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY
    PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!!
    TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY
    PEOPLE !!! TOO MANY PEOPLE !!!

    Do we REALLY need 6.5 BILLION people?—which will be
    12.5 Billion by 2050?

    What is wrong with us? Why is there such a taboo on
    mentioning this?

    If every couple only had 2 children—the population
    would grdaually shrink to manageable size–like
    perhaps 1 Billion maximum.

    This is a painless way of doing it. Why is everyone
    afriad to mention this?

  4. Jonathan Stephenson on April 26th, 2008 8:47 am

    OK I’ve seen the responses of 3 to this article, and all make valid points to this absolutely critical issue addressed by Anwaar in his light hearted attempt to touch people’s hearts.

    Fact, the situation is here and now, so population control of some sort is only a possible solution for the future, starvation is at hand now, and possibly at a level never before seen in history.

    The USA is once again going to be either the main problem or the main solution. Until our so called “Christian Nation” starts to behave as it likes to think of itself, as a good and beneficent world leader, no other chance of solving this catastrophe in the making will succeed. Using corn to make fuel for automobile use is wasteful and obscene, and for US Citizens to continue to drive their mega-mobiles and allow, rather condone this use of a source of food that can save millions exposes the lie once and for all of the USA being a “Christian Nation”.

    Again Anwaar I sit appalled at my nation, and not just it’s government, but it’s greedy citizens, and I wonder how long a God of truth and justice will allow this to continue. PEOPLE OF THE USA, WE ARE NOW THE PROBLEM, WE WHO ONCE WERE THE HOPE OF THE WORLD ARE NOW THE BLOATED LEECH LIVING OFF OF THE BLOOD OF THE CITIZENS OF THE REST OF THE WORLD. WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS, EUROPE AND OTHER WEALTHY NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD BEAR THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES ALSO, BUT WE ALONE PRODUCE ENOUGH OF THE GRAIN TO BE ABLE TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT TO STAY ALIVE AND IN REASONABLE HEALTH.

    I am an repentant Christian, and I despair for my country, as I despair for the starving masses of the world, for while starving is a horrible way to die, we in the USA face eternal damnation, the ultimate price to pay! My God, My God, forgive us of our sin, and break this land’s peoples hard hard hearts, that we may cry to you, and you heal our land.

  5. Anwaar on April 26th, 2008 9:10 am

    You touch my soul with that comment Jonathan.

    But when the time comes, they will make no distinction between us and the fat, shrimp fed men of profits. We will all be hanging from ropes of equal lengths. If people reach a stage when they are forced to eat rats and their own children, what will they do to any well fed men. I shudder to think.

    I hope we wake up before it comes to that pass.

  6. Shelley on April 26th, 2008 5:55 pm

    Hi Anwaar,

    The language that is peculiar to those who hail from Texas is Texican (my spell check suggests the word Toxicant). It is often hard for other English speakers to understand. Colorful metaphors often replace nouns and adjectives blurring or coloring what would otherwise be simple communication. Example: English I’m thirsty, Texican I’m thirstier than a hound dawg in the hot sun. Other linguistic manifestations also occur like an almost universal inability to pronounce the word nuclear. A hindrance if you are ever in a position to for instance order a nuclear strike.

    Shelley

  7. Anwaar on April 26th, 2008 6:00 pm

    Yes I am aware Shelley but it was an intended satire, purposely rhymed with Chinese, Portuguese sort of.

    Maybe Dubya will ask Chenney to call for the nucular strike on Iran.

    Thanks for an exhilarating comment.

  8. Shelley on April 26th, 2008 8:56 pm

    You are welcome Anwaar.

    The term Texican came from a John Wayne movie. Can you get more official than that?

    Shelley

  9. Shelley on April 27th, 2008 4:58 am

    As to the subject at hand Anwaar, remembering the past is important. I remember my grandmother kept a food pantry in her basement. I would joke with her about why she had it and she always became serious and told me that being hungry was a terrible thing and you shouldn’t count on being able to obtain food to feed your family. I did not understand why because hunger was not a real thing to me. She lived through the depression years and grew up in a white family that was indentured to a Kentucky coal mine. People regularly died in the mines and most families were the property of the mine. They certainly couldn’t leave or climb out of their grueling poverty. My great grand father made certain she was literate and sent her to college on the sweat of his 14 hour days. He did not live long after she was freed. The sensitivity to slavery of the distant past I find nauseating. Read “The Little Ice Age” ISBN-10 0-465-02272-3 then tell me about the human condition.

    The politicians croon about health care being a right. Personally I’ll be very satisfied if the electricity is on most of the time in the coming years. Entitlements have destroyed several generations of Americans and the number of idle people I feed continues to grow. Great economic and social upheavals are close at hand and nobody seems to be taking much of a particular interest in it.

    Consider this. Where I live people are almost totally dependent on the automobile. I got paid yesterday so me and the boys filled up my diesel pick up truck. This does not leave my family with any disposable income. The fill up was 31 gallons and cost $140.99.

    Economic depression is just 8 months away.

    Shelley

  10. Kim on April 28th, 2008 4:08 pm

    Hi Anwaar,

    Thanx so very much for writing this article. Beginning with an explanation of hunger, the history of hunger, on to look at here and now.

    The only other article that I’ve read to seek a thinking/feeling human’s heart to understand this phenomenon is … an article by Stan Goff, a fellow that i think you’d like.

    The Politics of Food is Politics

    http://www.counterpunch.org/goff04242008.html

    and links to stan’s blog and website, in case you’re curious.

    Blog

    http://www.feralscholar.org/

    Website

    http://insurgentamerican.net/

    Thanx again, peace,

    Kim

  11. Jeff KHAN on April 28th, 2008 9:41 pm

    Mr Anwaar it surprise me that you do not mention the real most reason for the food crisis(may be because you are from urban area?): Namely less effective agriculture in developing countries. Population rich countries like India and Pakistan have huge human resources tied in villages. Where they often have tiny agriculture area.The land has been divided into smaller and smaller pieces. The land that could feed relatively big families can hardly feed one single any more.
    Unless the farms get bigger(like in the west)and commercialism (by more and more people moving to the cities from country side) the situation will not change.
    The tragedy is that when the farms(60 TO 80 YEARS AGO) were bigger they were not mechanized and now they are too small to be done so. But at the same time, there are too many people living in country side. Where they do not have any thing to do. While the cities and towns are too expensive for these people. So by neglecting this danger for far too long these countries have put themselves in evil circle. From which it seems difficult to come out from.

  12. Rudo on April 29th, 2008 1:32 pm

    Hi Anwaar,

    Your article arrives in the middle (or should I say: still at the beginning) of my research about some aspects of the food crisis.

    I think food-production should go back - as much as possible - to neighborhood-production. Thus it is very important to take protective measures each time when cheap imports threaten local production or when food-production for exports threaten the local needs.

    Transporting food around the world is still - in essence - a question of added cost. But when energy becomes scarcer it will become a question of choices. Do we want to spend energy on such transports or not. Then the “markets” of today, may suddenly be cut of supply… (Poor countries will be cut first.)

    I am also investigating the neo-conservative abuse of World bank and IMF in the food-crisis. I recommend the book “The Shock Doctrine” of Naomi Klein. It reveals the motor behind many world-developments since decades. It is very well researched and documented.

    Best regards,

    Rudo

  13. Anwaar on April 29th, 2008 3:27 pm

    Thank you all for commenting.

    Jeff, I thought the following covered your observation;

    # The constant growth of the world population Vis-à-Vis the constant decline in the amount of arable land.

  14. Jeff KHAN on April 29th, 2008 7:12 pm

    Anwaar bhai i think you misunderstand this a bit. The main problem here is not the growth of the world population itself. The problem is growth in wrong places\countries. The population can grow as much it will in rich countries. In fact most of the rich countries want their population to grow. They will directly benefit from it. Especially the agriculture sector, because the growth will make the domestic market even bigger since most of the people are rich and live in urban areas.AND MORE AND MORE (SMALLER)FARMERS ARE MOVING TO CITIES. Which means the remaining farms are getting bigger and bigger. Thereby more and more profitable for owners.

    While the tragedy of poor countries is exactly the opposite. Here farms are getting smaller and smaller. In fact some of them are so small that all sons of the farmers do not have any place to build their houses. Then there are people who do not have and never had, any land at all. All these people have almost nothing to do. Except of courses making more and more babies. For that they have endless time.

    I am working with a project where all idle from countryside hands are supposed to move to new cities. It will create many win win. Among others:
    ..Bigger farms
    ..Better lives for those moving to cities
    .. With better lives(and jobs) the population ratio will sink
    ..The farmers will get new markets for their products.
    .. Pressure on exiting cities will become less, since the flow of migration will be diverted. May be even some people from thes cities move to new cities?
    etc
    etc
    etc
    etc

    ..

  15. Anwaar on April 29th, 2008 9:36 pm

    Thought provoking Jeff.

    But could you please run a spell/grammar check in a word file before you post your comment?

    I am tired of repeatedly correcting the many errors in your posts. Or maybe you decide to choose a different time of the day to post your thoughts. Just wondering.

    Many thanks,

    Anwaar

  16. Michelle on April 30th, 2008 8:57 am

    Anwaar, why don’t you post this article now at Fountainhead Forum because, I have much to say and point out on this and what’s happening around the world, particularly now. Before you wrote your essay here, I had started looking at world wide famine here: http://airdance.proboards50.co.....age=6#2886 There are also articles scattered throughout the Environmental section which relate to this.

    I’m sorry didn’t respond sooner, but the fact of the matter is that I have been putting my own gardens in, setting all else aside….I have to. You see, every year, my garden has become more and more important for my son and I. Looking through my eyes and hearing with my ears, I stare at people when they say to me, “Oh you garden? How nice that is.” They never get it that it’s not a friggin’ hobby for me…..I need to grow that food for us. And this year, well, I’m almost panicky. I run out of money half way through the month for everything. I’m not bitching about my situation; I always took care of home and hearth quite surprisingly on no more than $1000/month. I should add that I don’t have a cell phone [wouldn’t anyway, I like my brain not fried], cable TV, new clothes and all the other stuff people take for granted. But a few years ago, after my third back injury, this time immediately after losing my health insurance, I’m down to living on $650/month….Rent, utilities, food and necessities, tutoring for my son, and gasoline for the car my parents lend me all come out of that. My 14 year old son walks dogs, cuts grass, and does odd jobs for neighbors and friends to add to that $650; which he most responsibly hands over to the household funds. Of course, no one pays a kid very much, but it saves our asses all the time.

    So, I will be posting and commenting on famine and its causes, plus any solutions I find that seem doable. As I find the time, that is.

    Before I go, I must respond to some of Jeff KHAN’s comments when speaking of life in the united States:

    “The population can grow as much it will in rich countries. In fact most of the rich countries want their population to grow. They will directly benefit from it. Especially the agriculture sector, because the growth will make the domestic market even bigger since most of the people are rich and live in urban areas.AND MORE AND MORE (SMALLER)FARMERS ARE MOVING TO CITIES. Which means the remaining farms are getting bigger and bigger. Thereby more and more profitable for owners. Unless the farms get bigger(like in the west)and commercialism (by more and more people moving to the cities from country side) the situation will not change.”

    “…since most of the people are rich…” If I hear that one more time from anyone from another country, I’ll scream. I spoke of my situation, not looking for pity, but to show how many of us live in the US. But let’s forget about me and speak in statistics. Bear in mind that these are, at a minimum, 6 years old…Do you think it’s gotten any better under the continuing dictatorship of the Bush Dynasty with the doors thrown wide open for corporate abuse?!!! Here’s the facts:

    Most Americans believe that between 1 and 5 million people live in poverty in the United
    States when the actual number is nearly 33 million. The number of Americans living in poverty grew significantly in 2002, swelling to 34.6 million people - nearly one out of every eight people in the United States. Poverty’s rise to 12.1% of the total population represented an additional 1.7 million people falling into need during the last year.

    Most Americans think that it takes about $35,000 annually to adequately house, clothe and feed a family of four. The official poverty definition counts money income before taxes.

    Nearly 40% of America’s poor over the age of 16 worked either part-time or full-time in 2001, yet could not earn enough to secure even the basic necessities of life. Three out of four children in poverty lived with a family member who worked at least part time. And one out of every three children in poverty lived with someone who worked full-time, year round. A single parent of two young children working full-time in a minimum wage job for a year would make $10,712 before taxes - more than $4,300 below the poverty line.

    The percentage of America’s poor who live in the central cities is 40%. The percentage of America’s poor who live in suburbs is almost as high (36%).

    Prospects for Their Future:
    Too many young Americans go to bed with empty stomachs. They also wake up to seemingly hopeless futures: school problems, unemployment, welfare, gangs, drugs and crime. Children of poverty are more likely to suffer young and violent deaths. Mentally and physically malnourished for the first five years of their lives, they are unable to keep up in class. One national study projected that almost a million children who will have started school in September 1996, will encounter serious problems. Many will drop out or finish high school functionally illiterate.

    Poverty in New York City:
    Domestic poverty knows no geographical barriers, but it is especially widespread here in New York City. The latest study, released in 1995 by the Citizens Committee for Children of New York, reveals that New York children fare worse in virtually every category than their counterparts at the state and national level. This includes low birth weight, infant mortality, violence-related deaths, abuse and neglect, education, and job preparedness.

    Life for New York City children is getting worse:

    25% of New Yorkers are children.

    762,000 children live in poverty.

    181 babies are born into poverty each day.

    10,000 children are homeless. This number has doubled since 1988.

    In addition to these sad statistics, many New York City children read and do math below grade level. An estimated 38.9% of the city’s school children will graduate high school, compared to 68.8% of all American students. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, for every year that 14.5 million American children continue to experience poverty, their lifetime contribution to the economy will decline by an estimated $130 billion because poor children grow up to be less educated and often less productive workers.

    How the USA Stacks Up:
    Among the 21 most affluent nations, the United States has the highest percentage of poor children. In fact, our rate is twice that of the country next in line.

    One more thing, Jeff, if you think our corporate farms are giving us what we need, you must read some more. Our food is so nutritionally void and contaminated with chemicals and pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, and all manner of adulterating items that one takes a risk on their life to eat solely that. It is so bad in fact that Europe won’t even import our food…It’s hard and stressful raising as much food as I can, but I assure you, you’d be better off eating at my table than at someone’s who buys the standard fare offered to we in the united States. And when buying from our grocery stores, I always look for items from FAMILY OWNED FARMS who aren’t squeezed out of the market by forming co-ops.

    Thank You for lending an ear, and don’t forget to post your article, Anwaar.

    Michelle

  17. Jeff KHAN on April 30th, 2008 3:14 pm

    Come on Michelle. give me a break!!! Statistic may be one thing but what is realty on ground???? My friend realty is:
    … That most of worlds`s poor people would have moved to the usa by first chanse. They would have given their wright arm to do so.Have you heard about the situation on Mexican-us border? Why are not these people afraid of the horrible conditions in the usa, you mention???
    …How much of the world population are amercan farmers feeding? Adional to their own? Would that have been posible wilth small(unmechanized) family farms? How much of western population is employed in agrisector compared to poor countrires?
    …Where is majority of the american\westeern population living? In cities or on contries side??? Is this not directly related to western succsess in almost every field? From technology, higher education, jobs, less population to better economy and military powers?

    Please do not be that radical or idealistic that you forget the realties.

    BTW, i am not not an american. I am pakistan living in Norway. The name is G.F.Khan.

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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