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One billion people are now starving
by John Dear SJ on Jun. 30, 2009
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionIt’s official. As of last week, according to the United Nations, over one billion people are now starving to death. That’s one in six people across the globe. That’s an 11 percent jump from last year.
You might not have heard the announcement. The Associated Press gave it but a moment’s notice. And yet here lies one of the most monstrous scandals of the world. And the scandal indicts us, especially us First World Christians.
News of this epidemic of hunger should blare from every front page. Every politician should be inveighing against it from behind a dais; every commentator should be discussing it before a camera. It should be on the hearts of people of faith. And together we should come to a firm resolve -- to bail out the starving, not bankers; to reallocate the billions in war funds to those on the verge of dying. Demilitarize the nations and feed the starving -- then will life be doubly served.
The grim announcement, issued out of Rome, came from the U.N Food and Agriculture agency. Of course, many relief agencies have known the enormity of the figure for some time and have redoubled their efforts. But collapsing economies and increases in military spending have plundered charitable funds. And now the poor don’t merely get poorer. They die -- and in greater numbers than ever in history.
As Rich Heffern reported recently in the National Catholic Reporter, many officials from relief organizations are optimistic that hunger can be stopped. I’m not optimistic, so I called a few of those officials to press them on the question.
Most based their hope on the “Roadmap to End Global Hunger,” a project supported by a diverse coalition of more than 40 international relief and development organizations, including Bread for the World, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Friends of the World Food Program, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children.
Together they’re trying to enact a comprehensive plan, announced just this past February. Among other things, it calls on Congress for legislation and asks the president to install an international hunger coordinator in the White House.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., co-chairs of the House Hunger Caucus, subsequently introduced legislation based on the Roadmap to address global hunger and improve food security.
“We have the resources to end hunger in our lifetimes -- what we need is the political will to make it happen,” McGovern said.
Here lies the sticking point -- political will. And I’m skeptical that the nation can conjure it because no nation can end hunger and maintain a war economy. It’s one or the other. The implication is clear. If we declare war on hunger then the coffers for so-called defense would become barren as a dry well and largess beyond counting would rightly deluge Latin America, Africa and Asia. Here would be a Marshall Plan on a global scale -- and a cause for celebration. But so far there’s neither the will nor the leadership to make it so.
Where is the political will to come from? From the bottom up. "Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world's poor will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights,” Pope Benedict wrote in his 2009 Word Day of Peace message, “Fight Poverty to Build Peace.”
Meantime the “Roadmap to End Global Hunger” is a start. It seems to me something worth pushing. And as we do we’ll be putting ourselves on a spiritual journey. Send donations to Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children and Oxfam, especially as charitable donations are in decline. Support lobbying efforts through Bread for the World. Speak about the calamity, fast in solidarity, study the causes.
Make the link with other pressing issues: hunger and disease, hunger and environmental destruction, hunger and terrorism and war. And make the inverse link: Hunger impugns God’s vision of shalom for the earth. If we campaign to end hunger we’ll simultaneously promote universal healthcare, environmental protection, liberation for the oppressed, social justice and global peace. All these are bound together.
And of course, pray. But pray specifically and deliberately -- for an end to starvation, nuclear arsenals, global warming. Pray for the rising of political will, will enough to abolish hunger forever.
I acknowledge how hard it is to keep horrific reality before our eyes -- this especially when the media insists on focusing our thoughts on the South Carolina governor’s adultery and the minutiae of poor Michael Jackson’s last days. But prayer refocuses us. It keeps us mindful and sets us free to be mournful. Our hearts and minds so inclined, we learn to live in concordance with the heart of God, who founded the world on the idea of shalom.
A young person once wrote to Gandhi for advice on how to live for such a world. Gandhi offered this pearl:
Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest person whom you have seen, and ask yourself if the next step you contemplate is going to be of any use to that person. Will that person gain anything by it? Will it restore that person to a control over his or her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.
As Christians we name the starving masses Christ-among-us. “Whatever you do or don’t do to me in the least of these,” Jesus says in Matthew 25, “you do or don’t do to me. When I was hungry, you fed me. Or you didn’t.”
Today’s grim news begs for a response from the Christian community. Let us pray and do what we can to end hunger and serve Christ in the poor.
* * * * * * * *
John Dear will speak at the Pax Christi National Assembly in Chicago, July 17-19; see www.paxchristiusa.org. St. Anthony Messenger’s Press recently published John Dear On Peace, by Patricia Normile. John’s two new books are A Persistent Peace (Loyola Press) and Put Down Your Sword, (Eerdmans). For information on his books or to invite him to speak at your church or school, see: www.johndear.org
* * * * * *
A Message from John Dear about his NCR Columns
Dear Friends,
Thank you very much for reading and supporting my weekly column. I’ve been writing these reflections every week for three years now, and am blessed to share my reflections, journeys, concerns and hopes.
I write now to ask your help with these writing projects. Each week about 2,500 people read these columns. NCR and I would like to reach a regular audience of 5,000 people by the end of the year. Would you please send an email to ten friends and ask them to sign up and receive my weekly column for free when it is published every Tuesday morning at NCRonline.org. Any other outreach you can give to promote this column would be greatly appreciated. Here's a page direct link to the e-mail sign up.
Thanks, too, for sharing your responses to my reflections. And thank you for all you do for justice, disarmament and peace, for teaching and practicing Gospel nonviolence.
God bless you,
Fr. John Dear, S.J.
A very sad situation to be
A very sad situation to be sure, and a need that can only be solved by unleashing the power of the free market. Free and open markets, allowing free trade (trade unrestricted by government protectionism and/or intervention, tariffs and taxation) will spur competition, the growth of industry, the spread of wealth around the world.
The most common misunderstanding about economics is that the economic pie is limited (there is only so much wealth in the world). That is a lie. The pie is unlimited, wealth can be created in a nearly limitless way. So, the bigger the pie, the bigger the slice everyone gets. Open markets, with unfettered and genuine competition (unencumbered by government regulation and intervention, as well as free from protectionism and confiscatory taxation) will grow the pie and spread the wealth.
Open the markets and get the government out! That is the answer.
Dear Clint, You must be
Dear Clint,
You must be joking of course; tell me you parody. please.
We have seen the disasterous results of your proposed philosophy since 1968. Look for instance at our health care system, the child of Nixon and Kaiser-Permanente: the most costly and least serviceable in the world, leaving millions upon millions of Americans unprotected. Tihs is what comes of making a basic human need (see the encyclical of Blessed Pope John XXIII entitled Pacem in Terris, etc.) a for-profit enterprise, rather than what all civilized nations in the world have done. See also the excellent documentary by the great Catholic film-maker Michael Moore entitled Sicko.
Here the Reverend Father John Dear SJ indicates the results of making food for profit. The GMO's threaten to monopolize food production by supplying purposefully infertile seeds which must be purchased again and again year after year in order to increase the profits of a few and to punish those nations which do not cough up the dough.
Free Market is not a Roman Catholic model but the weapon of the super-wealthy to increase their excessive riches at the starvation of the vast majority of human beings, created in the image and likeness of God. Please see the coming encyclical Veritas in caritatis.
Remember what Jesus said of the rich. Remember what the Blessed Virgin Mary sang of the free marketed wealthy in her magnificent hymn recited each evening entitled the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) including: Fecit potentiam in brachio suo: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles. Esurientes emplevit bonis: et divites dimisit inanes.
Repeatedly Jesus gave warning to the wealthy, including the Rich Young Man who went sadly away for loving his cool toys more than selling all that he had, giving the money to the poor, and THEN coming to follow Jesus. The Reverend Father John Dear SJ has been giving edifying retreats on the Beatitudes, including the woes to the rich and the Go Forths to the poor.
And Jesus said that upon his return he will say to us: "I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat . . ."
alarmed, I remain your small
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
Actually, dear Brother
Actually, dear Brother Charles, I am serious. First of all, some basic information. The United States healthcare system is the envy of the world. People from all over the globe come here, even from such socialist utopias as Canada, Britain, France and Germany, to receive treatment that they either cannot get, or have to wait a very long time for, in their own countries. People from a variety of backgrounds: members of European and Middle Eastern royal families; children from rural tribes and villages in Africa and Asia born with birth defects; political leaders from all over the world; and everyday ordinary individuals who desire or desperately need a higher level of care and treatment than is available in their home countries. We have, without doubt, the finest doctors and most dedicated nurses in the world. Pharmaceutical companies, medical centers, and universities, as well as public and private enterprise, work tirelessly to find cures and treatments for a variety of diseases. Each day medical breakthroughs are happening here, in the United States. When was the last time we heard of a miracle drug or enormous breakthrough out of Britain, or France, or Germany or Sweden, or any of the other "paradises" where everyone is covered by substandard and rationed healthcare? Why do thousands upon thousands of Canadians pour across the border each year seeking medical care? Because their systems never worked in the first place, that's why.
As to issues of coverage of ordinary citizens. Yes, there are millions of uninsured Americans. However, those same Americans are never denied treatment due to their inability to pay. In every single hospital and doctor's office I have ever been in, there is always a sign posted stating that no one will be denied treatment or care due to a lack of the ability to pay. The way our system works is that the poor are treated by doctors and nurses and then those doctors and nurses pass those costs on to the consumers who are able to pay in the form of higher medical costs. While this system is far from ideal, it is a far cry from the devastated vineyard people claim the American healthcare system to be. Yes, health insurance should be made available to all Americans, but there has to be a better way than turning it over to the government, the same bunch of losers and bumblers who have very nearly bankrupted social security, medicare and medicaid. What logic! Let's let the government bankrupt that too!! Please.
I must disagree with your comments about the free market not being a Catholic institution. If one were only to read NCR or the work of Fr. Dear and other "progressives" (really, liberals, perhaps even socialists) one would come to that conclusion. However, were one to expand one's reading horizons and actually look at history as well as some basic economic thought, one would come to an entirely different conclusion. Please, allow me to present a very short precis on the history of the free market.
The free market concept is a child of the Austrian School of economics (obviously, not a school, but rather a collection of thought from philosophers and economists). The Austrian School is a child of Spanish Jesuit and Dominican theologians, philosophers and historians, most of who taught at the University of Salamanca in the mid 16th to the mid-17th centuries. These priests and brothers, through their thinking and writing, brought to the Western mind key concepts of the free market, including fair and free competition, the belief that the state (government) does not have the authority to exact taxes from its citizens without their consent; the understanding that when government creates its own monopoly it does terrible damage to the state's economy, etc. Despite what half-truths and outright distortion opponents of the free market would have you believe, the free market is a direct child of the Catholic Church. For your edification, I would suggest visiting mises.org (Ludwig von Mises Institute) and acton.org (Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty). May I suggest that, before embarking on a critique of comments, you inform yourself about the issue at hand?
The crux of all this is that I have faith in the innate goodness of my fellow man. I know that we all screw up sometimes, but I also know that, when given opportunities to do good, I have seen and experienced immeasurable good from people of all levels, including the very wealthy, those who everyone loves to excoriate. I also believe that there is nothing whatsoever wrong with wanting to make money and to become rich, as long as one does so honestly. And, I believe that the more opportunity is given to become rich, the more wealth that is created, the more wealth will be distributed fairly.
Government is the problem, not the solution. Government protectionism means that farmers in the US are paid subsidies that allow them to sell their crops on the international markets for far less than farmers in Kenya, for example. I know that steel industry protectionism means that businesses who want to buy steel in the US will pay more for steel imported from other nations, thus meaning that those nations, and the companies in them, will sell less, produce less, employ fewer people. Confiscatory taxation policies means that few businesses are able to stay afloat, and those that do employ fewer people. Government regulation makes the production of goods and services more expensive and more time consuming.
People worry that unrestricted markets will mean the destruction of the planet. Those who worry that, first of all, are worried about nothing. But, taking one example, I believe I can dispel that worry. Starbucks has billed itself as a "green coffee company". It did so, not because it is worried about the environment, but because it realizes that its customers are. Thus, in order to attract more customers, it advertises its environmentally friendly philosophy. This is how the free market works. Consumers support businesses whose business plan is sound, prices are reasonable, product good, and labor fairly treated. Those businesses who cannot make those claims legitimately either change or go out of business. Thus is virtue rewarded and vice punished. And, most importantly of all, human persons make those decisions based on real values. The system is humanistic and fair.
The free market has great potential for good and, like all created things, great potential for evil. I suppose the question is this, do you trust and believe in your fellow man or not? I do. It seems as if, dear brother, you and Fr. Dear and others do not. How sad.
Dearest Brother Clint, please
Dearest Brother Clint,
please see Sicko by the great Catholic prophet Michael Moore
We here enjoy the most expensive and least efficient health care system on earth.
also please read the great new social encyclical Caritas in veritate by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, which absolutely opposes the sentiments you write so extensively hree and elsewhere, and at such great length. I highly recommend you take as lectio divina this week the excellent article by NCR Vatican correspondent Mr. John Allen who comprehensively presents this great jewel in the tradition of Rerum Novarum, Pacem in Terris, Populorum Progressio and those which followed, as Mr. Allen so eloquently explains, far better than my poor powers.
This great encyclical directly and repeatedly in many ways condemns the free market system you defend so robustly here and elsewhere as if it were heaven on earth and not the cause of all our suffering. This great encyclical indicates the path to freedom and justice and equalityand the Reign of God by restraining your free market, which it condemns in so many ways, while defending the right to unionize. Please read Mr. Allen's article; you may find it as illuminating as Saul on the road to Damascus.
I remain
your poorest srevant
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
Competition and the
Competition and the unfettered industrial growth will spread wealth throughout the world? I think this is a good theory, but it does not even work in an "open market society" like the USA. This seems to be an easy answer that is thrown around. What will be produced and at what cost? If industrial production occurs or agricultural is developed, what resources are exchanged and is it a long term or a short term solution? Is starvation solved for all or just those with the resources? What other conflicts come out of this? The simple, immediate solution is get people food, but there is no magic laissez faire, communist, mercantile, etc. solution. What works at one place does not definitely work at another.
correct, Toby, have you
correct, Toby, have you already read the Pope's new social encyclical??
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
Doesn't an open market
Doesn't an open market economy also creat competetion against those who manage small, local farming operations? Just think of the "fair trade" coffee markets, which are forced to compete for our dollars with multinational corporations who sell cheaply and in large quantities in overfed developed countries. There have to be regulations to some degree on imports and exports, and yes, tariffs, to help local farmsers and artisans survive and support their families. WE in the developed world look at accumulation of wealth as the ultimate goal, and those in developing countries are just trying to provide the basic necessities.
"Open" markets? No
"Open" markets? No regulation? Putting the world at the mercy of a system without even the possibility of empathy, compassion, or caring? That won't lead to a better world, but it will guarantee one in which those who have, have more. If the free market could be trusted to do the right thing, no one would receive less than a living wage for their labor.
Correct, Kat Doyle! Did you
Correct, Kat Doyle!
Did you ghost write the new encyclical?
"Open the markets and get the
"Open the markets and get the government out!"
i would disagree, clint.
perhaps the best way to economically help, i believe, would be to adopt the teachings laid out by the popes in their series of encyclicals over the last 100 years or so, starting with Rerum Novarum and expounded upon in Quadragesimo Anno, Pacem in Terris, Laborem Exercens and probably continued in benedict's writing to be released tomorrow.
unrestricted capitalism can cause just as much misery as socialism.
Pete, I must for once at
Pete, I must for once at least partially agree with you.
The economics proposed by brother Clint do not match the teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
Let us recall the words of the Acts of the Apostles: from each according to their gifts, to each according to their needs.
Or was that Marx?
Or both?
Misery under socialism? Where? Britian? France? Spain? Cuba? What do you mean?
Just wait until those few companies controlling the GMO grains and seeds which are genetically modified not to be fertile in order to demand more purchased year after year raise their prices while billions starve.
It makes perfect free market sense, but not Catholic sense.
charles, i recommend you read
charles, i recommend you read rerum novarum and the followup documents from pius xi, john xxiii, john paul ii, and now benedict xvi. they lay out the best way so far to create a just social order. they also describe exactly why socialism is not an ideal, nor is liberalism or total capitalism.
Yes, dear Pete, please see
Yes, dear Pete, please see urgently the new article by Mr. John Allen which so efficiently and eloquently and comprehensively and brilliantly presents the new encyclical
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
actually i have read the holy
actually i have read the holy father's most recent work all the way through and am in the process of reading it through a second time. what i see, as do many others, a continuation and expansion of catholic social teaching rooted from rerum novarum on through especially the writings of paul vi. i fail to see where it praises what we call today socialism. perhaps you have an 'extended, director's cut' version that does?
I have heard that the
I have heard that the shortage of food is not the problem. What is needed by the people who want to help the starving people are better ways to distribute the food so the food can reach the people.
father john, i join you in
father john,
i join you in sorrow and prayer for the aid of all these poor and starving that seem to be increasing all over the world. truly, we must do all we can.
however, i do wish to point out that, should we set out to feed the entire world, there are some very complicated issues we will be putting ourselves in the middle of, and we need to understand what might be involved before we push advocacy.
somalia in 1991 is a good model for people to remember. with warlords there using starvation as a weapon against their enemies in their attempt to gain power, do people simply assume that they wouldn't mind if humanitarians drive in to feed, clothe and give medical attention to the very people they are trying to starve into submission? in such situations, the food and aid is siezed, the people bringing it sometimes murdered or violated in *other* ways, and the aid either burned or used for other ends like trading for weapons with other factions.
so then, you are left with a difficult choice: either stop wasting your efforts, keep bringing in stuff and having it stolen right off your trucks by armed thugs, or get military help to protect the aid you are bringing in.
now i am not sayign that everywhere we try to help would be like this. but i am saying that we need to remember that just because someone shows up with free food and medical treatment doesn't mean he will be at all welcome. because remember, in situations like i just described, you roll in with trucks of food, and they get siezed and you possibly get killed and your aid is then used to fund that factions efforts or roll in with some armed escort to prevent that and you risk triggering fighting and still more death.
my main point i guess is this: saying 'we must give them food' is usually fairly simply done here in the US and in other places. but some places in the world are a bit more... complex. and we need to understand that before we show up in the middle of unpleasent places thinking everyone will shout 'peace! peace!' because we brought free bags corn.
Thank you so much, Fr. Dear,
Thank you so much, Fr. Dear, for drawing attention to this terrible, terrible problem of massive, world-wide hunger. I had no idea the problem was of such magnitude. I am so sorry that such an important story is buried by other items of far less importance.
The proposed legislation to address this problem is of interest and may contribute to the solution of the problem. I can't help but wonder if it would be better to route hunger aid , not through government, but through non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The government is substantially controlled by plutocrats & special interests. Government programs are not infrequently influenced or even captured by such special interests, and, as a result, are not run in the best interests of the purported beneficiaries of such programs. One way of relieving hunger while minimizing governmental involvement is to enact legislation providing everybody with a tax credit (similar to the Earned Income Credit) earmarked for relief of hunger, distributed to the (audited) NGO chosen by the recipient of the tax credit. Every dollar lost by a hunger tax credit would be taken from the budgets of the CIA and the military.
end the ban on birth control
end the ban on birth control and abortion. Don't breed what you can't feed.
What a great idea! Why not
What a great idea! Why not just set a national population limit and euthanize everyone above that limit? This is your thought, sir, taken to its logical conclusion. But, I suppose logic was not even a consideration when you wrote it.
Please brother Clint draw a
Please brother Clint draw a flow chart for me showing how you derive this logic from the statement made. Or was that not your considreation, sir, when you wrote it?
Actually the pie is limited.
Actually the pie is limited. For example there is only so much land surface on the planet. That is why birth control is an important part of the solution to this problem. Also there is not an unlimited supply of water, forests, oil, uranium, coal, etc. One huge mistake many people of the conservative persuasion make is thinking that eliminating government will solve everything. Deregulating the banking industry did not lead to healthy growth it lead to abuse and the current economic mess. Actually the best economy stems from a balance of free enterprise on the one hand and control by the people through a democratic process on the other. That is why the founders of this nation specifically included the right of Congress to regulate commerce in the U.S. Constitution. Had they wanted this country to be a totally unregulated food fight they would have said Congress has no right to regulate commerce. If you have a competition, whether it is football or an economy, you need a minimum set of good rules - otherwise you have bedlam. The reason there are so many hungry people is twofold: greed and overpopulation. Natural resources ARE limited and John Dear is correct to say that when a country overspends a huge amount on weapons they do not then have the resources to help those who are starving.
Cant' be true! We were told
Cant' be true! We were told by NCR that if we just forgot that Obama was pro-abortion it would be ok because there would be no more poor people in the world. Now you are saying we have poor people and we also have government subsidizing abortions. Your Messiah, Barack Obama seems to have let you down.
my dearest milbo1 can you
my dearest milbo1
can you please cite the edition of NCR which said this?
Or are you just talking through the side of your hat?
Hopefully our new President can restore some balance to a nation left bankrupt morally and financially after eight years of coup d'etat a nation left by Bill with surpluses all now squandered these past eight years in piracy, with apparently your hearty support.
Let us pray with our new President he can at least repair some of the massive damage done. Your ever hate-filled comments do not help. Why are you so angry?
praying with you, I remain
you little brother
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
The problem is, for example,
The problem is, for example, Somalia. We would likely have to do like we did in 93 and commit "so called" defense forces (U.S. or AfriCorps or whatever) to all but take over Somalia to feed the starving. Otherwise, the warlords will take the food like they did in 93, and people starve anyway. Where will that lead? It's a little more nuanced than that, but it's still a problem, and it will require "so called" defense forces, as you put it.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
Tony, you quote: "Si vis
Tony,
you quote:
"Si vis pacem, para bellum."
Yet this is not in any Church document; it is not Catholic. It is not of Jesus Christ, who proposed quite the opposite.
If you want peace, lay down your arms.
Jesus rather said: Pax tecum
Jesus also warned upon His return he will say:
"I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat."
as I so poorly recall, while remaining ever
your littlest brother
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
charles, i think you missed
charles,
i think you missed the whole point of his post. please see my notes in the above post as well, as he and i are both talking about the same thing: in somalia, you couldn't roll in unarmed. the warlods simply took everything you bring and either sell it, use it themselves, or give it to political allies. USUALLY they left the people bringing in the food alive... usually. remember, they used starvation as a weapon.
even if you wouldn't even lift a finger to save your own life, you need to understand that, because not everywhere in the world welcomes people bringing food with open arms. the locals aren't always a peacful and sweet as those who aparantly live around your hermitage.
if you want a good idea of what i'm talking about, watch the first 10 minutes of the movie "blackhawk down". even if you disagree, you need to understand what it is you are advocating people walk into.
dude it's a movie . . .
dude
it's a movie . . .
it is a movie based on actual
it is a movie based on actual events.
yes it is a movie. yes it is entertainment.
it also shows the kind of behavior i am talking about. if you don't want to see it because 'its a movie', than read the first hand descriptions of people who actually tried to go and help there. they are just as sad and tragic, and talk about the same events.
you still missed the entire point of the post as well, which honestly doesn't surprise me.
How about legalizing birth
How about legalizing birth control, including abortion? When people know that they can limit births, they have more economic control over their lives. They can give more to each child.
Each of us in our individual
Each of us in our individual milieu can change our behavior and contribute towards the just distribution of resources including food. Here is one attempt on my part.
To: Mary’s Woods Community
From: Marie Rottschaefer
Dufresne 213
June 30, 2009
“It’s official. As of last week, according to the United Nations, over one billion people are now starving to death. That’s one in six people across the globe. That’s an 11 percent jump from last year.
You might not have heard the announcement. The Associated Press gave it but a moment’s notice. And yet here lies one of the most monstrous scandals of the world. And the scandal indicts us, especially us First World Christians.”
[John Dear S.J. June 30, 2009 National Catholic Reporter online.]
Dear Residents:
1. If we were to go to a two-item menu, one with meat or fish and one vegetarian, I think this would be a real contribution to solving the food problem.
2. If we were to go to a cafeteria style menu, (not a buffet which has its disadvantages such as maintaining food sanitation) requesting only what we wanted and only as much as we needed, I think that we could eliminate a great deal of waste of food actually or potentially.
3. The residents would make the choice rather than someone who has no idea what our nutritional requirements actually are in order to remain healthy. Older people, as well as younger people have common health conditions or diseases such as diabetes, kidney failure or cardiovascular disease that require a scientifically controlled diet. Sometimes we are given too much and other times too little or not the right type of food. To be able to choose would really help.
4. A cozy dining room ambiance could still be maintained.
I have seen this arrangement in at least two retirement centers.
Sisters, staff, residents, is this not the very least we could do to help solve world starvation? Let’s do it voluntarily before the crisis escalates and the powers that be do it for us.
Thank you.
HELP w. direct link to the
HELP w. direct link to the e-mail sign up.
Dear World Hunger Aware People: For us busy folks your Direct Link To The E-mail Sign Up, is not easy and simple.
Please change it ASAP. I wanted to quickly utilize it, but it does not refer to the specific: John Dear 10-person email sign up. At least it is not readily apparent on the screen.
Also Pastor John Dear, or staff: Please email me the date of when you are coming to PORTLAND, OREGON. I did see the Bellingham, Washington event coming up some months from now.
CHARLIE ROSE: Last but not least, has this starvation issue/John Dear SJ ministry, been on Charlie Rose(PBS)lately? If it's been a couple of years back, maybe I could still order the transcript, and show it at local SECULAR group meetings.
Please advise.
Much thanks.
You've mis-represented the UN
You've mis-represented the UN report. The report does not conclude that "one billion people are now starving to death." If that were true, we'd have negative worldwide population growth!
The UN report concluded that one billion people consume "fewer than 1,800 calories per day." For children this can be fatal but not for adults and, even then, there is a huge difference between consuming, say, 1,600 calories per day and "starving to death."
Hunger is a problem and we should be concerned about it. But to claim "one in six people is starving to death" is exaggeration and ruins your credibility.
Dear brad evans A very
Dear brad evans
A very porogressive idea, reducing starvation with legal abortion. Its a main focus of liberal compassion. Infanticide too. And get rid of useless leeches like Downs Syndrone.
John, there are many pieces
John, there are many pieces of legislation being proposed in Washington DC to deal with the Roadmap. Some appear mainly to make US Land Grant Colleges and research on Biotechnology for Development a main proposal. The Casey-Lugar Bill in the Senate is a little ambiguous on this issue. What will likely take the lead for the US is a proposal from the State Department, perhaps revealed at the G8 under the guise of food security solutions. I'm hoping it is not more of the biotechnology can feed the world variety and the US has the vision to cure world hunger through biotechnology...completely neglecting the multiple benefits of agro-ecology in terms of climate change, productivity, helping small producers..most of whom are women secure livelihoods for the long haul. Biotech will only push farmers off the land and lead to more biofuel production which will not feed families and communities. I would be a little cautious about some of the ngos you name because some of them are not quite as nuanced in their advocacy around a holistic approach to food security and development. CIDSE has got it right, Action Aid has it right, Food and Water Watch has it right, World Hunger Year has it right...check them out on food security and development. Dave Andrews
Sure. When the poor have
Sure. When the poor have more money for each child, they're not as poor. The children's expectations change from survival to education and some control over their lives.
Down's Syndrome births have gone down by over 76% in a generation, by the way.
We're just beginning to discover ways to quickly identify genetic deformities and defects-think of the progress.
In these terrible economic
In these terrible economic times, to show solidarity with the sufferings of the poor, have you heard of any US Catholic Hierarchy member announcing that their personal household will try living on the equivalent of the food stamp allowance for even a month?
Isn't it the Church itself that calls repeatedly for a "preferential option for the poorest"?
Yet several state governors & mayors have already done so, as they have had to make severe cuts in their budgets or attempt to raise taxes on higher income voters. They know from personal experience the impact of their new budget priorities.
But the hierarchy continues to wonder why so few listen to their teachings on most topics?
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