Livio Caputo - He is a regular event: this year, the annual report of the FAO invites us to sprinkle ashes on their heads because, Despite the commitments made in 1996 by 185 Heads of State and Government, we can not to reduce the number of people across the globe who suffer from hunger, 850 million were in the early nineties, 854 million today. The goal set to reduce them to 415 million in 2015, therefore, becomes increasingly unrealistic, because, according to the agency's director Jacques Diouf, "lacking the political will to mobilize more resources in the world has the benefit of the hungry." Other Third World worse, accusing Western governments collectively, multinational companies and various exploiters. The persistence of almost a billion hungry people is undoubtedly a tragedy of enormous proportions, but it is unacceptable to attribute the responsibility of only the selfishness of rich countries. First, FAO would be well advised to look at home, because it has always been considered one of the UN agencies less efficient, n bandwagon bureaucracy that spends more than half of its resources for its administrative needs. Secondly, just look closely at the map accompanying the report, which showed clearly which countries have made progress and what steps back to see who the real culprits. We can cite at least four sensational cases, which suggests that the origin of evil is not so much the failure of international aid, as the folly of governments that squander their considerable resources, often without regard for the welfare of their citizens.
Example 1. The only condition South America that shows a "serious deterioration" that is, an increase in malnutrition exceeds 50%, Venezuela is the fourth largest producer of crude oil, which President Chavez is spending billions of petrodollars to build a global alliance against Washington and establish itself as the 'heir to Fidel Castro. If instead of distributing subsidies to half the world would invest this money in the fight against malnutrition, the problem resolves itself in Venezuela.
Example 2. In an Asia that, overall, progress is stunning, with a reduction in the number of hungry people by almost 50 percent in India, both in China, the evolution of North Korea was similar to that of Venezuela: a bit 'because of the total inefficiency of the communist system, a bit 'for the extravagant expenditure on the military culminated a few weeks ago in the first nuclear test, the number of hungry people has nearly doubled and made two million famine victims.
Even today, the population is highly dependent on food aid it receives from China and South Korea but the fault lies in our alleged greed in grant aid, or the dictator Kim Jong Il?
Example 3. When it was part of the British Empire, and in the fourteen years of independence under a government of the settlers, Zimbabwe was one of the major exporters of agricultural products in Africa and all had enough to eat. In 25 years, President Mugabe has ruined.
The main reason, if not unique, this dramatic decline is the expropriation and expulsion of white farmers. Result: malnutrition has increased by almost 50 per cent and the population is dependent on international charity.
Example 4. Sudan is potentially one of the richest countries in Africa, and now that he has also discovered oil, which has more substantial financial resources. But among the twenty-year civil war between the Arab north and black populations of the South (now finally resolved) and the recent tragedy in Darfur with its two million refugees, has increased dramatically its number of hungry people.
FAO rightly identifies the epicenter of the crisis in Africa, where the number of undernourished people in the past ten years is 169 to 206 million, but the fault is not so much the international community, as the frequency of wars, the irresponsibility of the government and also of the growing rejection of the people working the land, even groped for the adventure in Europe as illegal immigrants. It is absurd that, even with its deserts, its tropical forests, its invasions of locusts and its chronic drought, a vast continent like Africa is unable to feed its population. You spend money to introduce modern farming techniques, are used more, if necessary, the GM products, there will be increased to search for water, to reform the archaic law of land ownership, but it is recognized that first touches in the first place for the African population, and especially to African leaders, to meet the situation. Point the finger at Western governments (including, in the front row, Italy) who have not lived up to their promises of aid to allocate increasing percentages of their GDP is perhaps politically incorrect, but it provides a distorted picture of reality. For many countries where hunger is a problem, more money would lead, at present, only more corruption and even more weapons.
from The Journal
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