rashundatramble.com

Xinhua - English
ROME, Nov. 22 (Xinhuanet) — Hunger and malnutrition are killing nearly six million children each year, a figure that roughly equals the entire preschool population of a large country such as Japan, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a new edition of its annual hunger report published here on Tuesday.

According to the FAO’s report titled The State of Food Insecurity in the World, many of these children die from a handfulof treatable infectious diseases including diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and measles.

Hunger and malnutrition are among the root causes of poverty, illiteracy, disease and mortality of millions of people in developing countries, the report said.

I’m sitting here fighting sleep after eating a fairly healthy dinner. I recently bitched to a friend about my weight gain (I’m up to 58kg/127lbs).

How fucking western and selfish can one be?

I know that hunger and malnutrition aren’t as sexy sounding as bird flu, but think about it:

Six million children dying due to lack of food or diseases that are easily treated.

Now, there was a time in my life where I didn’t have a pot to piss in. My diet consisted of Ramen noodles with a touch of Tabasco sauce. Some months I had to make a choice whether to eat or pay my rent. I went to bed more than once hungry.

I couldn’t imagine having to do that every single night.

Or putting my children to bed on an empty stomach every single night.

I have no idea what the point of this post is. I guess I’m rambling (I’m fightin’ sleep remember).

I guess I just believe, to paraphrase Dennis Kucinich, hunger is a weapon of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.

So is racism.

So is illiteracy.

So is just flat out ignorance.

As a matter of fact, these WMDs may be linked to the US’s War on Terror. Illiteracy breeds ignorance. Ignorance breeds racism. Racism breeds hatred. Hatred breeds war.

I know. I’m babbling again.