In case you did not know, yesterday was World Food Day, coinciding with this year’s Blog Action Day. This post comes a day late; but it is never too late to highlight issues that have to do with food.
I think it is Wangari Maathai that said, “Mother nature causes drought; governments cause famine.”
I thought for a long about what to write. The perpetual famines that rock Africa, yet we have the capacity to produce and export food. The corrupt governments that rule us contribute much to our food insecurity. The multitude of NGOs that benefit from the so called ‘aid-work’, I mean if there is no one who needs rescuing, then there is no hero! The photographers who look for the skinniest and sorriest looking people so they can take that award winning picture. The photographers whose hearts break and they live haunted by the images of hunger they see.
In the end I have decided to keep this post short. I will write about my idea world, which is not so hard to achieve. I want a world where nobody sleeps hungry, ever. A world where the basic necessities like food & water, clothing, shelter, basic education are rights and not privileges. It doesn’t matter where on earth one is born, they are guaranteed these basic necessities. Human dignity is restored. No one has to shove a camera in a starving person’s face to evoke the emotion of the world for some alms to feed the poor.
This is my ideal world and I hope we can all work towards it.