Tuesday, July 8, 2008

This Internally Displaced Iraqi Child Did Not Dine on Lamb, Eel or Truffles Last Night




Photo by Gorilla's Guides
I'll bet she also went to bed without cheese, lavender honey, carmelized nuts, candied fruits and veggies. And the G8 Fantasy dessert? Sounds like a darkblack dish to me (best served cold, perhaps?). Food scarcity--one consequence of global climate disruption--deserves the attention, empathy and ingenuity of the best minds of our world. Somehow I doubt they were numbered round the G8 summit table last night, where folks gorged on an 18 course dinner "themed" (sheesh) "blessings of the earth and sea."

Food rationing in Iraq has been going on since the 1990-1991 Gulf War, and continued due to the trade embargo. Matters have worsened since the current US occupation: rations have been cut twice this year, and there are significant problems with the delivery system. A 2004 estimate by the World Food Program indicates that "at least" 27% of Iraqi children suffer chronic malnutrition.

This is only one of countless examples of the links among energy resource misuse, global climate disruption, war and human exploitation. Unfortunately, it's not just the leaders of the most powerful countries on earth who gorge on the earth's blessings, and it's not just one meal. Let's not let last night's excess blind us to our own over-consumption of resources--rather let it spur us to wiser, fairer, more just action. Catch TIME's images re: the global food crisis.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A 2004 estimate by the World Food Program indicates that "at least" 27% of Iraqi children suffer chronic malnutrition.

This is just incomprehensible and downright wrong. And that was in 2004; imagine what the rate is now.