Global Food Crisis - Who is really Barbaric here?
I was watching CNN clipings of the riots in Haiti and was wondering why people had to go about vandalizing shops and institutions in such a barbaric manner, even before I could complete the process of gathering a whlosome perception of the situation, there anchor’s voice said ‘you are watching the Food crisis riots in Haiti…’
For quite sometime, I had been following the food crisis that has been showing up it menacing head and so at the interjection of the anchor's, my entire perception of the presumed barbaric act changed. The price of rice, wheat and maize has gone up by about 300% since 2000. Salaries have not kept pace. Human kind is facing a severe food crisis.
I have been reading articles for about a month about the increasing number of people slipping below the poverty line because they are not able to buy enough food for their families. The poignant accounts of plight of such poor souls would make ones eyes wet.
The two reasons attributed are firstly, the raise of crude oil price which encouraged the US government to promote farmers to harness bio-fuel from food crops. Crops were cultivated not to be eaten but to be processed to produce substitutes for fossil fuels. Secondly, the increased food consumption in the emerging economies India and China which tries to immitate American consumerism created a demand which supply could not match.
As I was reminiscing over the riots, I was wondering what sense ethics made there. To go about vandalizing and looting is barbaric and wrong, but when one does not have food to feed ones children what does one do? Sit around and watch ones children die? In such a setup what is the moral thing to do? What is right? What is wrong? Who is responsible for the plight of these poor souls in anguish?
The present food crisis, apart from usual vagaries of monsoon and impotent government policies, has two primary reasons as stated. As I was continuing on my reminiscing I realized that, I, in the very act of living my own cozy little life was contributing my own share to both factors which caused the food crisis.
I drive around the roads in Chennai (India) in my gas guzzling motor cycle the Royal Enfield Bullet (which is kind of an old-fashioned Indian equivalent of the great Harley Davison). I could drive a motor cycle that burns less fuel, but I don’t because I love the driving experience the 350 cc Bullet gives me and I don’t care that I am burning the excess fuel just for the sake of my own pleasurable driving experience.
The regular activity on most weekends is munching into KFC Burgers and SubWay Sandwiches and now, thanks to the newly opened Mac Donald in Chennai, there is greater bandwidth of choices to be titillated from. I don’t wait to ponder if it is something I really need. I want it and I just get it. I’m single and I have the privilege (plight in one sense) of not having to support anyone but my own self and consequently I swipe my card and fill my tummy with all possible junk. All this, only for the sake of enjoying the titillation my tongue enjoys in the process.
A few hundred millions of folks with an attitude like mine, who want to live comfortable lives in air conditioned houses, offices and cars and who want to eat for the sake of pleasure and not for the sake of survival, in the very process of living our hedonistic ‘unexamined’ lives are depriving billions of their very chance for survival, and right to decent living.
Who may I ask is really barbaric here? The poor soul who goes about vandalizing because he cannot feed his children or the hedonist who goes bout in air conditioned cars with surplus to feed his already fat children, indifferent to the plight of his fellow being who exists just outside the hedonist's air (apathy) conditioned environment and who is left only to see his already malnourished children grow hungrier and slowly ebb towards annihilation?
For quite sometime, I had been following the food crisis that has been showing up it menacing head and so at the interjection of the anchor's, my entire perception of the presumed barbaric act changed. The price of rice, wheat and maize has gone up by about 300% since 2000. Salaries have not kept pace. Human kind is facing a severe food crisis.
I have been reading articles for about a month about the increasing number of people slipping below the poverty line because they are not able to buy enough food for their families. The poignant accounts of plight of such poor souls would make ones eyes wet.
The two reasons attributed are firstly, the raise of crude oil price which encouraged the US government to promote farmers to harness bio-fuel from food crops. Crops were cultivated not to be eaten but to be processed to produce substitutes for fossil fuels. Secondly, the increased food consumption in the emerging economies India and China which tries to immitate American consumerism created a demand which supply could not match.
As I was reminiscing over the riots, I was wondering what sense ethics made there. To go about vandalizing and looting is barbaric and wrong, but when one does not have food to feed ones children what does one do? Sit around and watch ones children die? In such a setup what is the moral thing to do? What is right? What is wrong? Who is responsible for the plight of these poor souls in anguish?
The present food crisis, apart from usual vagaries of monsoon and impotent government policies, has two primary reasons as stated. As I was continuing on my reminiscing I realized that, I, in the very act of living my own cozy little life was contributing my own share to both factors which caused the food crisis.
I drive around the roads in Chennai (India) in my gas guzzling motor cycle the Royal Enfield Bullet (which is kind of an old-fashioned Indian equivalent of the great Harley Davison). I could drive a motor cycle that burns less fuel, but I don’t because I love the driving experience the 350 cc Bullet gives me and I don’t care that I am burning the excess fuel just for the sake of my own pleasurable driving experience.
The regular activity on most weekends is munching into KFC Burgers and SubWay Sandwiches and now, thanks to the newly opened Mac Donald in Chennai, there is greater bandwidth of choices to be titillated from. I don’t wait to ponder if it is something I really need. I want it and I just get it. I’m single and I have the privilege (plight in one sense) of not having to support anyone but my own self and consequently I swipe my card and fill my tummy with all possible junk. All this, only for the sake of enjoying the titillation my tongue enjoys in the process.
A few hundred millions of folks with an attitude like mine, who want to live comfortable lives in air conditioned houses, offices and cars and who want to eat for the sake of pleasure and not for the sake of survival, in the very process of living our hedonistic ‘unexamined’ lives are depriving billions of their very chance for survival, and right to decent living.
Who may I ask is really barbaric here? The poor soul who goes about vandalizing because he cannot feed his children or the hedonist who goes bout in air conditioned cars with surplus to feed his already fat children, indifferent to the plight of his fellow being who exists just outside the hedonist's air (apathy) conditioned environment and who is left only to see his already malnourished children grow hungrier and slowly ebb towards annihilation?