| The Economist, 19 May 2022
As much as we celebrate the progress that is being made on many levels in this community, we cannot ignore the plight of those whose lives are affected by the daily challenges of poverty, unemployment and hunger, and the warnings in the news about what lies ahead for us.
ACT NOW TO MITIGATE THE IMPENDING FOOD CRISIS – OR FACE STARVATION AND RIOTS
Maverick Citizen headline 24 May 2022
Mark Heywood, editor of Maverick Citizen, points out that “the leaders of developed countries are not capable of working together to protect lives. As the world scrambles for food, in coming months it is more likely that we will see a repeat of what happened with Covid vaccines.”
This tough reality means the poor will be hit hardest by food shortages and the rise in food prices.
It is difficult to understand what physical hunger can do to you if you have never been physically hungry yourself on a long term basis. Or how you feel if your child or your children are hungry, and living from uncertain meal to uncertain meal. Let us not be naive as to the effects of the slow violence of hunger, which leads to people becoming enraged. This violence is invisible. It is persistent and incremental. This slow process is a social crisis and it breaks down people’s dignity constantly and mercilessly. And people are humiliated, and when they are humiliated, they become angry. And if they remain angry long enough, we see flare-ups that might make the front pages, but often not.
And yet, how easy is it to fix? Just give people enough food… yes, but this is expensive.
We are therefore appealing to you to consider the positive effects of giving food, or money for food for children, youth and adults in such a crisis. During the pandemic, Love to Give was handing out 800 monthly food parcels to families in need but with the decline in the crisis, we are back to handing out 100. We know that the need is there as we have a waiting list for people desperate to be accepted onto our programme. |