Every hour of every day 300 children die due to malnutrition, at the
very start of their lives they are left so weakened by relentless
hunger that they can't fight off illnesses like diarrhoea or
pneumonia. Surviving malnutrition doesn't bring a full and healthy
life, those children who survive, malnutrition suffer devastating and
irreversible damage, stunted growth and bodies and brains that are
permanently damaged.
The problem isn't that the world is short of food, the food is
there, but somewhere along the line some people have to make a
profit. So the food won't move to the needy until the money changes
hands. While a child is dying of malnutrition, we in the rich
developed world run around shaking charity cans under the noses of
all and sundry hoping that they will drop a few coins in the box and
perhaps then we can start the food moving.
What a barbaric inhuman system, shrink the picture, you know
of a child down the road that is dying from malnutrition, what do you
do? Run around trying to raise some money to buy some food from the
supermarket? Any system that has an abundance of food and yet stands
by waiting for the money to change hands before supplying children
dying from malnutrition, is not fit for purpose.
Capitalism is only there to serve the shareholders, the
corporate world, everything is a commodity, even the life or death of
a child. If companies can make a profit then the child will live, if
not, sorry, you don't have enough money. Why do we allow ourselves to
be dominated by these corporate fascist? We the ordinary people make
everything, we transport and distribute everything, all we have to do
is take control of what we make, where we transport it, and to whom
we distribute the produce of our labours. We don't need them, they on
the other hand do need us. Let's dump this brutal, unjust, inhumane,
greed driven system in the dustbin of history. After all it is only a
man made system it is not something written in tablets of stone or
some immutable force of nature, it is a man made economic system of greed.
The following is a poem that I penned some 20 years ago, in spite of all the pontification by our expensively suited, hypocritical politicians, the situation is no better today than it was then, probably worse. As long as we keep this system of capitalism dominating our lives the situation will never improve.
EIGHTEEN HUNGRY CHILDREN.
Eighteen hungry children
die
every minute of every day
eighteen of tomorrow’s people
cruelly thrown away.
When pandering to a fashion
gratifying our greed,
think, theirs is no desire
but a basic need.
Envisage a familiar face
a child that calls your
name,
try to be the parent
try to place the blame.
Eighteen hungry children
die
every minute of every day,
eighteen little faces
that never learnt to play.
Walk past your local school
listen to the shrill,
stand and count to sixty
imagine hunger start to
kill.
Fingers must be pointed
at decisions made on high,
questions must be asked
loudly asked by you and I.
Eighteen hungry children
die
every minute of every day,
eighteen precious lives
the claws of hunger slay.
WHY?
