14 DAY TRIAL // The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has recently announced that the food crisis of the world has not disappeared since prices soared in early 2008, but that it has rather just slipped out of the headlines. FAO warns that the situation is almost desperate, with poor countries suffering the effects of the ripples sent in the third world by the agonizing global economy markets. Before a two-day meeting in Madrid, Dr David Nabarro, the current director of FAO, says that the current situation greatly affects food prices, and that its effects couple with those of global warming to create a potentially dangerous combination for mankind.
"The worldwide economic crash did not put an end to the food crisis; instead, it complicates and exacerbates the situation," he adds. "Action is needed at the global level to discourage export bans of food grains, strengthen agencies like the World Food Programme, and improve information about and coordination of existing domestic grain reserves," Andrew Burns, the author of a World Bank (WB) report, which details the most important economic prospects for 2009, explains.
According to the WB, the global trade volume is likely to drop for the first time since 1982, in the midst of a crippling crisis that has sent countless people into unemployment, and has forced the shut down of hundreds of businesses. Poor countries are those that suffer the most damage, as always, because of the fact that direct foreign investments in their economy grinds to a halt, and also people who work in the western world send home less money, or have already lost their jobs.
Immigrants can only get temporary jobs, which are underpaid anyway. When the recession struck, they were the first to go, as company managers sought to protect workers having the same nationality as theirs. This creates a vicious circle, as individuals leave their homes in Africa and India to go to the West, where they are treated miserably, and are left on the streets. Meanwhile, the economy back at home is suffering because of the unqualified and insufficient workforce it "benefits" from.
"The current consumer society is rapidly eroding the traditional security nets system, leaving the poor more and more vulnerable," Mwangi Waituru, the head of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) organization in Kenya, maintains. Thus, the Millennium Development Goals of fighting poverty, hunger and diseases in the developed world are constantly undermined by the same states that are officially promoting it.