The April 18 New York Times ran an article about the increasing food riots across the globe. These clashes are becoming more an more common as people on the edge are feeling desperation and anger. All of these stories are illustrating how extreme poverty alleviation is not only a matter of morality, charity, social justice or national security, but all of those things together.
Here are excerpts:
"Saint Louis Meriska’s children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry. That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments."
“Why are these riots happening?” asked Arif Husain, senior food security analyst at the World Food Program, which has issued urgent appeals for donations. “The human instinct is to survive, and people are going to do no matter what to survive. And if you’re hungry you get angry quicker.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.htmlx=1209614400&en=fad837a1acd76314&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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