Financial crisis no excuse for inaction in battle against hunger: Annan

DarkJager

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhidcwkfkfgb/

Article wrote:

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that the global financial crisis cannot be used as “an excuse for inaction” in the worsening battle against “wrenching hunger” across the developing world.

Speaking in Dublin at a major international conference hosted by Concern Worldwide to mark World Food Day, Mr Annan urged political leaders to maintain their resolve to ending a situation where nearly one billion of the world’s population do not have enough food to eat.

More than 200 Irish and international policy-makers and influential figures drawn from government, business, academia and major NGOs are attending the conference at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin.

They heard Mr Annan, who founded the UN Hunger Task Force and now chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), call governments to task over their slow response to the problem of global hunger in comparison to the swift reaction to the current financial turmoil.

“The food crisis of recent months is now compounded by a global financial crisis. While national governments and international lenders scramble to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into failing banks – the developing world goes hungry….this is simply unacceptable. We must do something to stop it.”

I've just read the above and I just do not agree with it at all. The financial crisis is something which is a serious matter which could affect economies the world over and is being responded to as well as could be hoped. Now Kofi Annan feels this is "unacceptable" as the developing world is going hungry.

How is this unacceptable? The economy of every nation is under threat from this financial crisis and a world collapse of these would be absolutely disastrous. The developing world has contributed huge amounts of money to these developing countries over the years. Now we have a crisis on our own doorsteps that needs to be looked after, and Kofi Annan feels we are being unreasonable.

"Charity begins at home" is how the saying goes, and in todays climate that really is fast becoming the mantra we need to live by. We have too many problems in our own countries now to be throwing large sums of cash at the developing world. Over the years, we've seen these adverts telling us how the money donated is being used to grow crops and deliver fresh drinking water to the people of these countries. Now we're being told they are starving...again.What the hell have they actually been doing with it??? And how long exactly does Mr Annan feel the developed world should act as the one and only crutch for the developing?