Hungry for justice

By Awatef Abdel-Rahman

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It's not easy to count the number of hungry people in our world. Not only are statistics sketchy at best, but rarely do two scholars agree on a simple criterion for poverty. According to available figures, 36 per cent of the Third World's population now live below the poverty line. In Egypt, the National Agency for Mobilisation and Statistics has set that line at LE733 annual per capita income in urban areas and LE525 in rural areas. Using this arbitrary criterion, 46 per cent of our urban and 51 per cent of our rural population are poor. Why?

Many point a finger at military expenditure. A UNDP report notes that one fourth of what developing countries now spend on armaments is sufficient to: (a) provide health care for the entire population; (b) immunise all children against common diseases; (c) eliminate acute malnutrition; (d) provide clean water; (e) fund basic education for the entire population; and (f) lower the ratio of illiteracy. Experts also note that developing countries pay little attention to agriculture, fisheries and forestation, preferring -- or encouraged -- to focus instead on other high-return sectors of the economy.

Currently, the world produces 10 per cent more food than it can consume, which means that the problem of hunger has more to do with distribution than production. Unless Third World countries become more self-reliant and a mechanism is devised to improve food distribution, hunger wars are expected to break out within the next half century.

* This week's Soapbox speaker is professor of mass communications at Cairo University.