The other day, the USA TODAY ran an article about how some musicians and the Hard Rock International (cafes, hotels, casinos, t-shirts, cute pins, etc) have created the “Imagine There’s No Hunger” campaign, which seeks “to help children and the fight against hunger and poverty.” Part of the campaign to raise money is an album, SERVE4, with songs by the likes of John Lennon, O.A.R., and Elvis Costello among others. It’s hard to be cynical about something that is obvisouly working towards the public good. After all, what nut or free market kool-aid drinker is in favor of hunger and starvation? However, when we look closely there is a problem.
World-wide hunger and starvation is a serious problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations, 1.02 billion people go hungry every day. That’s more people than the US, Canada and the EU combined! However, the problem is not simply one of not enough food.
On Anup Shah’s website Global Issues, he relates some of the causes of hunger as: land ownership; export-oriented agriculture; war; lack of democracy, etc. Thus, the problem is a structural one. In the end, we need to change the system that causes hunger and poverty. Any system that accepts poverty as a structural imperative is fundamentally flawed and must be changed. Giving money to alleviate a symptom, such as hunger, simply perpetuates the injustices the system creates.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t support such causes—I do. But I want us all to realize that until we change the system that creates these issues, we will continue to pay for them.
Wouldn't supporting this cause be feeding a bigger problem then? (thats a really corny pun, I'm sorry)
ReplyDeletePossibly so and I think that is what we need to be thinking about. How do we alleviate the symptoms of a broken system and work towards correcting the system that gives rise to these problems?
ReplyDeleteIn my sociology class we are discussing how poverty is part of the system and we need it to keep the system working. However, I do not believe that is true and certainly do not agree that the amount of poverty we have is necessary. I believe that at the root of any problem the system is indeed the main cause. You can throw all the money you want at hunger but unless you change the things causing hunger, no change will occur. This goes back to the basic idea that if you give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Let's teach the nations to fish.
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