orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (11/11/85)
Continuing to critique Jan's very misleading article on food distribution: > From Jan Wasilewski: > (3) By breaking off the quote where you did, you made it factual- > ly misleading (unintentionally, I presume). It appears to be say- > ing that China is only as bad as India or Pakistan in feeding her > people. But in the original, an important BUT follows, proving > that she is much worse - as bad as Bangladesh. > This is ridiculous. Travelers and relief agencies in Bangladesh all report massive starvation and hunger. homeless people and beggars on the street. Visitors to India report the same thing. On the other hand, this has *not * been reported in China. This has not been reported even by Western capitalists and businessmen who would have a natural bias to find it. This impression, which is admittedly subjective, is also supported by statistics based simply upon averages. According to "World Military and Social Expenditures" by Ruth Sivard, who is from an Institute based in Sweden and therefore not aligned with either superpower, the following are the facts as reported in her report in 1983: Calorie Supply Protein Supply per capita per capita Bangladesh 1877 41 India 1998 48 China 2472 65 > (4) Now, since you are interested in statistics, try and verify > the following theorem: "If the average person is hungry, then > *some real people* are hungry, whatever the distribution". See, > averages do tell you something. In fact, per capita figures are > universally and correctly used in this field of study. > Jan Wasilewsky Your theorem is obviously correct that if people on average are hungry, therefore some people must be hungry. However your next statement, that mere overall averages are perfectly OK is wrong. The major reason averages are frequently used in developing countries is simply that the bureaucracy and access to information is simply unavailable in these countries to collect any better statistics. It requires far more information to compile medians than averages. Simply becuase averages may be the only figures available in many countries hardly makes them a *good* statistic or measure. Particularly when they are often compiled by people who simply total up all agricultural production for a country and divide by the population- totally ignoring the frequency with which such production of items such as bananas is grown primarily for export and not for domestic consumption, and totally ignoring the distribution of food not exported to upper-class groups at the expense of the poor and starving. tim sevener whuxn!orb