[net.religion] Vegetarianism and world hunger.

bnapl@burdvax.UUCP (Tom Albrecht) (12/31/85)

In article <think.3824> murali@think.ARPA (Muralidhara Subbarao) writes:
>
>    World hunger is not because some percentage of people
>consume meat; there is, potentially, plenty of food.
>The US government pays farmers to grow less and pays dairy
>farms to produce less. There is enough technologhy and resources
>in the present world to build dams and irrigate lands in the
>underdeveloped countries to make them self sufficient in
>food. The problem is that of attitude. People in the
>developed countries just do not want to share their fortunes.
>Their media and, in the case of USA and Canada, thousands
>of miles of Pacific and the Atlantic insulate them effectively
>from the misery of the suffering in far away lands.
>
>                              murali.

The problem of world hunger is not limited to the insulation of the western
nations.  The US provides more non-military aid to developing countries
than anyone else.  Part of the problem seems to be gross malfeasance on
the part of many governments in the third world.  Take Ethiopia as an
example.  While private and government agencies from the West have been
trying to get food and medical supplies into the country, the Marxist
government there has been hampering their efforts.  The Ethiopian government
is waging a campaign of genocide against those tribes most desperately in
need of help.  They are quick to receive military aid from the Soviets so
they can keep up the petty war with their neighbor, but when non-military
aid comes along for starving Ethiopians the Marxists don't want any part of it.

The indignity suffered by the starving people of this world is terrible and
we should do what we can to help.  But the indignity that comes at the
hand of a malevolent government should in no way be minimized.

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