Criminally Negligent Homicide: The Legacy of Wealthy Nations That Allow Millions to Die

Two award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, have collaborated on a new book entitled Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty. It is a page turner. Unless you simply don't give a damn, this is a must read, and it is a must read now.

It's reality literature at its most compelling; the printed word's descendant of CBS TV's "You Are There" series which transported its viewers to seminal moments in history. Thurow and Kilman's narrative seamlessly covers time and place from the first stirrings of humanitarian concern by nations of plenty for people impoverished by natural disasters and man-made frailties. It reveals how lives of abject poverty intersect those with a deep dedication to their well-being to render both quite extraordinary.

The "What's In it for me?" Syndrome
But, it also reveals something sinister. They explore how rich countries cynically enable the downward economic cascade that traps the developing world in an unbroken cycle of despair as food aid and developmental aid are offered and withheld to suit the needs of the wealthy. The list is long; and it is disturbing.

Ethiopians die of thirst literally on the banks of the Blue Nile River whose headwaters are in their country. But, they can't touch it because Egypt, where the Nile River ends, won't allow anyone to interfere with its water flow. The American government, needing every friend it can find in the Middle East, supports Egypt's refusal to allow a life saving dam on Ethiopian land, and is willing to sacrifice millions of Ethiopians if necessary.

Ugly Americans
And then there is Ghost of Christmas Past, former Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers, whose 1986 legislative gift keeps on giving. Bumpers authored an amendment making it illegal to provide agricultural assistance if there is even a remote possibility of another country competing against American agribusiness. It ignores the benefits that could accrue to both sides if the US was more expansive in its generosity with technical information.

It doesn't stop there. Thurow and Kilman track with astounding clarity how a malevolent "Iron Triangle" impoverishes populations by demanding that food aid be provided only as food and not as cash that can support local economies. American farmers who depend on government purchases of crops at subsidized prices make it impossible for small stakeholder farmers to compete; so they starve. American shippers benefit from a mandate that 75% of all food aid be transported on American ships (adding an estimated $200 a ton to the cost of grain, so less food is delivered).

Even more despicable are the complicit food aid agencies whose existence is leveraged into the legislative protections that prevent cash aid. Reducing the amount of aid delivered as food would take their best player out of the game, so they take a crooked path to saving lives even as it becomes clearer that more food will not solve the problem alone.

But, worse than the Triangulates are religious hypocrites who posture self-righteously about moral values while coldly supporting the perpetuation - and even expansion - of provisions in the Farm Bill that distort world commodity markets to the advantage of bloated American agribusiness while trapping a billion people in desperation at the bottom of the pyramid.

Walking The Walk
Is there any hope? Sure. Bono, the rock star, tours churches, truck stops and meeting halls throughout the Mid-western states preaching Matthew 25:35 and discovering that Americans are often as good hearted as advertised. Jim and Linda Rufenacht of Archbold, OH rally their neighbors in support of a tiny organization called the Foods Resource Bank. Their whole town pitches in and saves people in Kenya in the name of Christian charity. Conservative Republican Alabama Congressman Spencer Bauchus "gets it" that debt forgiveness plays a critical role in rescuing struggling economies and courageously provides moral leadership in urging Congress to agree.

Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a dynamo, passionately forges the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange which gives farmers the opportunity to trade at world prices, store grain, hedge against price volatility, insure their harvests, buy better seeds and, finally, enjoy food security.

Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme innovates the "Purchase for Progress" initiative in which donor nations combine food with cash. Cash underwrites robust markets, discovers realistic pricing, builds economies, creating an upward cascade that leads to civil stability, better health and education, and eventually the ability to consume goods and services from the outside.

TNT Group's CEO recognizes its value in advising WFP on the logistics of emergency food deliveries and saves lives while stimulating other multi-nationals to join the fight against world hunger.

Outrageous Behavior
Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Laureate, accepted the peace prize in 1970 with the admonition that failure to alleviate famine would amount to criminal negligence. Despite progress, too many of us stand guilty as charged forty years later.

Thurow and Kilman hope to inspire and outrage their readers. Evidence indicates they have. The book's editor called Thurow at one point and started the conversation saying "I'm infuriated." "What's the problem?" he asked as gently as he could. "Nothing's wrong with the manuscript," she said, "But I'm outraged at what we are doing to the people in Africa. How could we let this happen?"

This is a professional reader concerned about commas and periods and whether any phrase has been repeated too often. Yet, somehow through the fog of punctuation, her nostrils were filled with the stench of duplicity and hypocrisy, making it clear to her that expressions of concern for those who teeter every day on the line between life and death don't pass the smell test.

Comments

[truthiness091101]

What confuses me most is the relative numbers. Over 15 years ago, Carl Sagan wrote an article for one of the Sunday newpaper magazines claiming that hunger could be ended forever with an expenditure of $17B per year for five years. In comparison to the money that the U.S. simply throws down the drain, this is just a pittance. The Fed is hiding the fact that TRILLIONS of dollars are missing from its balance sheet. Gold is no longer being reliably delivered into owners' hands upon request. I am not sure how much money is being "spent" on unemployment insurance, but compared to what fully employed people pay in TAXES, it's a very low number indeed. The puppet masters don't WANT people to be healthy, housed, fed, and successful. It serves their purpose if we are hungry-we'll do anything they want, for a crust of bread and a sip of water-GMO bread, and mercury & pharmaceutical poisoned water, that is. To say I am disgusted doesn't begin to cover it. But I ask you-What SHALL WE DO?

[Hannah Laufer-Rottman]

Dear Dan,

It is exactly the kind of dialogue that needs to be established and spread throughout the cyberspace. Issues like the ones you are bringing up have to reach decision makers, leaders and people around the globe. My contribution to the dialogue is the following: first of all, as we state it at Palms for Life Fund: "we are all connected to the poor" and thus firmly believe that ending hunger and poverty is everyone's business. Secondly, I like to introduce the idea of participation and partnership. I mean true partnership and participation, the ones that come with accountability. In this sense I propose a strategy whereby a global agreement is reached among all players and where annual targets are set country by country to address their specific problems and goals. Everyone, including leaders will become accountable to the international community and also, even more importantly, to their own educated and empowered constituencies. These are not just words. We can develop a plan to do exactly that. There is just one condition: let's do it, and... let's do it NOW!

[beyondliberal]

Whatever happened to the adage, "Charity begins at home."?
The biggest and best example (among many) is the US government's response-- or lack thereof-- to Hurricane Katrina.
More:
No healthcare for 30 million Americans.
Citizens starving in our inner cities and remote regions, such as Appalachia.
An educational system that is on the rocks. Yet , we send billions abroad. I realize our generosity is a function of diplomacy, but an even better use of our resources would make a better impression on the world than what we do now; neglect our own people!

[Dan Silverstein - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for responding.

Your comment represents an important philosophical consideration about why to care about others when there is so much need here.

I certainly would never try to give a counter argument to addressing the issues that demand our attention in this country. But, here we have safety nets. After Katrina there was enough of a response by the combined federal and state governments to provide the basics: Truck loads of bottled water, the Superdome, makeshift housing of all sorts, the National Guard, and so on.

Every day children get a nutritious meal in school in every American city. We have food stamps, welfare payments, government agencies that help people.

In the developing world there are no safety nets. They need start-up funding to have any chance of surviving. You will see me refer repeatedly to what I call the upward economic cascade: Help lift them to the most basic definition of stability and they can: 1) send their kids to school, 2) improve their health, 3) do other things than scrounge around to find enough food to stay alive, 4) learn skills, 5) become community leaders and so on.

After less than one generation of uninterupted support there should be a resurgence of stability. That leads to democracy, stifles the instinct for terrorism, etc. They become consumers and American business loves nothing more than a consumer. Helping them is in our own best interest. See my previous column entitled "Growing Businesses in African Soil".

[Flavor]

I agree with you on some things you say but I don't agree with some things you say either. America is basically the (most) giving country we give when others won't/don't and we have given to so many countries, but the leaders of those countries don't feed their own people. America has given food to those countries to find out that the food was not given to the people or medicines ect.... now i believe that a lot of wrong things have gone on that we contribute to and this should be addressed but overall it takes a village to make it and what I mean is if leadership is crooked the people will suffer, I don't care how much we give to those third world countries if they don't have a leader who cares for his people they still will starve. I love giving and try my best to do it as much as possible but I have come to realize you can show people how to get out of poverty and what to do but if they will not take the hand up they remain stuck especially if they have a leader who refuses to love his/her people. just my view.

[Dan Silverstein - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Corruption is certainly an issue, but it is not really why experts believe that Africa continues to struggle with famine, etc. In an upcoming column I am going to write about how the collapse of wealthy nation funding triggered a downward spiral over the past 20 or 30 years.

Funding for small stakeholder agricultural development has proven to be an effective means of lifting impoverished people out of the grip of starvation. Doesn't make them rich, but it gives them enough support to achieve "food security" and to have a little extra to sell in the town square so that they can educate their children, improve their health, build stable communities, etc. It's what I call the upward economic cascade.

I am going to write at some point about where America ranks in terms of giving. We are at or near the bottom of wealthy nations. The statistics are disturbing. We may give the most in dollar terms, but as a percentage of our GDP it is disgraceful. Other countries with far less than we have give much more. Ironically, we are a people who have a history of helping, caring, nurturing. Yet, somehow our cultural instinct for helping gets filtered out of the funding process; or, worse, it gets co-opted by corporate manipulators who take too much of what we are willing to give and arrange for it to be used for their own needs in poor countries. Talk about corruption.

[Flavor]

Mr. Silverstein my heart tells me you are a good man, and you care whatever flavor can do to donate & help any organization for helping humanity that your in, please let me know I will help you, you care it shows. God Bless You,

[msnaomicolb]

www.thp.org is one of the most strategic and effective organizations funding sustainable development in Africa.

This organization provides agricultural, leadership and business training for the women farmers who grow most of Africa's food.

[sixth column]

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This is the sort of reporting that justifies the existence of this media organ.

This fine story may be pointing out a sympton of the real problem .

The real problem may be that the fundamental premises of our capitalist system start to fail as a small group of entities become so good at producing goods that a great many others cannot earn a living.

If so, the answer should be interesting.

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[ResidualSelfImage]

They have done it too US too we are a third world country.
No health care for millions and poverty abounds.

[audadvnc]

Y'know, blaming everybody is the same as blaming nobody. I had no hand in the system set up to enrich a few at the expense of everybody else, and I resent someone trying to force my blame.

You want to assign blame? FOLLOW THE MONEY! Who's getting rich? Not me...

[Dan Silverstein - Huffpost Blogger]

Odd. I don't remember naming you.