Bread,
Bread, Everywhere,
Yet Not A Morsel To Eat
By Jason Miller
17 December, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Pelted
by a perpetual hail of electrons fired through a cathode ray tube, the
pixels on my PC monitor feed me a generous intellectual bounty of words
and images emanating from virtually infinite points dotting the globe.
Enabling me to interface with the Internet at will, my computer serves
as my window to the world and as a portal through which I can unleash
my writings upon the unsuspecting.
Earlier this week as I peered
into cyberspace through my ostensibly one-way aperture, I happened upon
a picture that my imperialist indoctrination had conditioned me to reflexively
dismiss or ignore. However, I’ve grown increasingly resistant
to the “charms” of the pathological delusions of American
superiority, invulnerability, impunity, and entitlement to decadence.
Something about this particular assemblage of glowing pixels left me
flailing in a raging river of emotion. As I negotiated the tempestuous
feelings surging within me, I made the conscious decision to forgo the
American Way of dismissal and distraction. Instead, I connected and
contemplated.
Staring me in the face was
the tragic image of a Kenyan child condemned to the abject suffering
of death by starvation. A massive tear confirmed the depth of his misery,
yet his angelic eyes still beamed with the radiance of his life force.
Not even the brutal assault of famine could extinguish the persistent
flame of the human spirit.
In sharp contrast to the
enduring blaze of his inner being, his corporeal shell had withered
in a macabre synchronicity with the plants of his drought-ravaged environs.
Yet despite his region’s temporary scarcity of food, like his
metaphorical counterpart, this diminutive scare-crow existed in a world
glutted with comestibles that were not meant for him. With leather-like
skin stretched tautly over his protruding skeleton, the slightest breeze
would surely have caused him to rustle like a dry corn husk. Blood seeped
from my heart as I made a vain attempt to imagine his pain.
Despite experiencing nearly
overwhelming pathos, I remained focused and probed for a deeper understanding
of this tiny innocent’s torment.
Until recently, starvation
had been an abstraction so far removed from my reality that I had hardly
considered it. But in that one poignant moment, my years of personal
struggles, work with the homeless over the last eight months, and choice
to immerse myself in the human suffering encapsulated in that simple
JPEG steeled my determination to examine, explore, and understand a
grim aspect of human existence.
Starvation is a Grueling
Process….
Denying the human body adequate
nutrition for a prolonged period results in an agonizing three stage
process of physical deterioration, a host of nasty symptoms, the potential
of numerous excruciating afflictions, and eventually, death.
In the initial phase, the
body breaks down stores of glycogen to produce the energy it needs.
In less than 24 hours glycogen stores are generally exhausted and fats
become the primary fuel for the body. Once fat is depleted, precious
proteins comprising human muscle are metabolized to produce energy.
This third stage causes rapid muscle deterioration and eventually results
in the extreme emaciation embodied by the starving Kenyan boy whose
image was now deeply tattooed onto my cerebrum.
A starving person can look
forward to listlessness, fatigue, skin rashes, extreme irritability,
and a significantly compromised immune system. Add diarrhea, scurvy,
severe edema (swelling) of the abdomen, and heart failure to the mix
and you have a comprehensive recipe for human anguish. Perhaps it is
a blessing that most sufferers fall victim to illness or disease before
starvation runs its course.
Famine and the Grim Reaper….a
match made in Hell….
Delving further, I was startled
to learn how widespread hunger and famine are on our planet, particularly
in the “developing world”.
Mark Elsis offered this sobering
perspective at Lovearth.net :
On Tuesday September 11,
2001, at least 35,615 of our brother and sisters died from the worst
possible death, starvation. Somewhere around 85% of these starvation
deaths occur in children 5 years of age or younger. Why are we letting
at least 30,273 of the most beautiful children die the worst possible
death everyday? Every 2.43 seconds another one of our fellow brothers
and sisters dies of starvation. Starvation doesn't just happen on Tuesday
September 11, 2001, it happens everyday, 365 days per year, 24 hours
per day, it never stops.
On 12/5/06, the world human
population was 6.4 billion. By that same day, 10.1 million people had
starved to death in 2006. A human being dies from hunger-related causes
every 2.43 seconds. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way.
If all else fails, blame
the victim…
Blaming starvation’s
victims for populating the planet beyond its capacity may assuage many
people’s guilt, but this heartless conclusion is based on pernicious
myths. Humanity produces more than enough food to sustain the entire
world population. The United States alone wastes a shocking 96 billion
pounds of food each year even as we experience an epidemic of obesity.
In its rush to dominate,
plunder and exploit “developing nations, the “developed
world” (led by the United States), causes many of the famines
it duplicitously attributes to irresponsible procreation.
“Free trade”,
“economic development”, and IMF/World Bank “assistance”
are prescriptions for disaster for the people of the “developing
world”. Having eliminated much of their own arable land for commercial
or industrial use, the Neocolonial masters rely heavily on imported
food from their servant states, significantly reducing these already
impoverished nations’ ability to feed their own people. Urbanization
in “developing countries” (fostered by Western economic
development) draws large populations into cities where people no longer
have the means to cultivate their own food. World Bank loans usually
result in projects that benefit the overlords and create a sea of debt
for their underlings.
In its bid to oppress the
world, the United States often installs and supports authoritarian leaders
who implement Neoliberal policies that foment conditions leading to
famine and starvation for their own people. Until the recent democratic
successes of indigenous populists in Latin America, governments refusing
to align with the United States were often comprised of ruthless elites
whom the people initially embraced as a welcome respite from (or alternative
to) US-style oppression. Either scenario generally results in profound
misery for the poor and bliss for the aristocracy.
Budgeting priorities….spending
$99.50 to kill them and 50 cents to keep them alive...
Not only does the United
States contribute heavily to the atrocity of widespread starvation.
Its economic aid for famine relief that many American apologists trumpet
is negligible relative to the money it spends to wage war and kill innocent
human beings.
Consider this excerpt from
my inspiration for this essay, Andrew S. Taylor’s brilliant piece
entitled Moral Mathematics in the Post-Enlightenment Era:
“As of October 22, 2006 the total cost of the Iraq war is $336
billion. Let's do the math. Four years after Afghanistan, we had spent
$1.62 billion helping the citizens of that nation to rebuild their infrastructure
and secure their "freedom." Less than four years after invading
Iraq, we have spent 207 times that amount to violate the rights of a
society that wants us gone from their home.
Here's more:
To date in FY 2006, the United
States has committed more than $175 million for immediate life-saving
interventions, targeting the most affected areas in the Horn of Africa
with water and sanitation, health, nutrition, and food assistance.
And:
Congress has already appropriated
about $850 million for aid to all of Sudan in 2005 and 2006, and the
White House has requested another $880 million.
Well goodness, that's almost
more than we've given Afghanistan! It is almost 0.5% of the yearly budget
in Iraq, where it seems we may have killed more than the 400,000 than
have already starved to death in Darfur, and no doubt displaced a number
comparable to the 2 million displaced there.”
Directing my thoughts back
to the tortured soul whose photograph had imbued me with a desire to
dissect the subject of starvation, I wondered if by some miracle he
had survived. Other questions rushed to mind. What was his name? How
old was he? What was his favorite game? What did he like to eat, when
he had food? What happened to his parents? If he died, then how or when?
Realizing I could do little
more than conjecture or speculate, I directed my attention back to my
feelings. My sadness for the boy had progressed into abhorrence of the
elites, oligarchs, and plutocrats, both here and in the nations plagued
by famines.
I also felt grateful that
I had disciplined myself to pursue my thoughts and feelings elicited
by that haunting image of a dying child.
And what conclusions had
I drawn or reaffirmed?
1. Exercising empathy is
both a balm for the soul and anathema to American Capitalism.
2. A significant portion
of world hunger is intentionally perpetuated to ensure that a relative
few can gluttonously self indulge.
3. Manipulation and subjugation
via economic means are often the principal causes of famines and mass
starvation.
4. Behind the United States’
façade of benevolent superpowerdom lurks a craven pack of ruthless
predators with the moral principles of Caligula.
5. And perhaps most importantly,
my oft-expressed antipathy for many of the institutions, systems, policies,
and actions of the American Empire is well-founded.
In the final analysis, the
little wretch for whom I had grieved had not suffered in vain. He starved
so that the “people who matter" can revel in their opulence.
And on top of that, we have
an Empire to run. Somebody has to make sacrifices. It might as well
be “Third Worlders”.
Sources and Further Reading:
http://www.lovearth.net/
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/ap/
vdgconcepts/digestive/reading5.mhtml
http://www.secondharvest.org/
who_we_help/hunger_facts.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
http://www.globalaware.org/Artlicles_eng/Famine_intro.htm
http://www.mendacitypress.com/12.2006Taylor.html
Jason Miller
is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually
and spiritually. He writes prolifically, his essays have appeared widely
on the Internet, and he volunteers at homeless shelters. He welcomes
constructive correspondence at [email protected]
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/
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