Starving children and the refugee crisis

     No. No pathetic photographs. No shocking data. No obscene and opportunist “discovery” of the plight of millions of starving children around the world. No manipulation of statistics on poverty on the eve of elections. A few questions will do. Questions which demand clear thinking responses.

In a country such as Argentina, which produces food for more than 400 million persons, how is it possible that children die of hunger?

     Why is it that the vast majority of the victims of hunger are persons of indigenous origin, whose natural habitat is being systematically destroyed—often precisely by corporations who use forest land taken from native peoples to plant food products such as soy beans?

      In a world where the 85 richest have as much income as the 3.5 billion poorest, is it any secret why income inequality continues to increase?

      Why is it that the mass media and the political upper crust in the world´s “developed” economies have only recently shown their concern for refugees?

     (During the period of colonialism those same countries brought raw materials back from the “under-developed” world to feed their factories and used slavery to gauge their profits. Today’s wave of refugees bring the poor from the areas such as Iraq and Syria to escape bloody conflicts which are directly related to the struggle for natural resources.)

      Why does the world (led by the U.S.A.) continue to spend more money for weapons while the number of victims of poverty or undernourishment continues to grow? The approximately $600 billion the Pentagon spends on weapons is almost obscene compared to the meager amount available for health.

       Why is it that in most countries health is considered a business rather than a right?

      Why do austerity programs aimed at “solving” economic and financial difficulties almost always put the cramp on retired workers, education and social programs?