There were 925 million people who suffered from hunger in the year 2010. Yet there is enough food to feed everyone, mostly because of our oceans. Though, there is plenty land to grow enough crops to see that not one single person go without food in this world.
As we all know, protests have broken out all around the world, first in the Middle East and in Africa this past spring. These protests are directly related to the dissatisfaction of a large portion of the populations of those countries. The protest began in Egypt and spread to neighboring countries. Of course, we in the West see this as a good thing, though we are weary of it as we still don’t know who’s going to end up controlling those countries.
Many of these countries and their neighbors suffer from severe hunger and poverty. These uprisings are the result of media, including social media, and a more knowledgeable generation growing into adulthood in these countries. They know what Western societies enjoy and the freedoms they enjoy. You might say they decided that they were fed up with the current and ongoing dictatorships calling all the shots. Maybe they wanted a taste of democracy and to find what it would be like to rule their own countries by democratic vote.
The ruler, or so-called president of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi has been killed and yet another country has fallen to its people. It leads me to wonder how many more countries will end up falling and how will this affect the world? Is this the beginning of the end of dictatorships?
Of course, other parts of the world have not been affected by the protest yet and may never be. Is it a sign of a changing world? A lot of this change has to do with the introduction and popularity of social media. Social media sites are very powerful tools. People with a common interest can set plans into motion.
I do know that we, the human race, will never know peace as long as hunger exists. As long as we cannot take care of our own species enough to see everyone is fed and no one dies of hunger, ever, then we will see no peace. These protest I hope sets us on the right direction but it will be a long road.
I dream of a world without hunger, a world that is free of dictators controlling the people of any country. I dream of a democratic world but better than the one I live in where hunger is still felt by a large margin of our people, the American people.
In 2010, 14.5 percent of households suffered from hunger including our children. I say “our” children because it is our responsibility as a country to see that all of our young are fed and properly cared for. It doesn’t matter if we do it through our federal government, state, or local as long as the job is done well.
For the most part, children who are wards of the state, maybe some are receiving the care they need but many don’t. There are many needy families in almost every community across this country that are hurting desperately and their children sometimes have to go to bed hungry.
And, as far as taking care of the hungry through private donations, our food banks for the needy in this country are having a difficult time. There is a strain on millions of people in this country financially and many, who haven’t already, live in fear of losing their jobs if again our economy takes another dip.
I dream of a world without hunger, and a world at peace. I want to know if democracy were to finally spread all over the world, would everyone then get fed? My answer would be “no” as here I live in supposedly the very foremost democratic nation and yet I see hunger around me. So I must conclude that even with democracy, people will still suffer.
There is nothing wrong with democracy; it is what keeps us a free country. It is “capitalism unchecked” that causes all the problems when it comes to why millions are out of work while billionaires enjoy the biggest windfall of profits they’ve ever seen. What I see is “billionaires” joining world dictators on the list of targets for new protests, such as the “Occupy Wall Street” group and all of its followers spreading out across this country and around the world even. I see this protest growing strong and I see a beginning of a world revolution.
I dream of a world without hunger and a world of peace. We could obtain this dream, if we could finally break down all the barriers that have stood in the way of making that happen. It would be a world that every hungry person, every hungry child is fed. Though it may be tyranny, greed or even just an unfortunate crisis that tries to stand in the way, I believe we have the power to overcome it. We have the power to become a better nation than what we are being led to believe. We CAN feed everyone, with the help of all our neighbors and allies, throughout the world. We CAN stamp out hunger and we CAN become a better people for it.
Democracy is a wonderful thing and I hope to see it become universal and replace every ruler or king with a democratically elected president. I also hope that we can find a way to keep Capitalism from running unchecked as it did before the 2008 Great Recession.
I don’t know the way this world will finally end up after all the protests die down, which I don’t think is going to be anytime soon. I just hope that along with democracy, we will also see the end of hunger for the many that are so hungry. In that we will become a better nation and hopefully a better world.