United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top lieutenants on Monday are convening the first meeting of the U.N.’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis. Ban says it will “study the root causes of the crisis,” and propose solutions for “coordinated global action” at a summit of world leaders in June.
Ban might want to consider convincing the oil-rich nations of the Middle East to provide more than the near-invisible amount of money they currently give to the World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.’s food-giving arm, which is charged with alleviating the food crisis.
Well it's about time that someone pointed out that these nations that are flush with cash are doing absolutely nothing about the world's poor. Saudi Arabia, by far one of the richest Middle Eastern countries, constantly berates us for the plight of the Palestinians, yet, does absolutely nothing about it. This is the stuff you don't hear all the time on the news folks.
But here's my favorite line:
WFP internal documents show that the major oil producing nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gives almost nothing to the food organization, even as skyrocketing oil prices and swollen oil revenues contribute to the very crisis that the U.N. claims could soon add 100 million more people to the world’s starving masses.
The overwhelming bulk of the burden in feeding the world’s starving poor remains with the United States and a small group of other predominately Western nations, a situation that the WFP has done little so far to change, even as it has asked for another $775 million in donations to ease the crisis.
Donor listings on WFP’s website show that this year, as in every year since 1999, the U.S. is far and away the biggest aid provider to WFP. Since 2001, U.S. donations to the food agency have averaged more than $1.16 billion annually — or more than five times as much as the next biggest donor, the European Commission.
Yep, that's right, the world hates the US, yet, we are "far and away the biggest aid provider" to the World Food Program. Do we get credit for it? Of course not. Does the Middle East get publicly shamed for their complete lack of contributions? Of course not.
I'm not saying we should get paid back or anything like that. What I AM saying is that a very public "Thanks USA" would be nice once in a while. I think an American flag should be on every single package of food that we send over there. It would change world opinion almost overnight. "You mean the Americans are the ones who are sending us the food all these years?" People would feel like assholes for having such a hate filled view of us from propagandists.
It's the same thing with us helping the Afghani's during their war with Russia. It was all covert, but had they known that we saved them from total annihilation, they might not have allowed the Taliban to take over and allowed Al-Qaeda to flourish and use their country as a base for attacks against the people who helped them in their darkest hour.
What I'd like to see is a public commercial showing the vast Saudi Arabian monuments, mosques, palaces, and Dubai's bustling skyscrapers, and then cut to the world's poor, and show the numbers that are contributed by each of these countries, including the United States. Sometimes public shame is the best way to kick someone in the ass.
Travis
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