Hunger and Death essays

Hunger and Death essays Malnutrition, disease and starvation are stalking more than 16 million people in the 'breadbasket of Africa.' If the world doesn't respond, 300,000 people could die before March. Star-Telegram Nov 24th 2002. Malnutrition is a problem that southern Africa face for many year and they dont seem to find the solution. The causes of this Huge crises can be found in some of the social issues below. AIDS. This is the first food crisis in history in which AIDS is a major factor. The virus has decimated work forces, strained already overburdened health systems and left a new generation of orphans. Cuts in socialized health programs in the 1990s. The cuts were often made at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Global and regional economic volatility. Thousands of Swazi and Lesotho miners have stopped sending money home to their families because of huge layoffs in neighboring South Africa's gold and diamond mines. Debt. Large national debts eat up money needed to combat hunger. The spread of market capitalism. In the 1990s, market capitalism slashed or privatized southern Africa's socialized agricultural programs and left many poor farmers vulnerable to the vagaries of the free market. Land seizures. The government of Zimbabwe has seized hundreds of white-owned farms, the backbone of the economy. Food is being used as a political weapon, and price controls and foreign-exchange restrictions have worsened the crisis. Mistrust of the West. Doubts about the West's biotechnology have prompted Zambia to reject U.S. aid shipments of genetically modified corn. Civil wars. In Angola, a brutal, 27-year civil war that destroyed large areas of crops is sputtering to an end, spurring a mass return of refugees to their shattered homes and causing food shortages. The help is coming, but its too slow to combat the speed the hunger spread through out the nation. Corruption is a fa ...