WORLD HUNGER CRISIS MAY WORSEN

WORLD FOOD DAY WAS CELEBRATED TO RAISE
PUBLIC AWARENESS TO FOOD GLOBAL CRISIS

AFP/ Xinhuanet - With nearly one billion people around the world still suffering from food shortages, World Food Day on Oct 16 offered little to rejoice about. Instead, it served as a stark reminder of the need for the international community to take a united and effective stand against hunger in the face of climate change and the worst global financial and economic crisis in more than half a century. Otherwise, hunger will remain one of the world's largest tragedies and scandals. A joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN World Food Program indicates that the number of chronically hungry people around the world may fall for the first time in 15 years, dropping from just over one billion last year to 925 million this year.The top UN official on the right to food has expressed dismay over the world hunger crisis, saying the situation may get worse if urgent action is not taken. In a statement issued on Saturday to mark World Food Day, Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said there is “little to rejoice about” the global food situation and warned that “worse may still be ahead.”

“As a result of climate change, the yields in certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to fall by 50 percent by 2020 in comparison to 2000 levels,” he said. “Current agricultural developments are… threatening the ability for our children's children to feed themselves,” Schutter said. “A fundamental shift is urgently required if we want to celebrate World Food Day next year,” he added. The 2010 Global Hunger Index showed there was alarming hunger in 25 out of the 122 countries surveyed. One of the only bright spots is the fact that the number of hungry people in the world has dipped slightly from its record high last year. Still, every six seconds a child dies of starvation.


The celebration of the World Food Day is aimed at raising awareness to mankind on the difficult situation faced by famine and malnutrition people and promoting the population’s participation in the fight against hunger worldwide. If the international community cannot promptly reform the global financial system to prevent this food crisis, the poorest in the developing world may be pushed into hunger again soon. There is enough food in the world, but they are poorly distributed because we have turned away from God and we do not see others as our brothers and sisters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Be attached to the Holy Name is very important. ... If this world can cause us great misery and suffering, it means that Krishna can cause us very great good fortune and happiness, because joy is greater than suffering and good fortune is more than misfortune. Good triumphs over evil, then we must have that kind of positive conviction because that is the reality. We see that there is hungry everywhere and some people have to make an abortion or kill others for this reason. If you do a scientific study will conclude that there is plenty of food, enough to feed at least three times the population of the earth. At least three times of the world’s population can be satisfied. There is no shortage of food, on the contrary, there is plenty. In reality, the good is there to conquer the evil or misfortune. We have to use the good, we must resort to the good. ... The mantra has tremendous power over evil, and in the same way that Christians represents the Archangel standing over the devil, similarly maya is trampled by the mantra. We should see the good; and the good thing we got is what we have received from Gurudeva, this is the good thing, everything else is bad.

Śrīla Atulananda Ācārya :
"How to Become Pure Devotees of the Lord"
http://www.atulanandadas.cl/
http://gurudevaatulananda.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html
http://gurudevaatulananda.blogspot.com/2010/02/como-volvernos-devotos-puros-del-senor.html
http://www.vaisnavi.net/nectar_gurudeva_atulananda/paradharma.htm