Are "Third World" Regions Actually Starving?

To be honest I was more outraged at this than I've been in a while. And when I saw a flag I was thinking that someone needed to check their soul.


Then I realized some people have never left the area they were born in and while that's cool and I'm jealous those people cannot have the same perspective as us that have lived and visited over forty or so countries. Ignorance needs stamped out. Hungry people need fed.


So flag from me. That Is how you stamp out ignorance.

Is this thread real or satire?

I ask because I've seen some pretty ignorant things on ATS in the past few days and I'm wondering if people have gone stark raving mad.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
It's great to "teach a man to fish" instead of giving them a fish, assuming there are any fish to catch.

It's also hypocritical to illegally steal their fish like this, illegally pollute their waters and lands; and then claim the moral high ground by pretending to help give them a fish or teach them to fish because they can't find any more fish on their own.

So much for denying ignorance. There is poverty, even in the so called developed world. Just look around. Even in the UK. I've seen it with my own eyes.

a reply to: cooperton

What do you think?

originally posted by: neformore
Is this thread real or satire?

I ask because I've seen some pretty ignorant things on ATS in the past few days and I'm wondering if people have gone stark raving mad.

It's real. "Third World" doesn't mean "poverty stricken" as it's portrayed in the West. It simply means the countries that weren't aligned with the major capitalist powerhouses ("1st World") or communist powerhouses ("2nd World").

Yes, many of those countries are technically poor. But their costs of living are also ridiculously small compared to ours. And as many of my friends from different African countries like South Sudan can testify, there conditions are much better than we're led to believe. They may not have access to certain technologies we have, but their communities generally own their own land, are homeowners, have no utility bills except fuel for generators, no property taxes, no income taxes, etc. They grow their own food, make their own clothing, & have their own livestock too.

However, prices are incredibly low because everyone has access to those same things (why buy your peach when I can pick my own?). So it's really hard to make enough profit to purchase goods & services they literally can't make on their own. So when they go to larger cities/economic hubs or try to purchase foreign goods, they don't have the money to do so. What they're missing are the economic opportunities and newer technologies which could make their daily lives much easier (and help them accumulate sufficient profits). That's one of the biggest reasons they travel to wealthier countries, so they can send back money as remittances while getting the skills to compete in the global economy.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 805 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one in nine, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2012-2014. Almost all the hungry people, 791 million, live in developing countries, representing 13.5 percent, or one in eight, of the population of developing counties. There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries (FAO 2014; for individual country estimates, see Annex 1. For other valuable sources, especially if interested in particular countries or regions, see IFPRI 2014 and Rosen 2014, ).

www.worldhunger.org...

originally posted by: neformore
a reply to: enlightenedservant

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 805 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one in nine, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2012-2014. Almost all the hungry people, 791 million, live in developing countries, representing 13.5 percent, or one in eight, of the population of developing counties. There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries (FAO 2014; for individual country estimates, see Annex 1. For other valuable sources, especially if interested in particular countries or regions, see IFPRI 2014 and Rosen 2014, ).

www.worldhunger.org...

I'm not saying that's wrong. I even said many of those nations are technically poor.

But even the part you quoted says only 13.5% of their populations suffer from "chronic undernourishment". To put that in perspective, more than 16% of Americans are on food stamps. www.washingtonpost.com...

This also goes into what I talked about in my first post in this thread. It's easy to say that people are starving, but they never mention which people or why they're in those conditions. Many of these are war refugees and socially undesirable classes. It's no different than the Roma/Romani in Europe, who suffer higher poverty rates because most of Europe simply doesn't want them. It's the same for India, which is one of the major countries in your link. Remember, they have an entire class of citizens ("dalits") who are oppressed as "untouchables". Even though things are getting better for them, they're still a socially undesirable class of citizens who just so happen to also be severely impoverished.

And your stats also include developing nations like Mali, Libya, Afghanistan, which have recently been ravaged by Western backed wars. So of course they're going to have high rates of malnourishment too. It's all linked.

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

But even the part you quoted says only 13.5% of their populations suffer from "chronic undernourishment". To put that in perspective, more than 16% of Americans are on food stamps. www.washingtonpost.com...

You do understand the difference between being given food stamps to go to a convinience store and pick up a variety of items that can provide a balanced diet, and access to a clean water system in the USA and living off a single bowl of rice/grains of some kind per day and untreated water sources in third world countries....don't you?

originally posted by: neformore

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

But even the part you quoted says only 13.5% of their populations suffer from "chronic undernourishment". To put that in perspective, more than 16% of Americans are on food stamps. www.washingtonpost.com...

You do understand the difference between being given food stamps to go to a convinience store and pick up a variety of items that can provide a balanced diet, and access to a clean water system in the USA and living off a single bowl of rice/grains of some kind per day and untreated water sources in third world countries....don't you?

Obviously I understand that the infrastructure conditions can be vastly different. The point is that even in a rich "first world country", there are still 16% of the people who face food insecurity. The question in the OP is "are 'third world' regions actually starving?". We're just pointing out that "third world" countries aren't the hellholes of famine that people are led to believe they are.

Also, your link was focusing on "malnourishment". It even goes into vitamin deficiencies and some of the points I mentioned like the hunger caused by war/conflicts and poverty. So the question is, do you know the difference between being malnourished & needing food stamps? Is there even a difference? And can you honestly say the Americans in trailer parks, ghettos, projects, and reservations don't face tainted water supplies, untreated sewage, and other horrible environmental conditions also? Kind of like this:

Filthy water and shoddy sewers plague poor Black Belt counties
Sewage problems in Alabama's Black Belt spawn parasites and serious illness, Al Jazeera reports

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

originally posted by: neformore

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

But even the part you quoted says only 13.5% of their populations suffer from "chronic undernourishment". To put that in perspective, more than 16% of Americans are on food stamps. www.washingtonpost.com...

You do understand the difference between being given food stamps to go to a convinience store and pick up a variety of items that can provide a balanced diet, and access to a clean water system in the USA and living off a single bowl of rice/grains of some kind per day and untreated water sources in third world countries....don't you?

We're just pointing out that "third world" countries aren't the hellholes of famine that people are led to believe they are.



Filthy water and shoddy sewers plague poor Black Belt counties
Sewage problems in Alabama's Black Belt spawn parasites and serious illness, Al Jazeera reports

Is that what the op was pointing out? Because I read...

"The reason it does not make sense to me, is because if I were "starving" I could literally go and eat weeds on the margins of highways and survive. Anyone with basic foraging knowledge knows that most plants are, at the very least, edible. Africa MUST have a great abundance of food in its various geographic areas. Sure, maybe not the desert, but don't live there, it's the desert (but, even the desert has food).



1) cultural chauvinism; we think because they don't have bacon cheeseburgers that they're starving "


That is the most ignorant statement I've ever read in my life.


Good point "Enlightened"one''..... nice wagon to hitch your horse to.

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
So the question is, do you know the difference between being malnourished & needing food stamps? Is there even a difference? And can you honestly say the Americans in trailer parks, ghettos, projects, and reservations don't face tainted water supplies, untreated sewage, and other horrible environmental conditions also?

You really are trying to compare conditions in the USA to places like Ethiopia, Chad and Sudan aren't you?

You have access to the internet, that much is obvious. You are - it appears fairly intelligent

You are capable of researching those places, and yet you have not.

Try typing in "Chad Famine", "Ethiopia Famine" and "Sudan Famine" into Google images.

And then stop asking such ridiculous questions.

originally posted by: Legman

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

originally posted by: neformore

originally posted by: enlightenedservant

But even the part you quoted says only 13.5% of their populations suffer from "chronic undernourishment". To put that in perspective, more than 16% of Americans are on food stamps. www.washingtonpost.com...

You do understand the difference between being given food stamps to go to a convinience store and pick up a variety of items that can provide a balanced diet, and access to a clean water system in the USA and living off a single bowl of rice/grains of some kind per day and untreated water sources in third world countries....don't you?

We're just pointing out that "third world" countries aren't the hellholes of famine that people are led to believe they are.



Filthy water and shoddy sewers plague poor Black Belt counties
Sewage problems in Alabama's Black Belt spawn parasites and serious illness, Al Jazeera reports

Is that what the op was pointing out? Because I read...

"The reason it does not make sense to me, is because if I were "starving" I could literally go and eat weeds on the margins of highways and survive. Anyone with basic foraging knowledge knows that most plants are, at the very least, edible. Africa MUST have a great abundance of food in its various geographic areas. Sure, maybe not the desert, but don't live there, it's the desert (but, even the desert has food).



1) cultural chauvinism; we think because they don't have bacon cheeseburgers that they're starving "


That is the most ignorant statement I've ever read in my life.


Good point "Enlightened"one''..... nice wagon to hitch your horse to.

The single biggest cause I work on is ending world hunger. It means more to me than almost any worldly thing, even more than proselytizing (and my hobby music career ). I'm even finished with the initial studies on on how to end world hunger & feed up to 100 billion people. There's obviously a lot more work to go on that part, especially since it would require entire regions to change their cultural food norms. But it's a goal I think I can reach some time in the next 50 years. lol

With that being said, eating "weeds" and other socially undesirable things is technically a great idea. Dandelions are not only edible, but their greens are one of the most nutritious leaves humans can eat. They're just bitter as crap & absolutely must be cooked (otherwise it's as potent as eating a banana peel). The flowers are already used in salads though. Plantains (not the ones related to bananas but these) are also very nutritious. And they were used for medicinal purposes by the European colonists too. And "civilized" people eat grass all the time. What do you think grains are? Even sugar cane is technically a grass.

Then there are other edible things like onion grass, wild carrots, cattails, wild corns, etc. Eating insects may sound nasty, but countries all over the world already do it. And if you eat most foods in the US, you eat them too. It's mostly a stigma against eating them, but a single earthworm has the same amount of protein as a medium chicken egg. In other words, there are literally foods all around us that people simply don't recognize as edible. I don't know the OP & I can't vouch for their intentions on making this threads. But the points they made are actually feasible.

[And hey, I didn't choose "enlightened", "enlightened" chose me.]

originally posted by: neformore

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
So the question is, do you know the difference between being malnourished & needing food stamps? Is there even a difference? And can you honestly say the Americans in trailer parks, ghettos, projects, and reservations don't face tainted water supplies, untreated sewage, and other horrible environmental conditions also?

You really are trying to compare conditions in the USA to places like Ethiopia, Chad and Sudan aren't you?

You have access to the internet, that much is obvious. You are - it appears fairly intelligent

You are capable of researching those places, and yet you have not.

Try typing in "Chad Famine", "Ethiopia Famine" and "Sudan Famine" into Google images.

And then stop asking such ridiculous questions.

Holy crap! Maybe you should read what I posted earlier before making your condescending remarks. I've already explained the Ethiopian famine in this very thread! I explained the political reasons for it. And I specifically mentioned friends from South Sudan explaining their situation. You're the one asking ridiculous questions because you don't even take the time out to read before posting.

Also, maybe you should look into some of the places you're talking about. This is what the capital of Ethiopia looks like.
And this goes into Ethiopia's construction boom that I referred to in a previous post in this very thread.

And you can look up Khartoum, Sudan as well. Of course, Sudan just ended a several decades long civil war, so they're in the process of rebuilding. Kind of like the situation I mentioned in earlier posts. Then again, I've already mentioned how war can cause famine & you've shown that you don't actually care enough about this subject to read what's been written about it.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: DrumsRfun

Also water so many kids dies from drinking dirty water because it is all they have

.
Oh and OP go and see the world and you will see starvation and poverty. We are so so lucky man.

Not to mention river blindness, a tropical disease which infects an estimated 17 to 25 million people. there is no vaccine, but there is a twice annual treatment that dramatically reduces the amount of total blindness down to to less than a million. Most of the monies for that treatment are fund raised, and I can tell you for the organisation I work with, the money raised is 100% directed toward the treatment, and has been for a very long time.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Wow... so you recommend eating weeds to the starving... nice.

There are no dandelions in the desert btw.


I recommend you go in vacation to third world nations and quit posting before you embarrass yourself further.


Cheers

originally posted by: Legman
a reply to: enlightenedservant

Wow... so you recommend eating weeds to the starving... nice.

There are no dandelions in the desert btw.


I recommend you go in vacation to third world nations and quit posting before you embarrass yourself further.


Cheers

Nice selective reading. Maybe if you read the entire post you'd see what I was talking about. People already eat these things. And grasses are literally a staple food for most of the "First World Countries". Wheat, barley, oats, rice, rye, and sugarcane are all grasses. But I guess eating those grasses and foods made from them isn't good enough for "Third World Countries"?

Why even bother posting if you're not going to read what you're responding to?

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I actually read all of your post...


but the eat weeds and dandelions killed me.

That was the show stopper dude.

a reply to: Legman

Most plants that are considered "weeds" in one country are considered delicacies in another.

And why are dandelions weird? You realize they sell dandelion greens in America right? The only weird thing about them is that people actually buy them when they can just pluck them from their yard.

You can buy them at many places, like this.

And there are many recipes that use them like this.

Here's a recipe from Martha Stewart too.www.marthastewart.com...

Even some prepackaged salads have them, though they usually call them something generic like "baby greens". But the design for their leaves is unique so they're easy to notice... plus they're really bitter. The young ones aren't that bad but the larger, older leaves should only be cooked.