34014 Most readers probably know how it feels when

YOU MISS LUNCH, WHEN YOU FAST ON SOME RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY, OR WHEN YOU LIVE FOR A FEW DAYS ON VEGETABLE SHAKES AS PART OF JUST ANOTHER NEW WONDER DIET. But how does it feel when you haven't eaten for days on end and you have no clue where to get the next morsel of food? Most people today have never experienced this excruciating torment! Our ancestors, alas, knew it only too well? When they cried to G d, 'DELIVER US FROM FAMINE!', this is what THEY had in mind?!! During the last 100 years, economic, technological & political developments have created an increasingly robust safety net separating humankind from the biological poverty line. Mass famines still do strike some areas from time to time, but they are exceptional, and they are almost always caused by human politics rather than by natural catastrophes. There are no longer natural famines in the world; there are only political famines. If people in Syria, Sudan or Somalia starve to death, it is because some politician wants them to. In most parts of this planet, even if a person has lost her job and all of their possessions, he is unlikely to die from hunger. Private insurance schemes, government agencies and all kinds of international NGOs may not rescue them from poverty, but they will provide them with enough daily calories to survive. On the collective level, the global trade network turns droughts and floods into business opportunities, and makes it possible to overcome food shortages quickly and cheaply. Even when wars, earthquakes or tsunamis devastate entire countries, international efforts usually now do succeed in preventing famine. Though hundreds of millions still go hungry almost every day, in most countries very few people starve to death. Poverty certainly causes many other health problems, and malnutrition shortens life expectancy even in the richest countries on earth. In France, for example, 6 million people (about 10% of the population) do suffer from nutritional insecurity. They wake up in the morning not knowing whether they will have anything to eat for lunch; they often go to sleep hungry; & the nutrition they do obtain is ùnbalanced & ùnhealthy - lots of starch, sugar & sàlt, and nòt enough protein & vitamins! Yet nutritional insecurity isn't famine, and France of the early 21st century isn't France of 1694. Even in the worst slums around BEAUVAIS or Paris, people don't die because they have not eaten for weeks on end. Alleen al het feit dat we bijna overal kunnen communiceren met iedereen over wat dan ook geeft aan dat we dan ook eten, drinken & kleding, onderdak & medicijnen kunnen delen met wie dan ook daar behoefte aan heeft? Afgezien dan van die landen en streken die nog zwaar bewaakt en omringd worden door mijnenvelden, prikkeldraad & gehersenspoelde landgenoten!