[Col. Writ. 8/3/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The images of voracious famine leaking out of the steamy deserts of
the Northwest African nation of Niger, cuts to the soul's quick.
Babies barely able to grasp a breath.
Mothers with breasts as flat, and milkless as boys.
Men and women, dizzy with hunger, laid low in the barren dust,
awaiting whatever release that either death or food may bring.
Fathers weeping because there is a relentless drought, and there is
nothing -- nothing -- to feed one's wife, one's children, one's aged mother.
This is Niger, 2005, and according to broadcast reports, it will
take about 4 weeks, or perhaps more, for any food relief to reach the
nation.
It is a telling reflection of the lives we live that here, in the
heart of the Empire, there are millions of people who have so much to
eat, that the fastest growing health threat is morbid obesity, and it's
equally serious cousin, diabetes. Billions of dollars are spent
annually on the latest fad diet, carbo diets, Atkins diets, grapefruit
diets, and, if I'm not mistaken, a donut diet (OK -- I'm joking about
the last one).
But just barely.
What's wrong with this picture? How the world is organized, and how
the world's economic business is done, is what's wrong.
Clearly, some people have too much; others have nothing.
One also couldn't look face-on at these pictures, without thinking,
almost immediately, of the recent worldwide music concerts which were
designed to raise consciousness -- not money! -- about the starving
millions in Africa.
As I looked at these famished people, babies so weak and drawn by
hunger that they could no longer eat, as one girl's tender mouth was a
nest of parasites eating her tiny body alive, and wondered about the
concerts that were designed to raise consciousness about the plight of
the starving.
It reminded me that we live in an age when TV becomes, not merely an
image, but a fact.
Millionaire musicians stage concerts around the globe, pulling in
billions to the international media conglomerates, showing how nice and
progressive and caring these stations are, while perhaps 600,000 people,
in one country, will starve to death by week's end.
Madness. Media madness. Corporate madness. Capitalist madness.
With perhaps one-hundredth of one percent of the monies used to
stage the broadcast blockbuster event, virtually all of these people
could've been fed, and saved, to live, at least through the rainy
season. No doubt, those heart-rending pictures of human suffering will
yet raise billions for organizations, NGOs, and charity agencies, and
will continue to do so, long after these specific men, women and
children, will have ceased living on this earth.
Briefly consider the state of the world's wealth and poverty:
* 1.3 billion people lack access to clean water; 1.2 billion live on
less than a dollar a day; 840 million are malnourished.
* More than 20,000 people die each day from hunger-related diseases.
* The richest *three people in the world* have assets greater than the
*combined* output of the *48 poorest countries*.
[Excerpts from: Seabrook, Jeremy, *The No-Nonsense Guide to Class,
Caste, & Hierarchies* (Oxford/London: New Internationalist/Verso, 2002),
p. 11.]
We live in a world where madness passes for normalcy, where the
raging logic of the marketplace leaves tens, and hundreds of millions of
people, in dire peril.
And the gap between the rich and poor grows exponentially, daily.
Yet, like little Neros, we play musical accompaniments to massacres
of hunger, which can be prevented with virtual ease.
But, this is Africa; Niger, poor people, agricultural people. These
are expendable people. These are but flickering images on a screen.
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Technorati Tags: Politics Death Penalty
The images of voracious famine leaking out of the steamy deserts of
the Northwest African nation of Niger, cuts to the soul's quick.
Babies barely able to grasp a breath.
Mothers with breasts as flat, and milkless as boys.
Men and women, dizzy with hunger, laid low in the barren dust,
awaiting whatever release that either death or food may bring.
Fathers weeping because there is a relentless drought, and there is
nothing -- nothing -- to feed one's wife, one's children, one's aged mother.
This is Niger, 2005, and according to broadcast reports, it will
take about 4 weeks, or perhaps more, for any food relief to reach the
nation.
It is a telling reflection of the lives we live that here, in the
heart of the Empire, there are millions of people who have so much to
eat, that the fastest growing health threat is morbid obesity, and it's
equally serious cousin, diabetes. Billions of dollars are spent
annually on the latest fad diet, carbo diets, Atkins diets, grapefruit
diets, and, if I'm not mistaken, a donut diet (OK -- I'm joking about
the last one).
But just barely.
What's wrong with this picture? How the world is organized, and how
the world's economic business is done, is what's wrong.
Clearly, some people have too much; others have nothing.
One also couldn't look face-on at these pictures, without thinking,
almost immediately, of the recent worldwide music concerts which were
designed to raise consciousness -- not money! -- about the starving
millions in Africa.
As I looked at these famished people, babies so weak and drawn by
hunger that they could no longer eat, as one girl's tender mouth was a
nest of parasites eating her tiny body alive, and wondered about the
concerts that were designed to raise consciousness about the plight of
the starving.
It reminded me that we live in an age when TV becomes, not merely an
image, but a fact.
Millionaire musicians stage concerts around the globe, pulling in
billions to the international media conglomerates, showing how nice and
progressive and caring these stations are, while perhaps 600,000 people,
in one country, will starve to death by week's end.
Madness. Media madness. Corporate madness. Capitalist madness.
With perhaps one-hundredth of one percent of the monies used to
stage the broadcast blockbuster event, virtually all of these people
could've been fed, and saved, to live, at least through the rainy
season. No doubt, those heart-rending pictures of human suffering will
yet raise billions for organizations, NGOs, and charity agencies, and
will continue to do so, long after these specific men, women and
children, will have ceased living on this earth.
Briefly consider the state of the world's wealth and poverty:
* 1.3 billion people lack access to clean water; 1.2 billion live on
less than a dollar a day; 840 million are malnourished.
* More than 20,000 people die each day from hunger-related diseases.
* The richest *three people in the world* have assets greater than the
*combined* output of the *48 poorest countries*.
[Excerpts from: Seabrook, Jeremy, *The No-Nonsense Guide to Class,
Caste, & Hierarchies* (Oxford/London: New Internationalist/Verso, 2002),
p. 11.]
We live in a world where madness passes for normalcy, where the
raging logic of the marketplace leaves tens, and hundreds of millions of
people, in dire peril.
And the gap between the rich and poor grows exponentially, daily.
Yet, like little Neros, we play musical accompaniments to massacres
of hunger, which can be prevented with virtual ease.
But, this is Africa; Niger, poor people, agricultural people. These
are expendable people. These are but flickering images on a screen.
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Technorati Tags: Politics Death Penalty
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