Famine and Hunger

Famine and Hunger

Introduction

Norms of non interference in the internal affairs are changing and countries now look forward for help from external powers in times of famine and hunger. Today the world population is 6.7 billion people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2009). In 1900, there were “only” 1.65 billion people on earth, 2.5 billion by 1950, with a projected 9 billion by 2050. While a number of factors have affected this exponential increase, not the least of which is reallocation of resources and labor. The result is the food crisis emerging in this early part of the 21st century. Not all countries are self sufficient to overcome their internal issues. Counties, at the present age, themselves ask for external assistance to overcome their famine and hunger and do not consider this aid a question to their sovereignty.

This interference is considered humanitarian because that states which fail to guard citizens' rights forfeit their international rights. Moreover, some supporters of humanitarian interference argue that not only does the international community has a right to interfere, but a duty to do so. Humanitarian assistance provides reliefs to the suffering and prevents imminent loss of life that results from natural or human-made disasters. Despite growing dissatisfaction with the limited scope of humanitarian relief, its short-term duration, and its inability to promote fundamental structural changes in societies, relief efforts will continue so long as humans respond as humans. The American-led international relief network reflects historic continuities. Despite institutionalization and pressures toward self-preservation and bureaucratization, U.S. NGOs that are working for humanitarian relief reflect various segments of American society, experience wide success at raising funds, and offer compassionate service to ameliorate human distress in crisis situations.

Background

The popular image of famine portrayed by media and pushed by political elites and agribusiness is a person of color, wide-eyed, with a bloated belly, surrounded by swarming flies. This image implies the innocence of such victims, whose misfortune is being born in a continent—usually Africa, Asia, or South America—where people are not educated enough to produce food for themselves, where population growth surpasses ecological limits, and where political conflicts and/or environmental disasters tax the available food supply. The prevailing view depicts famine as a problem of agricultural production and overpopulation. This picture perpetuates the assumption that famine cannot be redressed and will only worsen with global population growth.

The famine is not a sole occurrence or event. On the contrary, it is a process that reaches the highest or most decisive point which results in substantial raise, in morbidness and death rate. It is a common belief that mostly the famine is caused by either the unavailability of food, or the lack of access of individuals or their decreasing ability to acquire the essential food items. In earliest times, people attributed only the unavailability of food to the famines which occurred because of the lack or dearth in production, due to various reasons climatic or natural reasons. However, in recent time the researchers have discovered that famine can ...