Delaware Top Blogs

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

How exactly did we become responsible for other people's hunger?

When and by what mechanism did we adopt a whole nation, so that if they are hungry it is our fault?

It seems, then, that those principally responsible for the situation in which 45 per cent of children are stunted because of malnutrition and 9 million people lack enough food are foreigners. 

It is the same mechanism that makes the Israelis responsible for providing electricity to the Gaza strip.  Funny how that works.

There is some good news, however.  Let's look at the bright side:

The Lancet quotes the head of World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, as saying that the health services of North Korea would be the envy of the developing world. According to the WHO, North Korea has made progress not only in the field of infant and maternal mortality, but in the reduction of deaths during surgery. Since The Lancet goes on to quote, by contrast, the testimony of a man who had his leg amputated without anesthetic for a broken ankle, while being held down by five medical assistants, it is rather alarming to think of what North Korean surgery must have been like before the improvement took place. Only four medical assistants to hold patients down, perhaps?

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