"... there is no such thing as national security
as long as the basic
human needs of large portions if humanity are not met."
Approximately 6,000 people perished in the September 11th
attacks . . .
But those who died from the attacks on that tragic day
were not alone.
On September 11th, 35,000 children worldwide died of hunger.
A similar number of children died on September 12th,
and again on the 13th, and on every single day since
then.
Meanwhile, we in the U.S. feed 80% of our grain harvest
to livestock
so that a people whose cholesterol levels are too high
can have cheap meat.
To advance human security and control terrorism, we must
not only
find the brutality of the September 11th attacks to be
totally intolerable.
We must also find intolerable that one billion people
worldwide
struggle to survive on $1 a day, that more than one billion
people
lack access to safe drinking water, and that 3 billion
people
have inadequate access to sanitation.
If we are serious about stopping terrorism,
then our goal must be to reducethe level
of pollution, fear, and poverty in the world.
The cost of our initial military response will easily
top $100 billion
(on top of our already enormous annual defense budget
of $342 billion).
What could we accomplish if we spent even a small fraction
of that
much on programs to alleviate human suffering?
In 1998, the United Nations Development Program estimated
that it would
cost an additional $9 billion (above current expenditures)
to provide clean
water and sanitation for everyone on earth. It would
cost an additional $12
billion, they said, to cover reproductive health services
for all women
worldwide. Another $13 billion would be enough not only
to give every
person on Earth enough food to eat but also basic health
care. An
additional $6 billion could provide basic education for
all.
These are large numbers, but combined they add up to $40
billion -
- only one fifth as much as the $200 billion the U.S.
government agreed in
October 2001 to pay Lockheed to build new F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter (JSF) jets.
What if we were equally as dedicated to eradicate hunger,
to provide clean
water, to defeat infectious disease, to provide adequate
jobs,
to combat illiteracy, and to end homelessness?
What if we understood that, today, there is no such thing
as national security
as long as the basic human needs of large portions of
humanity are not met?"
John Robbins
founder of EarthSave International,
http://www.foodrevolution.org
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