More than a billion people were hungry in 2009

"Twenty-nine countries show alarming levels of hunger and more than a billion people were hungry in 2009, according to a new report on global hunger.

World leaders are far from a 1990 goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015, according to the annual Global Hunger Index published by the International Food Policy Research Institute and other aid groups.

"The index for hunger in the world remains at a level characterized as 'serious,'" the report states. "Most of the countries with 'alarming' GHI scores are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia."

The report identifies children as particularly vulnerable.

Countries with high hunger levels must address child nutrition during the first 1,000 days after conception, including prenatal nutrition and nutrition education programs for pregnant women, said Marie Ruel, head of the group's poverty, health and nutrition division.

"In order to improve child nutrition, programs and policies have to focus on the window of opportunity," Ruel said. "Early childhood undernutrition perpetuates poverty from one generation to another."

SOME IMPROVEMENT

The percentage of undernourished people fell from 20 percent in 1990-92 to 16 percent in 2004-06. The United Nations believes the number of hungry people may have fallen from 1 billion in 2009 to 925 million this year.

But the index shows some regions still struggling, and the causes of hunger differ worldwide, according to the report.

"Compared to the 1990 score, globally the global hunger index has improved by 24 percent," Ruel said. "Progress, however, varies greatly by region and by country."

The Global Hunger Index considers three indicators -- the proportion of undernourished people in a population, the proportion of children younger than five years considered underweight, and the mortality rate of children younger than five years -- to compare countries' hunger levels.

In South Asia, the low nutritional, educational and social status of women leads to a higher number of underweight children, the report states.

In sub-Saharan Africa, war and instability and high rates of HIV and AIDS are cited as leading to high child mortality.

The index was calculated for 122 countries this year using data from 2003 to 2008 and does not take into account the most recent information on global hunger, according to its authors. Data for some countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq, is insufficient and was not considered in the report.

The 10 countries with the worst levels of hunger -- all "extremely alarming" or "alarming" -- starting with the worst off, were Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Eritrea, Chad, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Comoros, Madagascar, and the Central African Republic."

(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Source: Reuters US Online Report World News and http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/29-countries-hunger-levels-alarming-report/



Glenn Beck and the Traveling God Show

Glenn Beck, news commentator and political activist, held a very successful rally in Washington D.C. this past weekend (Saturday, August 28, 2010) with attendance estimated between 30,000 to 500,000 people. The photos of that day are reminiscent of the Martin Luther King, Jr. civil rights rally held exactly 47 years before. While Beck said the day was dedicated to social action and to honor military veterans, the atmosphere was one of great political frustration with the United States government.

Beck very clearly said that our nation must return to God or else we are doomed to socialism or communism. But what does "returning to God" mean? Will it be based on the teachings of the Bible - especially the Ten Commandments and the New Testament?

If so, then how do we reconcile the outward behavior of right-wing Christians and the teachings of the Christ? "Love thy neighbors as thyself" seems fine until it comes to Arab, Muslim, Canntheists and/or Mexican neighbors. "Thou shalt not kill" is a lofty idea except when it entails protecting United States interests, waging (undeclared) wars and executing criminals under the death penalty.

"How you care for the least of me you care for me" is just one of the Christ's teachings that seems to be out of fashion. Do poor people deserve health care? According to right-wing Republican statements, only those capable of paying for private health insurance are deserving enough. Born in the United States? Although it clearly states in the United States Constitution that being born on US soil makes one an American citizen, it shouldn't apply if the parents are here illegally.

Torture, renditions to secret prisons, surveillance, spying, etc. have become accepted practices of the US government - condoned by American citizens - because they are necessary to "prevent" future terrorist attacks like 9/11. Apparently we have to give up our First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly to remain safe. When did the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" has morphed into "Do it to others before they do it to you".

Where are the leaders?

Since writing that post right after the Deepwater Horizon explosion we have all learned thet the spill is far larger than we thought. Certainly larger than we wre led to believe by BP and government. Mississippi governor said the media was causing more ruckus than the oil spill right up to the tiem oil balls, patties and slime showed up on his beaches.

Journalists are being kept away. Independent public observers and documenters are restricted access. I believe the BP oil spill disaster is more catastrophic than we understand.  It will take time to gather all the evidence - if that's even possible - but BP is not going to come out of this looking good. Criminal in my mind after hearing what some of the employees on the rig have to say.

This is as bad as Katrina. Maybe worse because no one knows how much more oil will be spilled and what the ultimate impact will be. Hurricane season. If a hurricane were to sweep through the coast the flooding would contain toxic oil, dispersants and dead sea creatures. Is any town, county or parish up to the task of cleaning up toxic waste in a worst-case scenario?

The oil is surrounding the Louisianna coast now. Hit Lake Pontchartrain yesterday. It will get worse and worse until that well is killed.

_________________________________________________________________________________

We be in trouble! If this is typical of our Democrat party candidate then well, ....

In an interview with The Guardian, South Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene (D) discussed his "big idea" to create jobs in his state.

Said Greene: "Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That's something that would create jobs. So you see I think out of the box like that. It's not something a typical person would bring up. That's something that could happen, that makes sense. It's not a joke."

   ******

"Does the candidate get paid?"

-- South Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene (D), when first asked if he would grant an interview with Time magazine.

Who are these people?

Disaster beyond imagination

On Earth Day, I vastly under estimated the proportion of disaster that the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf Coast poses. In that post I said it was spilling 35,000 gallons. Today it has reached the significant title of Worst Oil Spill Disaster in History.  Worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill which dumped 11 millions gallons. And, it keeps on spilling.  No way to turn the leak off. Every minute more oil is released and there's no end in immediate site.

The fisherman in Louisiana and all the Gulf Coast states are sick at heart. The carnage and destruction before their eyes must be unbearable. Their livelihood, their work place is doomed. First dead turtle floats ashore today.

This is unthinkable in Norway which also has deep water oil rigs offshore of their fjords. The government has issued and enforced strict safety laws would would have prevented the spill becoming so enormous.  They require that managers actually test their remote-controlled shut-off valves. To make sure they work.  BP said in their filing papers that an explosion and blow-out was nearly impossible therefore they didn't need a disaster plan. No worse-case scenario disaster plan. Completely and totally irresponsible.

Earth Day April 22, 2010

The 40th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day is marked with one of the worst environmental disasters in the Gulf of Mexico.  Two days after a state-of-the-art oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, it has sunk into the Gulf waters.  The impact to the environment cannot yet be assessed as some of the 35,000 gallons of oil leaking from the rig is being consumed by fire. Air pollution will also be a factor.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those families of injured survivors. 

"This is America not the damned Titanic" - Lee Iacocca

Lee Iacocca, who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's death throes, writes:

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder.
We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a
cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even
clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of
getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the
politicians say, "Stay the course"

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding.& nbsp; This is America , not the
damned "Titanic". I'll give you a sound bite: "Throw all the bums out!"

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this
country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in
handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and
nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms'
instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the " America
" my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough.
How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not
outraged. T his is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest "C"
is Crisis ! (Iacocca elaborates on nine Cs of leadership, crisis being the
first.)

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's
easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send
someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield
yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time
in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A
Hell of a Mess So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war
with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the
biggest deficit in the history of the c ountry . We're losing the
manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting
slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and
nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble.
Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every
which way These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask:"Where have all the leaders
gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the
people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I
may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making
us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent
billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how
to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in
the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen
again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan.
Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
; ; that there could ever be a time when "The Big Three" referred to Japanese
car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going
to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the
debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care
problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are
eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your
asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being
hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is
everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a
name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.
I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope I
believe in America In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living
through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of
our worst crises: the "Great Depression", "World War II", the "Korean
War", the "Kennedy Assassination", the "Vietnam War", the 1970s oil
crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've
learned one thing, it's this: "You don't get anywhere by standing on the
sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building
a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a
role to play. That's t he challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call
to "Action" for people who, like me, believe in America It's not too
late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go
to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had "enough."

Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care
about. It's our country, folks; and it's our future. Our future is at
stake!

Nexus - OIL and AL Qaeda, By Frank H. Denton, PhD

“The meteoric rise of oil revenues in the 20th century meant a new era for Islam; oil revenues were the catalyst that converted passive resentment into Islamic Terrorism.

“Oil provides the revenues for the Fundamentalists, but it as well represents their basic weakness. An examination of the economies of Middle Eastern nations shows that the removal of oil revenues will render these nations politically inert. Recognizing this economic weakness, a global embargo of oil imports from the Middle East is shown to be an attractive means for defeating Al Qaeda. Severely curtailing then eliminating the reliance on Middle East oil will decimate the Islamic terrorists by cutting off both emotional and financial support.”

Frank Denton has a PhD in foreign affairs and is the author of Knowing the Roots of War and several other books. He spent a decade with the RAND Corp. before joining the U.S. Foreign Service. He served in Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt and the Philippines as well as in Washington. He is now retired.

The American Energy Independence website is hosting a discussion paper, titled:

Nexus—OIL and AL Qaeda, By Frank H. Denton, PhD

www.AmericanEnergyIndependence.com/nexus.html

UNICEF rates US, Britain worst places for child to grow up

By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer
February 15, 2007

"UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Britain ranked as the worst places to be a child, according to a UNICEF study of more than 20 developed nations released Wednesday. The Netherlands was the best, it says, followed by Sweden and Denmark.

UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center in Italy ranked the countries in six categories: material well-being, health, education, relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's own sense of happiness.

The finding that children in the richest countries are not necessarily the best-off surprised many, said the director of the study, Marta Santos Pais. The Czech Republic, for example, ranked above countries with a higher per capita income, such as Austria, France, the United States and Britain, in part because of a more equitable distribution of wealth and higher relative investment in education and public health.

Some of the wealthier countries' lower rankings were a result of less spending on social programs and "dog-eat-dog" competition in jobs that led to adults spending less time with their children and heightened alienation among peers, one of the report's authors, Jonathan Bradshaw, said at a televised news conference in London.

"The findings that we got today are a consequence of long-term underinvestment in children," said Bradshaw, who is also professor of social policy at York University in England.

The highest ranking for the United States was in education, where it placed 12th among the 21 countries. But the U.S. and Britain landed in the lowest third in five of the six categories.

The U.S. was at the bottom of the list in health and safety, mostly because of high rates of child mortality and accidental deaths. It was next to last in family and peer relationships and risk-taking behavior. The U.S. has the highest proportion of children living in single-family homes, which the study defined as an indicator for increased risk of poverty and poor health, though it "may seem unfair and insensitive," it says. The U.S., which ranked 17th in the percentage of children who live in relative poverty, was also close to last when it comes to children eating and talking frequently with their families.

Britain had the highest rate of children involved in activities that endangered their welfare: 31% of those studied said they had been drunk at least twice by the age of 15 (compared with 11.6% for the United States), and 38% had had sexual intercourse by that age (statistics unavailable for the U.S.). Canada had the highest rate of children who had smoked marijuana by age 15 — 40.4% (compared with 31.4% in the U.S.). Japan ranked the worst on "subjective well-being," with 30% of children agreeing with the statement "I am lonely" — three times higher than the next-highest-scoring country.

Children in the Netherlands, Spain and Greece said they were the happiest, and those in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands spent the most time with their families and friends.

Because of a lack of comparable data, the study did not address children's exposure to domestic violence, both as victims and as witnesses, and children's mental and emotional health.

The report acknowledges that some of the assessment scales have "weak spots."

The study, for example, measured relative affluence by asking whether a family owned a vehicle, a computer, whether children had their own bedroom, and how often the family traveled on holidays. Some answers might depend on the quality of public transit and real estate prices, making the average child in New York's affluent areas seem equal to one in a less-developed country because of the constraints of city living.

The authors wrote that as the first attempt at a multidimensional overview of children's well-being in developed countries, the survey was "a work in progress in need of improved definitions and better data."

But they said it was nonetheless a first step in providing benchmarks for comparing countries and highlighting poor performance in otherwise rich nations."

"All countries have weaknesses to be addressed," said Santos Pais, the study's director.

"US, Britain fare poorly in children survey" By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer
February 15, 2007

(We claim to be the greatest nation on earth but we can't do any better for our children than this?  GC  02.15.07  13:28)