TWELVE MYTHS "ABOUT WORLD HUNGER Only one definition of freedom centering on the right of unlimited private accumulation conflicts with the goal of ending hunger. World Hunger: Twelve Myths, by Francis Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins, begins by putting the myriad of statistics about hunger into perspective by describing in great detail the angish and grief of hunger. The book grew out of the earlier Food First, also by Lappe and Collins, first published in 1977. Food First helped open many people's eyes to the misery we inflict upon ourselves globally as a result of our political and economic activities. It pulled together enormous amounts of information on the causes of hunger in the world, exposing food aid programs, development projects, and corporate practices as cogs in the wheel that perpetuates hunger. Lappe and Collins wrote World Hunger to fill an important niche. They felt that the information overload in today's society places many demands on our reading time. As a result, the text of World Hunger is one-third of the length of Food First . It presents similar information, but is simpler, tighter, clearer, and more current. The myths World Hunger reveal are: (1) there's simply not enough food, (2) nature's to blame, (3) there are too many mouths to feed, (4) there is a trade-off between protecting the environment and producing needed food, (5) the Green Revolution is the answer, (6) there is a trade-off between a more just food system and greater production, (7) the free market can end hunger, (8) free trade is the answer, (9) the people are too hungry to revolt, (10) more U.S. aid will help the hungry, (11) we in the U.S. benefit from global hunger, (12) there is a trade-off between political freedom and everyone getting enough to eat. Page 22 RAIN Fall/Winter 1986 World Hunger, even more than Food First, highlights the political nature of hunger. It treats hunger as an indicator of the powerlessness that lies at its foundation. /1 Put most simply, the root cause of hunger isn't scarcity of food or land; it's a scarcity of democracy." What we need are /1 established universal economic rights, such as the right to life-sustaining resources or the right to participate in economic decision making....Only one definition of freedom centering on the right of unlimited private accumulation conflicts with the goal of ending hunger." - Jeff Strang For More Information: World Hunger: Twelve Myths, by Francis Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins, 1986, 208pp., $7.95, from: Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1885 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103 WORLD INFORMATION ECONOMY English language, films and Rock and Roll as commodities in the Information ~ge Recently, in the Whole Earth Review, Steward Brand interviewed Peter Schwartze, formerly part of the Strategic Planning Department of Royal Dutch Shell Group in London, and Jay Ogilby, director of research at SRI International. The underlying theme of the interview is the world information economy. Several comments are worth repeating. The value added in transforming material is related to our capacity to understand and use information in various ways. The principal technologies involved are telecommunications and computing. And the two great systems that will use them predominatly are finance and recorded entertainment. The linking infrastructure is going to be a function of what the financial world wants on the one hand, and what the electronic entertainment media want on the other. Everything else will be piggybacked on that. English is the language of science and now it is increasingly becoming the language of entertainment. /1 Go hear rock bands in Eastern Europe and they sing in English. They may not understand a word, but they sing perfect English. The biggest rock band in Hungary is called Locomotive GT. And they are flawless English speakers because if they want to get any kind of
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