World Hunger

Hunger is an offence to human dignity.

Hunger in Africa

(MADRID) - An infant’s semblance is the image of an adult’s moral condition. Any civilization that fights against infancy is a world that has lost all sorts of hope. Infancy in poverty, sacrifice, and abuse is a crime against humanity that will sooner or later be judged by its own descendants.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 50 million children are not registered under any record. It is almost 100 million the abortions that are annually conducted throughout the world. It is more than 120 million children that lack basic nourishment. About 50,000 children die of Gasusa on a daily basis. Not to mention that 1 out of 4 children less than five years will live the effects of pauperism, anemia, paralysis, and physical and mental deficiencies. About 250,000 children are estimated to die from measles each year.

On the other hand, child mortality rate varies according to the world’s geographic regions. In rich countries, child mortality rate approximately 6 for every 1,000 successful child births. Moreover, in Latin America the rate is about 31 for every 1,000, in Southern Asia 89 for every 1,000, and in Sub-Saharan Africa 169 for every 1,000. It is approximately 25 million under aged children that live in refugee camps. They are picked up from war conflicts. About 16 million children are orphans, one of the reasons being AIDS. And, around 80% of them live in Africa.

It is also estimated that 400 million children are slaves, due to the tyranny of exploitation. Among them there are children in forced labor – due to the poverty their families merely survive within – in the fields of agriculture, mines, industries, and as landowners’ own slaves. Actually, there are about 500,000 child soldiers and approximately 2 million children are used for sexual ends; they are treated like crude sex objects.

Lastly, the Annual FAO Report, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” of 2009, promotes “the right to food” as a “basic human right enshrined in international law”. Furthermore, the right to food has the “overarching objective of promoting the well-being of humanity and the dignity of every human being”. Hunger is an offence to human dignity. (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez-Moretti)

He has been Associate Professor of Business Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra and a contributor to the Madrid daily ABC. He also spent several years teaching, both in the Official School of Advertising as the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1985 he was awarded the Gold Master, granted by the Senior Management Forum and AMPE Prize 1996 to the "long and brilliant career advertising."

You can write to Clemente at this address: clementeferrer3@gmail.com