You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. That is not the case. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child on earth. Hunger is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to education and resources. The results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or buy food. Today, you join Oxfam's fight against hunger and poverty.There are solutions. Altering the current system of trade so that it benefits all countries, rich and poor, will help reverse many inequalities that currently keep people poor. **For example, if the poorest regions of the world increased their share of world exports by just 1%, they could lift 128 million people out of poverty!
Instead, poor countries are forced to open up their markets to floods of cheap imports; if they don't, vital aid dollars will be cut off. Yet for every dollar given to poor countries in aid, $2 is lost because of unfair trade barriers against their exports. More than 40% of the world's population lives in low income countries—yet these countries account for only 3% of world trade. Today's rules of trade make so-called "free trade" very profitable for rich countries but hinder poor country's access to a better life for its citizens.
US and European countries also spend billions on agricultural subsides, mostly to large and wealthy agribusiness, putting farmers in poor countries AND in the US out of business, or driving down their incomes, and furthering the demise of small farmers globally. Oxfam believes that human rights are not contingent on our country of origin, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or the money we have or need. Rather, human rights are fundamental and nonnegotiable.
Here's a new version of an old story:-Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day
-Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a life time
-But, we must also ask ourselves, who controls the river?
Who controls the river is an important question because there may well be a company whose factory is polluting upstream. A government or international institution could be planning to build a dam, displacing thousands of villagers. One large fishing company may be over fishing, placing the entire livelihood of ordinary fishers at risk. Oxfam's mission is one that is quite ambitious: we want to end hunger, poverty and injustice. And Oxfam believes the question of injustice-- whether it be social, economic, or political injustice-- goes to the heart of the question, who controls the river?
Please join us at this unique, powerful and memerable event to learn more and experience firsthand how our decisions affect others in the world.
What: Oxfam Hunger BanquetWhen: Sunday, September 23, 2007; 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Haight Ashbury Food Program
Address: 1525 Waller Street at Belvedere
San Francisco, CA 94117
RSVP: Megimegs1@yahoo.com
