“Abolishing mass starvation is ultimately
an ethical project.
The core humanitarian norm that all people should be
protected from starvation is central to both the political
agenda of famine prevention and the ostensibly technical
one of saving lives.
Mass starvation could be ended for good
– if we decide that it is to be so.”
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“Two more cautionary notes are in order.
The first is that we must be alert to invisible hunger,
such as that caused by a chronic and burdensome disease
and its possible interaction with other sources of stress.
The second is a reminder that the biggest cause of the
reduction in famine deaths has been
public health improvements.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“The first agenda item for ending famines is
understanding them. The decline in famines is strongly
associated with the rise of democratic freedoms and a
beneficent multilateral world order. Sen’s thesis that the
growth of democratic freedoms has driven the reduction in
famines can work in reverse: in a world of resurgent authoritarianism,
exclusion and xenophobia, we need to be more worried about famine.
Criminal actions of various kinds are an integral part in the creation of
mass starvation.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“Population increase, natural disasters, climate change and shocks to the global food supply are all
problems. None of them, on their own, threaten famine.
It requires a combination of many factors, including
shocks, of which at least one must be a political decision,
to create famine. Among those who have studied the topic,
the concept of “famine” has gradually shed the misleading and dangerous
associations with “overpopulation” and food shortages per se, and instead
famines are now correctly seen as political decisions acting on or against
vulnerable populations.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“Will climate change cause famine?
What we have a reason to fear is that climate change
increases the risk of the conjuncture of exceptional events,
both climatic and political, that could lead to famine.
For the poorest, vulnerability to famine increases, and
global warming is an obstacle to reducing poverty. Climate change makes
some poor and vulnerable populations less food secure. But the risk of these
insecurities turning into famine will depend on a political decision.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“One of the features of famine is that the price of food rises. Ever since there have been food markets, high
food prices have caused protests, and they have been
implicated in numerous riots and upheavals. And, in so far
as political upheavals can in turn lead to conflict and repression,
they increase the risks of famine in a vicious feedback loop.
But the cause of famine is not a shortfall in global food production
with respect to the world’s human population. What this means is that
the food industry should not use fear of global food crisis or famine as a
justification for its production methods and its business models.
Further improvements in agricultural and food technologies are welcome and may
make a modest improvement to protection from famines in so far as they contribute
to lower poverty and better food systems.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“The global food crisis had numerous causes,
including the diversion of agricultural land to biofuels
production, rising prices of fertilizer and oil (energy prices
are a significant supply cost in mechanized cereal production
as well as transport), production falls in some countries,
low food stocks and speculation in the food market.
The volatility of global markets can, through a series of unfortunate
events, suddenly push scores of millions of people into poverty and
raise the risk of famine.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“The Geneva Convention in 1977 adopted two protocols for a specific prohibition on starvation.
The ban on starvation on the civilian population
contained in Article 54 of the First Additional Protocol
begins as follows:
1 Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.
2 It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render
useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population
such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops,
livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works,
for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population
or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians,
to cause them to move away or for any other motive.
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“Extreme hunger displaces all other emotion or thought.
Human beings become focused more and more exclusively
on food and on doing anything necessary to obtain food:
the reduction of human beings to simply biological beings.
Anything other than food, than translating resources into energy
to keep the body alive, is put aside.
Considerations of future are put aside.
The value of food is solely its energy content.”
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“It takes about two months for a healthy adult to die of outright or frank starvation.
Deaths from starvation typically have a complex etiology
with different causes, including malnutrition, infection and
exhaustion, combined to kill individuals. Starvation can be
the outcome of seeking to degrade or humiliate a person or persons
with the aim of demonstrating mastery or forcing them to do something
such as abandon their homes. Hunger can be inflicted on people as punishment
because of their identity or because they have refused to surrender.
What forced starvation and genocide have in common is that those in authority
just didn’t care whether those in their care lived or died. Both are primarily
political projects that consider (some) human lives expendable or worthless.“
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
“Famine is a crisis of mass hunger that causes
many people to die over a specific period of time.
Achieving a standard definition of famine, let alone
an operational categorization of different kinds and
severities of food crisis, is extraordinarily complicated.
The necessary elements of famine are hunger, crisis and increased mortality.
It involves hunger and starvation, disruption and disease, and social breakdown.
Famine is a social, economic and political phenomenon as well as a nutritional one.
Famines can occur without a food shortage or without mass outright starvation unto death.”
Alex de Waal – Mass starvation – The history and future of famine
Yoga teacher says: “Nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Nothing to think. Breathe. You are stronger than you think.”
Dear body,
I have been working you out all my life. As a child, we did ballet, rhythm gymnastics, volleyball, and all types of team sports. It was the core of our playground.
We got absolutely hypnotized by Michael Jordan during our teens, so we consecrated several years to basketball. Despite affecting scholarly marks, it also saved us from drugs. It cost a few wrist and ankle sprains too.
We used to bike until the day we fell and needed stitches. Then, more than a decade later, a special one brought the love of riding back again, and now it is our means of transport.
We continued roller skating until the day we went down a road, and our leg’s skin was so abrased that we couldn’t wear long pants for a couple of weeks.
We enjoyed playing Sunday’s softball matches for a couple of years, but a kick swept us, breaking several of our knee ligaments. Chi kung and swimming provided a miraculous recovery.
We discovered the ectasis of body and mind communion when practicing rock climbing, but it also brought a few sprained fingers. The death of a lovely friend in the rocks stopped us from trying again.
We continued running throughout our whole life, with more or less consistency.
Dear body, at some point in between, we started to do yoga—nothing serious and more like an excuse to spend quality time with friends. We tried different styles, teachers, and locations. But, somehow, yoga resonates inside. It keeps the boat afloat throughout the mental tsunamis and the soul’s darkest nights. Yoga brings no more traumatic injuries, no more competition, and no more expectations. Just thoughts blowing away when the ceiling fans turn on, and tears transmute into drops of sweat.
Is yoga the way?
I do not know. But for us, now, this is the way.
Dear body, I used to think you were a painful, fat, and weak musculoskeletal system. Please, accept my sincere apologies. Despite everything I put you through, you recover from every single lesion. You use the pain to get out those things the mind unconsciously puts in but cannot throw out. You remind me to eat well, rest and sleep.
There are always two sides to the story, and I did not listen to yours (although you speak clearly and loudly) until the New Human Touch flourished.
You are my teacher, my temple, my source of energy, and no machine could ever be as magical, mysterious, and complex as you: the human body.
Please accept my love, and thank you for this lifetime.
Always yours,
Bikram Yoga is similar but not the same as Hot Yoga
Three reasons for being vegan:
Animal Compassion
Health
Climate change
Swinburn, B. A., Kraak, V. I., Allender, S., Atkins, V. J., Baker, P. I., Bogard, J. R., Brinsden, H., Calvillo, A., De Schutter, O., Devarajan, R., Ezzati, M., Friel, S., Goenka, S., Hammond, R. A., Hastings, G., Hawkes, C., Herrero, M., Hovmand, P. S., Howden, M., … Dietz, W. H. (2019). The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report. The Lancet, 393(10173), 791–846.
Swinburn, B. A., Kraak, V. I., Allender, S., Atkins, V. J., Baker, P. I., Bogard, J. R., Brinsden, H., Calvillo, A., De Schutter, O., Devarajan, R., Ezzati, M., Friel, S., Goenka, S., Hammond, R. A., Hastings, G., Hawkes, C., Herrero, M., Hovmand, P. S., Howden, M., … Dietz, W. H. (2019). The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report. The Lancet, 393(10173), 791–846.
