Wednesday 11 August 1999

People, today I have a very serious topic. It is the ultimate ethical challenge, and I give it to you. If you do not want to be disturbed, turn back now. If your sanity is in doubt, by yourself or by someone close to you, turn back now. If possible, I will be back tomorrow with some more light-hearted entertainment for you. You know me, I can do it. But today I want a word with the rest of you. About saving the world.

There is more than enough food in the world for everyone to eat their fill. This has not always been so, and we do not know if it will last. But today food is cheap. Even so, some people starve and finally die. Their own crops have failed or were destroyed in the war. They do not have the money to buy even cheap food. Transport problems and bribery makes food scarce where these people live, even though there are heaps of it elsewhere.

There is enough food, and there is enough money. All we need is to motivate some of those who have money to share with those who do not, and the balance is restored. It makes sense that those who do so, want to be seen and known and acknowledged. By just looking, you can move them to feed the starving. It is that easy. (Though you can only do it once a day.)

Or is it that easy?
A famine is rarely total. Usually there is some harvest, though not enough for all. Usually food can be bought from outside, though not all can afford it. The weak, the poor, and the just plain unlucky fall by the wayside. The strong survive, and rebuild their future.

Food aid changes all this. When the food trucks arrive, the local harvest loses all value. Those who work are no better off than those who don't. The local economy is disrupted. And usually aid agencies set up their camps in reasonably central places, in or near cities. People leave their farms and trek to the city to get free food. By the time they return, if ever, it may be too late to plant for the next season. And why should they rely on the fickleness of nature, when there is a stable supply of food in the city?

Furthermore, most famines appear in countries undergoing a population boom. The children whose lives you save today, will have their own children in 15 years. Yet they will no more be able to feed their kids than their parents were. There will just be so many more starving children than it is today.

If we really want to stop starvatin, we must cure poverty itself. Trade with developing countries, transfer technology that lets them exploit their natural resources in a clean, efficient way. When people reach a higher standard of living, they will no longer feel the need to have lots of babies. This has been proven again and again. Giving people just enough food to breed will only make things worse.

Then there is the corruption of aid agencies. Doubtless you have heard about money collected for the starving, but still sitting in bank accounts months later. Or worse, spent on "administrative overhead", meaning that the helpers have helped themselves to some of the money. In some documented cases, more than half the money has disappeared this way, all legally of course.

Yet, some say, this does not matter. It is only excuses. There are people dying. We can save their lives now. That is what matters. If you were the one starving, what would all this reasoning mean to you? Would it make you feel better to know that your death preserves the local economy and frees resources for the next generation? Hardly. And the most basic law of ethics is this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

This is where I tell you a parable. You are given the power to summon the incarnation of Death itself. Death appears before you, asking: "Mortal, why have you summoned me? Your time is not yet." "I will ask you for a favor: That you spare the life of a child, any child, who was fated to die today." "I am not in the business of giving, but of taking. If I shall do this, I demand a high interest rate. Within twenty years, I shall take two lives for the one I spare today. Take it or leave it."

Will you take Death's wager? In the course of these years, perhaps you and the child you saved may be able to save more than the two lives lost. Or perhaps not. What do you believe? More important, what do you do?

The site in question is Hunger site. Go there, read, make up your mind. It costs you nothing either way, except your conscience. I am not going to tell you what I did choose.

Just after high noon, I studiously ignored the solar eclipse.