Political Famine as a Devastating Phenomenon - Essay Example

? Politics of Famine The type of foods we eat and how we prepare, the ingredients that we use in making this foods, and ultimately how we consume and share this foods, tells the actual essence of who we are and even where we come from. Food is virtually associated with different aspects of culture such as religious celebrations, meetings, family gatherings, and everyday life all are sure to have food present. Because of this, anthropologist has dedicated most of their research into understanding the socio-cultural, behavioral and political-economic factors related to food and nutrition (Counihan Carole & Van Esterik 2007: 53). This research paper is dedicated towards elucidating the associations between politics and famine. Famine is a condition characterized by insufficient food. Although it is a product of a number of factors, this paper in inclined at describing how these two aspects relates. This paper will illuminate the causes of famine, the central government’s response to it, and the population reaction to the government’s inability to stem the steady collapse of the old system, as well as the convulsive effects of famine on society, political system, and military. The paper would present a number of countries that have once experience famine as evidence to justify the claims that would be discussed. The paper would be based on the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between the politics and famine. Introduction This is a research paper that aims at finding out the relationship between famine and politics. The paper shall be based on the secondary sources. Despite the fact that famine is because of drought, the paper shall perceive famine as a man made phenomenon rather than a product of drought. The paper shall describe various political factors such as political ideologies, political policies, and political instability as the main political factors responsible for famine. The paper shall base most of its claims in countries such as Somali, Ethiopia, North Korea, and Ukraine. The paper shall also give brief description of how the famine can be prevented. The objective of this research paper is to find out how the political factors relate to the famine in order to come up with tentative template of what should be taken to curb the scourge of famine. Literature review Famine Famine can be defined as the extreme lack of food. Although most people believes that the drought is the main cause of famine, it worth noting that famine is currently one of the man-made disasters. Famine results to effects such as starvation, malnutrition, and death. Political famine is extreme lack of food in an given country or state due to political aspects. These aspects include political conflicts or poor political policies. Famine has many other such as natural disaster (e.g. drought, earthquakes and floods), over population, lack of quality health facilities among others. However, this paper shall concentrate on the political causes of famine. Relationship between politics and famine Politics can be defined as the manner in which the national resources are allocated to the citizens. Efficient utilization and allocation of resources is an imperative obligation that every political party must adopt because through this, human-made issues such as famine can be controlled easily. To elucidate clearly the relationship between politics and famine, we shall compare and contrast a number of countries that have once experience famine with those which have never experienced the famine. Poor government management of resources It is very clear that the way the resources are managed has a lot of impact on the general state of any country. In other words, the presence or absence of famine, which is a man-made condition, has its roots in the way the resources are being managed. This argument is justifiable if we consider the case of southern Somali and southern U.S. it is clear that both countries share the same climatic factors. They receive insufficient rainfall throughout the year and hence are faced perpetual drought. However, southern U.S has never experienced an case of famine. This sharply contrasts the conditions prevailing in southern Somali. The southern U.S is in drought but there is no starvation because of good governance and wealth. Through good governance, the country would be in a position of preparing earlier prior to the onset of famine. However, in a nation with political instability, it becomes hard to make timely planning and preparation because the resources and energies that would have been used for planning and preparation are diverted for other functions that does not aid in reduction of famine. This is why we are not seeing a repeat of the 1984 Ethiopian famine. The famine cost the lives of million people. It is because the famine resulted into formation of better policies (Beriss &David 2007: 121). Precisely, the big difference between Somali and the rest of East Africa is war. It is beyond drought that Somalis have been fighting one another for a long time. They have never had a central government for more than 20 years. The issue of piracy is very common in Somali because there are no laws to guide the people on appropriate ways of living. This means that government, which is a product of politics, has a significant part to play as far as famine is concerned. It is responsible for management and distribution of resources. Just as the above scenario indicates, if these resources are not well managed, this could lead to famine. In cases where farmers don’t get farm input from the government, poor harvest is experienced. The government should provide seeds and fertilizers to the farmers as well as the machines that are used in planting. If government doesn’t manage this resources well this could lead to drought (International Commission on the Antrhopology of Food 2009: 75) Political wars and famine Political wars either local fighting or faction-fighting can as also caused famine in many countries. Political war displaces people especially farmers from their farming areas. This means that these farmers cannot do farming activities as they have been moved from their farms. Third, during these political wars food stuff are stolen when the owners run for their safety. When these families come back after the war calms down they are likely to face hunger and famine as they don’t have any food as a result of political conflict (Beriss &David 2007: 91). Famine as a political strategy There is voluminous literature that justifies the fact that some leaders induce famine as a tool for suppressing citizen so that they can yield to their wishes. A case justifying this claim can be deduced from reviewing the Ukrainian famine. One of the theories developed to explain the 1933 Ukrainian famine accuses Stalin, the political leader during that time for inducing famine in order to crush the Ukrainian people, suppress its culture, annihilate its independent-minded peasantry, and destroy its will. Political famine has therefore been principally economic phenomena traditionally, with public health and political implications. Famine can be driven politically in repressive regimes in which economics is subordinated to ideology. This is evidenced by the famine in North Korea. Who dies and who lives is ultimately determined by microeconomic forces that’s affecting specific religions, ages, job groups and income. In this case microeconomic perspective offers less insight. Food is becoming scarce commodity in the society despite the fact that its marginal value increases exponentially. Political famine as led to pathological consequence for the society food system. For instance, political famine breaks the social contract between farmers and the rest of the society that famers will grow food in exchange for the industrial production. It also encourages farmers to divert production from agricultural system before they harvest. This is because of the sudden reduction of food that means farmers are given choice of letting their families starve or secretly pre-harvest and save food to build up stocks before the actual harvest is taken. Additionally, it encourages farmers especially in mountainous areas to spend their energy cultivating the private plots of land that government gives. Shut down of public distribution due poor government management of resources and rise of farmers markets for the nonfarm population as also made food inaccessible to families that have no way of paying higher prices, especially when the economic downturn as reduced the purchasing power of this families. A good example justifying this argument is in North Korea, where as industrial production plummeted; salaries of mining and urban workers were either reduced or stopped entirely. Here the public distribution system was not a social service system, but only a means of workforce compensation. The nonsubsidized price in the farmers market for a kilogram of maize, that’s not even enough for a day, equaled an average industrial workers monthly maximum ration that is allowed via the public distribution system. This therefore led to the urban families sustaining a major reduction in family purchasing power at the same time when the price of food increased exponentially. Political instability and humanitarian aid It is clear that the main solution to famine is the humanitarian aid. In normal situation, humanitarian aids intervene in cases of famine. However, there are conditions that may limit the intervention from the humanitarian aid. Political instability is one of these factors. Political instability influences the movement of the food products to the affected areas. This would worsen the situation of famine (Beriss &David 2007: 111). How political famine can be prevented According to the study conducted at Oregon State University, political famine can be prevented by internal political process especially in the affected countries (2008: 53). Aids can also have an ancillary role in the prevention of famine but it should not be aspired as a principal factor. The research also reveals several political problems with aid, which include the backfire of high-profile humanitarian organization, lack of transparency in the aid, information and cultural factors, weakening of national capacity and orientation of accountability and external dependency towards external donors Relief aid appears not to contribute to the development to any governance that is likely to promote the struggle against famine. On the contrary of this, relief aid will only be an obstacle to the development. There are several things that when taken into place will prevent political famine in any country. For any country that wants to prevent political famine, it should ensure that its offices are corruption free. Corruption is the main cause of political famine with government officials involved in the selling of food stuff meant for the poor people. The government should ensure transparency in all its officials’ especially those that are in charge of relief food. The government should provide farm inputs on time and to all farmers. This can only be achieved if the government manages its resources well. This includes distribution of resources equally to all the people including food stuffs and quality heath facility in all areas that are desperately indeed of this facilities. By doing all this government can avert famine mortality that results from severe famine. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that political famine is a devastating phenomenon that has some of its roots in the political realm. This means appropriate governmental interventions are necessary if this disaster is to be avoided. How the government responses will also depend on how prepared the government is in order to respond to these situations. It should come up with projects that people can work in for food during these times of political crisis. Secondly, they should invest in infrastructure, such as roads, heath facilities, train and communication. This will help to get people in times of need and also ensure equally distribution of resources. The government should also ensure that there are no conflicts that result from politics. By doing this people will not be displaced and they will therefore involve themselves in farming activities and thus prevent famine. All this will only be possible if the political environment is favorable. Consequently, it is clear that famine is closely related to politics in several respects. Because of this, policy makers should be keen to integrate the political factors in the famine related policies. References Counihan Carole & Van Esterik Penny 2007 Food and Culture: A Reader.Second .Routledge. The book website: http://books.google.com/books?id=g34aeDfVIdEC&pg=PR14&dq=Food and+Culture:+A+Reader.Second+++Edition.++Edited+by+Carole+Counihan+and+Penny+Van+Esterik.+2007.+Routledge.&hl=zh-CN&ei=1yiPToW1EKTa0QHB2Mgg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Beriss, David and David Sutton, 2007 The Restaurants Book: Ethnographies of Where We Eat. Gordonsville, VA: Berg Publishers. International Commission on the Antrhopology of Food. 2009 What is ICAF? Electronic Document http://www.icafood.eu/ Oregon State University. 2008 'Freegans' & foragers form new foodways. The Center for the Humanities Newsletter. Read More

 

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