Karl Marx, born nearly two centuries ago, had in 1867 (in the first volume of Capital) laid bare the “intimate connection between the pangs of hunger of the most industrious layers of the working class, and the extravagant consumption, coarse or refined, of the rich, for which capitalist accumulation is the basis”.
In May 2008, nearly a century and a half later, as we hear Emperor George Bush hold forth on global hunger, we are reminded that capitalism and global wealth remains just as intimately wedded to hunger.
Bush, in the time-honoured traditions of the backyard bully, has long harboured the habit of dictating to nations who their friends and enemies should be. Now, he has taken to telling nations how much they should eat and of wagging a disapproving finger at poor nations whose middle class has made some improvements in its diet.
Greedy demands
Bush’s sentiments reek of callous contempt for the world’s poor. They lay bare the fact that the only perspective Bush and US imperialism is capable of is that of the US corporations. According to a May 3 India Times article, in Bush’s words, the growing purchasing power of the middle class in the developing world is “good” because “y’know, it’s hard to sell products into countries that aren’t prosperous”.
But, lamented Bush, “you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food”.
In other words, India’s growing appetite was pushing food prices up and causing the rest of the world to go hungry. Unfortunately, the world’s people haven’t mastered the art of being markets, not mouths — of tightening the belt over their bellies while loosening their purse strings.
Bush is the head of the nation whose successive governments used its military to ruthlessly batter a long list of Latin American and African countries into being pliant suppliers of cash crops for the US corporations — and devastating these nation’s food security in the process.
Continued . . .
Bush, in the time-honoured traditions of the backyard bully, has long harboured the habit of dictating to nations who their friends and enemies should be. Now, he has taken to telling nations how much they should eat and of wagging a disapproving finger at poor nations whose middle class has made some improvements in its diet.
Greedy demands
Bush’s sentiments reek of callous contempt for the world’s poor. They lay bare the fact that the only perspective Bush and US imperialism is capable of is that of the US corporations. According to a May 3 India Times article, in Bush’s words, the growing purchasing power of the middle class in the developing world is “good” because “y’know, it’s hard to sell products into countries that aren’t prosperous”.
But, lamented Bush, “you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food”.
In other words, India’s growing appetite was pushing food prices up and causing the rest of the world to go hungry. Unfortunately, the world’s people haven’t mastered the art of being markets, not mouths — of tightening the belt over their bellies while loosening their purse strings.
Bush is the head of the nation whose successive governments used its military to ruthlessly batter a long list of Latin American and African countries into being pliant suppliers of cash crops for the US corporations — and devastating these nation’s food security in the process.
Continued . . .
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