“Never ignore hungry people”

“Famines cause particularly lasting damage to children. They also destabilize entire societies and deprive people of their dignity, which should be guaranteed to them by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Ines Scheibe from the Executive Committee of the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) reminded us of this yesterday on the occasion of reports about the latest warnings of a famine in Africa. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 10 to 14 million people in the Sahel region do not have enough to eat. The United Nations and six African countries have therefore asked for swift and comprehensive aid, the World Food Program (WFP) announced in Rome on Wednesday. This is the only way to avoid another famine, it said. “Adolescents and women regularly suffer the most from a lack of food because they are usually the weakest and most helpless members of the community threatened by famine,” Scheibe continued. “So anyone who hears or reads about starving people must be aware of this fact. Hardly imaginable suffering, violence and death are just some of the consequences of such disasters. And this despite the fact that the earth can actually provide enough food and the available technologies have long been highly developed enough to provide enough food for the existing communities on our planet.” Ines Scheibe therefore pleaded with humanists not to ignore the existence and existence of the people affected, even if there is little or no media coverage of the ongoing hunger crises in Africa. Humanist-minded people in Germany should always be aware of the fact that only a few thousand kilometers away millions of people, boys and girls, women and men, are exposed to suffering that is to this extent avoidable and, according to current knowledge, largely man-made. Scheibe: “Just like the countless victims of war and dictatorship from the history of our country and Europe, we must not ignore the people threatened by death in the present of our lives on this planet. We should never ignore the existence of starving people, whether in our country or in others. Suffering due to avoidable hunger is in no way inferior to any suffering due to political or religious persecution.” Ines Scheibe called on humanists to inform themselves comprehensively and critically about the real causes of the recurring famines on the African continent and to demand changes from those politically responsible. “This begins with the question of how our own economy with raw materials is connected to shortages in other parts of the world and extends to the fact that better education for women as well as information and the provision of birth control methods can make truly sustainable changes possible for the societies of the regions now affected by famine again.”