While traveling to work on the bus, I reflected on the world news headlines of food insecurity.  In Nicaragua, we read alarming reports about food shortages that impact the developed countries of the North, Europe, and Asia.  This is alarming to them, but is very common for us.  I asked myself if they have ever thought about the impact of the economic blockades that they impose on our countries, leaving millions of people hungry, with no health care, no education, and no possibility of a dignified life.

News reports state that rice is scarce in the United States and in China.  But scarcity of basic food in the underdeveloped countries is not news.  It does not seem to matter that 70% of Nicaraguans live in poverty, that we are not able to eat three meals a day and 58% of us are malnourished.  

 Suddenly they announce that there is an alarming lack of food in the world.  But why hasn't anyone thought about the fact that we in the developing countries have always lacked food.   Why is it that food scarcity does not become news until rice is rationed in the Unites States?  In our countries, rice and other basic foods have always been rationed as a result of colonialism and imperialism.

The meetings of the rich countries are normally held to discuss "world peace," in other words "world war."  The great thinkers of the world believe they have resolved the problem and gone on to discuss "climate change," which they also claim to have resolved.  In reality, they are spending large amounts of money on bureaucratic systems that do nothing to reduce poverty or to address climate change.

Today, world leaders are meeting because they say that the world does not have enough food.  The developing world has never had enough food.  We have food shortages, and we need solutions so that our people will no longer suffer from hunger.

 I asked myself why the world leaders don't say something more logical: let's share our wealth and help the countries of the Global South produce so that they, in turn, can help us to feed our people. 

 Our countries have wealth that the developed countries don't have - the wealth of solidarity and a peaceful conscience. We know how to care for the environment.  We are rich in spirit and we will continue forward. 

If the world were more just so that our countries could develop, and if migration reversed its flow from north to south, I assure you that there would be no racism. Solidarity is what these migrants from the north would find.

 April 28, 2008
Elvin Castellon
FEDICAMP, Esteli