Mi Querida Guatemala... muere de hambre

http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/guatemala/2545--guatemala-little-headway-against-rampant-malnutrition.html


According to this article, 49.3% of children under 5 in Guatemala are malnourished.
This is the highest rate in Latin America, and one of the highest in the world.
Thousands die every year because they can't get enough to eat. And we complain about the amount of food available in the USA and Canada... I was listening to the CBC the other day. The guest that was speaking was addressing the problems of food shortages, the agricultural industry and how to combat world hunger. One thing that he said completely shocked me: 30% of food in North America is wasted. It never gets eaten. In the USA, the rates can be as high as 50%.

Imagine this: you have a garden. Everything grew wonderfully and it is harvest time. For every tomato you pick, you throw one out. For every potato harvested, one is discarded. They are both healthy, both nutritious, but this is the reality in the USA. There is too much food. No one cares about food or how much they waste. The old adage of "think of the children starving in Africa" (or Guatemala for that matter) apparently isn't very effective. Yet the rates of obesity in the USA are insane. The United States of America: the biggest wasters and the biggest eaters. What does this say for the rest of the world? They waste much less but also eat much less. Ironic.

Let us be thankful about what we have, and wherever possible buy fair trade. It may be more expensive, but are we really eating all that we buy, anyway? So it works two ways: you spend the same, eat less, thereby probably being healthier in this society, and you are supporting someone who needs that fair wage so that he can eat a nutritious meal and also not waste it.

Of course life is much more complicated than that, but I think it is a fairly simple principle. ALWAYS support fair trade whenever possible, including local items. Recently people have been complaining about the huge gaps of income between people in the USA (those who argue it in Canada know nothing about the system: Just under 50% of the tax-paying population made over $50,000 in 2008, 4% over $100,000, and only .4% over $250,000. Clearly the 1-99% ration does not work here. Or maybe they all want to make $175,000 and think that's fair (which would do what to make it more even with the rest of the world?)

Anyway, if over 24 million Canadians are working enough to make $25,000 a year and pay taxes. The world average according to this website: http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/10/07/average_earnings_worldwide/ is $7,000 a year (which only 19% of countries actually attain). The world median was $1,700. *cough* So despite rising food and housing prices (which are always on the rise and a constant complaint no matter what year or era) in Canada, the majority of us still make a buttload more money than the average world citizen. Also, if you complain about housing prices, I invite you to live in the Lower Mainland, especially Vancouver. My husband and I were considering buying a house until we realized that we could never afford one in this area. A condo, maybe, but I have 2 horses, 2 cats, a dog, a bunny, and a garden. I am quite happy renting, though I do hope to buy one day, it may have to be in Mexico.