Can faces and voices of utter despair inspire action?

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Misery reigns there even when the rest of the world is experiencing the best of times. So you can imagine that when the rest of the world is struggling to stay afloat in the face of rising food and energy costs, the peoples of Haiti are plunged deeper into despair.

Make no mistake. The planetary life support systems are in shock and people are suffering as a result.

Words can only go so far in describing the tragic state of affairs there and in too many other places around the world. Global Voices attempts to bring us a little closer to what's going on.

"Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society. Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media. We’re using a wide variety of technologies - weblogs, podcasts, photos, video, wikis, tags, aggregators and online chats - to call attention to conversations and points of view that we hope will help shed new light on the nature of our interconnected world."

Does anyone know where the presidential candidates stand on issues like fair trade, agricultural subsidies, policies to address hunger? Remember that while all this is unfolding, agribusiness and oil company profits are at an all-time high and CEO salaries have reached levels that can only be described as obscene. (GW)

Haiti: finding relief for hunger in children

Global Voices
May 5, 2008

The international food shortage and crisis is doing its rounds on the blogosphere, and videos are no exception. From Haiti: people eating dirt to survive, and a plan to help feed the hungry Haitian children. Haiti is the poorest country in the American continent, and hunger for them has been an important issue since before this crisis took to the headlines.

In YouTube, toddgsapp shows us a video of the process by which a family makes mud cakes, not only to eat themselves, but also to sell. These dirt cookies or mud cakes are made out of dirt, shortening and salt, and is sometimes their only means of sustenance.

Food for thought, isn't it?

However, it seems that most seem aware of the problem, but there is precious few that we can do to help out. lovinitwithhim uploaded a video on the Haitian Food crisis for Kids Against Hunger you can see here.

With the following Current TV video by robhill_productions for Meds and Food for Kids (MFK) in Haiti we are given an insight into an NGO seeking and testing a possible solution for malnutrition in children, based on a high energy peanut butter product that is ready to use and to be given to the children. This boosted peanut butter is said to contain peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, oil, vitamins and minerals and is produced locally using Haitian peanuts harvested from local farmers and all the other supplements are purchased locally as well, helping the economy. According to MFK, it costs $68 for a full dosage of the ready to use therapeutic food, or Medikal Mamba as it is known locally, to be given to a child and bring them back to life.