A Brief Note on an Imminent Famine.

Everyone here will starve:

each bone will be a stripe,

each hand a bowl,

each leg a stick.

Then there'll be the gluttony

of cameras:

our threadbare skin 

will be devoured,

our eyes exported

shining like pickles.

Famine Memory

 

November, month of charcoal cloud

slung low to the earth;

labourers hunched double,

grubbing for the bright potatoes

  that scuttle like mice back into the sodden soil.

 

Scrabbling fingers chase each fugitive light

with the desperation of the starving.

I rest a moment on the spade,

my hands, around the shaft, 

rough with working that same soil;

fingers with the same DNA inside them.

A Worthy Cause And You Can Help

A friend of mine has sent this message to me. It's not an area I know much about but I have inquired and it is a cause that urgently needs to be redressed. The petition (link below) is genuine and the situation described is true.

A campaign against speculation with food prices is being circulated  in change.org. "After the real state bubble burst investors moved to speculate with raw materials and basic commodities. This is understood to significantly contribute to the spike in food prices that was behind the 2007-2008 and current food crisis. 450 economist worldwide petitioned G20 leaders to introduce stricter regulations in stock exchanges in order to curb the effect of speculation on food prices. A rise in prices is devastating to those in developing countries, as they spend between 50-80% of their income on food. There is cause for some optimism as some regulating measures have been introduced in the American and European markets. These are, however, understood not to be sufficient.

I believe this is an urgent matter and that we can put pressure on our governments and leaders to act decisively. At the very least it will serve to publicise this seldom mentioned factor in famines. That is why I am doing something rather uncharacteristic…….” I’m asking you to sign this petition and send it off to others, blog it or put it on Facebook."