One in seven people goes hungry each day

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “Alleviating Global Hunger: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Leadership, Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said, “It’s quite astounding that in 2009, there are over 850 million hungry people in the world. One in seven people on earth goes hungry every day, and when we talk about going hungry every day, we are talking about real pain and anguish and sufferingthat goes with that hunger.” Kerry went on to explain that “While other threats force themselves into the front burner and command our attention, hunger and malnutrition remain the number one risk to health world wide.”

The first millennium development goal is to cut the proportion of people in the developing world who suffer from hunger in half by 2015. Kerry said that, “Last year’s food riots were a worrisome sign of how a crisis in food security can quickly become a national security issue. The global financial crisis also poses an urgent and an immediate threat. The World Bank estimates that as a result of this crisis, an additional 65 million people will fall below the $2 per day poverty line this year, and an additional 53 million will fall below the absolute poverty level of $1.25 per day.” Kerry went on to say that if food prices spike in the next month, we risk a double calamity in which farmers in poor countries can’t afford to plant and buyers can’t afford to purchase food.

Kerry said that, “We can’t tackle hunger alone. We have to engage a multi-lateral approach, we have to work in coordination with international institutions, including the world food program, international aid organizations, and the World Bank.” He also said that we must demonstrate our commitment by fully funding the President's international affairs budget and initiating a foreign aid reform process.

Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program, said that “If we are to be leaders in this area, then we can see many benefits for the United States. We can see national security benefits because we see that hunger and poverty have become political flash points; that many countries have had food riots, and that those have helped unseat at least two governments in this world in the last year.” She went on to explain that it is a moral responsibility for Americans to help our sisters and brothers from around the world who are hungry and that it will restore American standing and leadership in the world.

Daniel Glickman, former United States Secretary of Agriculture, stated that “By acting decisively and in our own national interest, our country can play a central role in saving millions if not tens of millions of lives in the poorest nations of the world, as we did during the Green Revolution.” Glickman used an analogy from the movie Schindler’s list and stating that, “If you save one life, you save the entire world.” He went on to state that there is a prescription to make people self reliant so that they can become productive citizens and get themselves out of poverty and out of malnutrition.

Ranking member Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Senator Robert Casey (D-Pa.) have introduced the Global Food Security Act of 2009, which aims to serve as a practical starting point for improving United States and global efforts that food security should play a much larger role in our national security strategy. Lugar said that, “Overcoming hunger should be one of the starting points for United States foreign policy.”

Obama campaign on the Ohio battlefield

The Barack Obama campaign is focusing in on "battle ground" states and making sure what happened to John Kerry's presidential bid in Ohio in 2004. "Ohio has the third most electoral votes of all the battleground states," said Steve Hildebrand a deputy campaign manager for Obama during a call with the media. Hildebrand and Ohio campaign director Aaron Pickerell discussed the base that had been laid by the successful bids of Democrats Sen. Sherrod Brown and Governor Ted Strickland in 2006.

Pickrell said that the campaign is spending more time in traditionally Republican districts, following the strategy of Brown and Strickland to target the whole state instead of urban and suburban areas. Much like the Obama campaign organized in Iowa the Ohio strategy involves 1200 neighborhoods organized by resident neighborhood team leaders. Pickrell said that this campaign can build on the foundation of increased Democratic voting rates built by Strickland and Brown.

Strickland said that the manpower Obama has placed in the field will make a major difference. He also said that he is impressed at the efforts to court Clinton supporters and that he, along with Hillry and Bill Clinton, will do "anything and everything" he;s asked to do to support the Obama campaign.

Strickland said that Obama won't win every region of the state, but he won't repeat "the Kerry mistake." Strickland said that he thinks that these effors in Ohio will increase the percentage of Democratic votes in some counties by 10 to 12 percent. Strickland will be a speaker at the upcoming Democratic National Convention; he said his speech will focus on the economy.

Kerry: US in danger of losing in Afghanistan

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) delivered a speech on a new approach to fighting terrorism. Kerry cited a memo authored by Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 that asked if the United States was dissuading more people from becoming terrorists than radical clerics were deploying. Kerry said the United States still is not deterring terrorists, noting al-Qaeda's strength along the Afghan-Pakistani border, the Taliban's resurgence, Hamas's grip in the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon.

Kerry said the United States should engage in a strategic reorientation already enacted by Saudi Arabia. He stated that the Saudi government has been able to gain the upper-hand in the fight
against terrorism by using counter-indoctrination. According to Kerry, the Saudi government has imams explain Islam's opposition to extremist ideologies to detainees and sponsors messages at soccer matches featuring former terrorists who urge against radical jihad. Kerry said the United States was most successful in the fight against extremism when it provided post-earthquake aid to Pakistan and assisted tsunami relief in Indonesia. Kerry called the Administration's policy of torture and indefinite intention "self-defeating."

To win the global war on terror, Kerry advocated helping Pakistan fight al-Qaeda along the Afghan border and increasing American aid to the Pakistani people, a move he suggested would cause the population to grow tired of extremists' presence. Kerry said "We're in real danger of losing in Afghanistan" and said fixing problems in Pakistan is the only way to prevent a loss from occurring.

Kerry: al-Qaeda more capable of attacking today

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) says terrorist attacks are currently at historic highs, stating that that al-Qaeda is more capable of attacking the United States now than it was in 2001. He says the next president should reform the war on terror and include more intelligence, making it possible to prevent terrorists from being recruited. (1:12)

Kerry: US played into bin Laden’s hands

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) says it is clear that invading Iraq was a grave mistake, diverting resources in the fight against al-Qaeda and, by failing to differentiate between a secular dictator and religious extremists, causing the United States to play into Osama bin Laden’s hands. (0:29)