Analyze this: A week-long protest, riot and looting in Haiti due to spiralling food prices led to the ouster of the Prime Minister and the announcement of a $10 million feeding program by the World Bank during an emergency meeting in Washington in April. The 9000-strong UN peacekeeping force is still in a dilemma to face the ‘hungry mob’ in Haiti. Approximately 10,000 workers clashed with police near the capital in Bangladesh over the rising food price. At least dozens of people, including 20 police officials, were injured in the violence in Dhaka.
The renowned Vietnam War veteran General Vo Nguyen Giap has recently called for a novel kind of war on poverty. Can the warmongers accept this realistic call? While the decisive argument for the war is maintaining peace, thereby sustaining livelihoods, the truth is somewhat different. The countries' pledges to reduce poverty by half have gone awry as financial assistance is diverted to war. The amount of aid developed countries give poorer nations has fallen by half since the 1960s, risking the lives of millions of children.