All,

According to the BBC today (Reference1) the G8 nations have pledged a staggering 20Bn dollars ( that’s Twenty Billion ) to create “food security” in the poorest nations on the face of the planet.

According to the BBC on the 26^th of Feb 2009:

“The [UK] government will inject £13bn [$21Bn] into RBS to strengthen its balance sheet on top of the £20bn[$32Bn] the government already injected into RBS last year. The bank will have access to another £6bn[$9.7Bn should it need it.” (Reference2)

So if we total the support that just the UK government gave to just one bank, RBS, then we see that the total is $63Bn ( that's Sixty Three Billion Dollars ). That's:

Just one company.
Just one bank.
Just one set of shareholders.

And they get at least sixty three billion in support!

So lets put, as a percentage of that bail out to that one bank, the pledge by all of the G8 nations to help 49 of the poorest countries achieve “food security”31.75%

Seems like a reasonable figure...but that's to go around 49 countries. So lets divide that by 49 to see what each country would get:

0.65%

And that percentage is if we just look only at the RBS figure alone and only at the UK government investment. If we cast our eye across the Atlantic to the USA then we are shown the scale of this pledge by the G8 as nothing more than a drop in the ocean and it really does show where their priorities lie.

According to the money.cnn.com (Reference3) the total capitalism bail out cost, to date, is roughly around $371 ( that's Three Hundred And Seventy One BILLION dollars ). So that makes the G8's pledge just

5.39%

of that total. Meaning that each country in the 49 poorest countries in the world would get

0.11%

of that which was given to save companies and capitalism.

Companies which have, in essence, gone bust. Under free capitalism the companies have went broke. But no, that's not allowed now, in the 21^st Century, the rules have changed. Businesses must be saved, or at least, that was the thinking in the late part of 2008 and through 2009.

What cost to save humans? 0.11% of which the Americans alone have spent on saving companies!

And the pledge is just money to try and ensure food security!?!?

I don't even think that as humans we should be in a situation where members of our species rely on hand outs to survive: it is against our very being.

Is this really the year of our lord AD 2009? Did I waken up 500 years ago when famine, poverty, disease was rife? What's going on? Surely there must be a better way.

People in lesser developed countries actually keep people in “more developed countries” alive by producing a huge amount of goods for them. When was the last time you saw a tea field in the UK or a banana plantation? Or for that matter a whole string of clothing manufacturers or even car makers? And where do rich nations get their sugar and what bout runner beans and other vegetables?

The UK is a prime example of needing every other country on the face of the earth for its well being. From China and its cheap goods to the USA to buy any exports they may still make. From Kenya and its food produce to the Dominican Republic and its bananas.

Just like the notion of an “individual human”, the notion of an “individual country” is just as senseless. No country can survive on its own. No human can do that either.

Yet this system chooses to spend 0.11% of the money it chose to spend on companies on humans to just try to bring about “food security”?

And it's not just me that realises this system is pushing humans towards the brink, the Vice Executive Director of the World Food Programme said:

"$20 billion was a last-minute agreement and it was greeted with great happiness by all of us in the conference room. While we are rebuilding agriculture we need to continue supporting food assistance because the financial crisis is pushing another 103 million people into hunger this year," said Staffan de Mistura, vice executive director of the World Food Programme. “ (Reference4) [My bold italics]

I’m glad they were happy: I’m not.

Is this 2009? Is this the best way we can conceive to live, as a species? I can offer a million solutions, right now. I can think of a billion different ways. But, of course, we all have to want it.

Are you too brow beaten to know what it is that is best for you and for us?

No more of this nonsense, not in my name; never.

Peace,

Dunk

Reference1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8143566.stm
Reference2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7911722.stm
Reference3: http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/
Reference4: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/g8-pledges-20bn-farm-aid-to-poor-nations-1740993.html

Notes:
1)All Pound to Dollar Conversion carried out on the 11^th of July 2009 using www.xe.com
2)The 49 countries was stated on Radio Five Live on the 10^th Of July 2009