Gabrielle Cuebas
Dr. Chaffee HUP 104
October 21, 2008
World Hunger
Here we are at the Annual Convention of Ethical Egoists. Each and everyone one
of you, including myself, all agree that we should live our lives the way we please.
Everything we do will be for what is best for our self-interest. This may seem selfish to
others, but of course it is not because the only way there can be peace within us is if we
take care of ourselves first. We come first, and then we can consider the well-being of
others, although many of you may not. The peoples’ well being that we should consider
besides our own is those suffering from world hunger.
While it is important to assess what is necessary for us to live well, we must not
forget what goes on outside of our personal bubble. America is a well-developed country.
We are lucky to live here. So far, we have never had to worry about not being able to
sustain ourselves with common necessities, such as food, clothes, clean water, access to
health care, and education, among other things. However, we must recognize that there is
a vast population outside of America that is suffering greatly from world hunger,
resulting in their deteriorating health, and even death.
This tragedy of world hunger, among other worldly issues, afflicts those
commonly living in “absolute poverty”. Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton University,
states the definition of this term in his essay “Rich and Poor”. Absolute poverty is “the
lack of sufficient income in cash or kind to meet the most basic biological needs for food,
clothing, and shelter” (345). Singer notes that people suffering from world hunger are not
only hungry, but are “suffering from deficiency diseases and infections they would be
able to resist on a better diet” (344). In his essay, Singer includes the views of Robert
McNamara, who used to be the president of the World Bank. Children are the most
affected among those suffering from world hunger. McNamara states, “Malnutrition in
young children stunts both physical and mental development” (345).
Even as the majority population in developing countries is not fortunate enough to
have access to medical care and educational services, the poverty-stricken youth and
adults also suffer from world hunger and are slowly dying by becoming physically
disadvantaged because they are unable to keep themselves healthy. I strongly urge you to
consider how important it is that affluent nations, like ours, help these deprived,
developing nations.
You must acknowledge that it must be in our best interest to help others,
especially those suffering so terribly. As selfish as we all want to be, the only way that
there can be a balance between our good fortune and that of others, is if everyone works
together. The only way these nations can be relieved is by human action. I am talking
about saving the human race. If we do nothing and watch these people suffer, it is murder!
Why is it murder, you ask. It is murder because these people have no means of survival
unless we help them. Although there are millions in this situation, some help is better
than no help. Something as simple as not having enough food is what is destroying these
people. God knows that this world has enough food to end world hunger repeatedly.
Why is it that people are still suffering then? It is because we, among other
affluent nations, are greedy. There is a surplus of food in our country. When there is no
space on the supermarket shelves for all the food they receive, it stays in storage until
everyone buys the fresh items. Guess what happens when there is no space and no one
wants the goods? The food ends up spoiling and being thrown out! The least we could do
is give what we do not use to the poorer nations. There are plenty of food drives, but we
need to do more. What we need to do is have nationwide cooperation to create programs
that will give assistance to developing nations because we cannot just give food without
receiving anything in return. An idea can be that we exchange food for learning about
their culture, or exchange food for other resources from those countries that we do not
have.
Helping others in any kind of need will ultimately benefit us because the world
will not be such a miserable place if everyone’s needs are fulfilled and there is a balance.
It is in our best interest to give help to people suffering from world hunger because they
are so deprived and hopeless that they are unable to help themselves and will end up
dying because nothing was done for them. Letting people suffer and die or actively
killing them coincide with each other. We all know we would not want to be considered
murderers. So lend a helping hand. It is good for the conscience.
A very serious issue I will discuss today at the Annual Convention of
Compassionate Persons is that of world hunger. First, what is compassion? According to
dictionary.com, it is the ability to “feel deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is
stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” Being
compassionate is a wonderful characteristic to attribute to oneself. Many people are
incapable of being compassionate, so for those of us that are, know that it is appreciated.
One thing I must address though is of the dangers that can arise from being overly
compassionate towards the issue of world hunger.
Millions of people are suffering from world hunger in developing nations. These
unfortunates are poverty-stricken, uneducated, and are overpopulating the world. Adults
and children alike are slowly dying from diseases because they are malnourished and
cannot afford medical care. Affluent nations, like America and Europe, have created
organizations to help these people, like food and clothing drives. Although not all efforts
have succeeded, we have done a great deal to relieve developing countries from suffering.
Unfortunately these efforts are not enough because these countries continue to
overpopulate and this increases the amount of people that are suffering. There is no
population control in any of these countries because if it is not that the nations are poor it
is because the government does not do much to encourage a population decrease.
As important as it is for people like us to acknowledge situations like this, we
cannot over do it. It is a very dangerous task for us to be overly compassionate about
anything, especially world hunger. Yes, we must think about these nations and help them.
But if we give them too much hope that they are always going to be assisted in these
matters, then they are always going to expect it. We cannot always feel guilty for people
who continuously take actions in destroying their own lives. It may not be their fault that
they are suffering through world hunger, but they are certainly contributing to it by
reproducing. As Garrett Hardin stated in his essay “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against
Helping the Poor”, there are “reproductive differences between the rich nations and the
poor nations” (336). He also mentions that the “world’s resources are dwindling” (336).
There is an increasing amount of mouths to feed, and the food is lacking.
Undeveloped nations are increasing by the millions and although they are
suffering terribly, we cannot continue encouraging affluent nations to help them if the
poor nations are going to continue to reproduce. These nations are ultimately going to
deplete our resources without replenishing them, so we are going to end up being the
losers when we were helping them. We must find a way to help these nations and also
figure out what they can offer us. It does not make sense to lend a helping hand to those
that are just going to sit back and continue to make things worse. The big issue is
overpopulation of the world so we must encourage poor nations to discontinue
reproduction because they cannot sustain a new life let alone their own. The less people
there are the easier it would be to help them.
Ultimately, we need to consider what is going to happen to the compassionate
people that give help to needy because helping may have a positive impact on others and
ourselves, but it can also cause negative results. We can be helpful but we cannot allow
nations to take from us when they are not willing to make a contribution in helping
themselves.
The president has asked to me to create a policy on how the United States should address
the current issue on world hunger. There are many reasons why people suffer from this
tragedy. This includes overpopulation, poverty, lack of education, and weak governments.
These key elements will support in the aid of hungry nations:

We must encourage the use of contraceptives. If necessary, they should be
provided free to nations that cannot afford health services.

Affluent nations should use monies that are not being put to use to build
educational facilities for youth and adults.

Organized governments should encourage corrupt or inefficient governments to
urge population control and give to the needy.

There should be job increases in every undeveloped nation. Even if it is
something as simple as weeding out yards or milking cows. There has to be at
least some currency to pay even a minimal amount to workers.

Encourage rich nations to give all surpluses of harvested and produced foods to
poor nations.

Discontinue war and use the money wasted on that to aid poor nations.

Provide sterilization services as long as those that participate are volunteers.