A Disagreement on Hunger Policy

To the Editor:

In her My View column titled “World Hunger Demands Attention — Now” (February 7), Susan Sechler implies that we should all make an effort to feed the world.

Ms. Sechler further says that the “outpouring of anti-American bile . . . surely owes much to the problems of poverty and hunger. It is easy to hate a nation where food is wasted and more than 60 percent of the people are officially overweight . . . when its leaders will not take significant steps to help the hungry.”

As one who has been to a great part of the world, I could not disagree with her more. I have provided help and assistance in many places, and I have sadly gone back to find that the conditions have reverted quickly regardless of the help. The fact is that in many places in the world, people don’t really help one another or make any effort to improve the situation for others.

If Ms. Sechler has been to much of the world, she ought to know that poverty and hunger are directly connected to the governments that the people have. I’d like her to name a sub-Saharan African nation where the government has attempted to solve the problems of poverty and hunger, without being overthrown by some other group or becoming a dictatorship. I would also ask her if she doesn’t think the nations that established and dominated those African countries have a role in helping them. I suggest that France, Britain, Germany, and some lesser nations should play a major role in solving the poverty and hunger situation. Please name one single nation in impoverished regions that the United States ever ruled.

If that is a fair point, let’s apply it to Latin America and ask the same question. Where did the United States impose itself where we have an obligation to solve the problems of poverty and hunger? We pour a great deal of money into Puerto Rico and endure a lot of guff from the people there. Ms. Sechler might note they don’t want to be independent; that might lead to hunger and poverty without the U.S. blanket.

Ditto Asia and the Pacific areas. South Koreans were afforded freedom, and they seem to have done well. North Koreans are a different story because they have a dictatorship that allows them to suffer. Would she ignore the role the United States played in affording the South Koreans that opportunity?

Ms. Sechler seems to think the United States has the power to “secure the commitment of other countries and set the shared goal of completely ridding the planet of hunger by 2015.” I would suggest she take a realistic look at the world and politics. If it were that easy, it would have been done years ago. I would remind her that in many countries where we have sent food, the governments have used it as a tool to maintain power. Further, in some cases — India comes to mind — the U.S. markings on the food containers have been removed so the people never knew the food came from us.

Finally, Ms. Sechler might repeat this every hour on the hour: You give a person a fish, and he or she will be able to eat the fish. You teach the person how to fish and he or she can provide food for himself or herself. Having lived all over the world I have seen this to be the truth.

By the way, Americans who worked hard and earned the money to become overweight exercised their right. How would Ms. Sechler suggest we stop that?

Paul E. Wilson
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Longwood, Fla.