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Hillary Clinton calls for new engagement against hunger (Roundup)
Jan 26, 2009, 13:44 GMT
Madrid - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged on Monday that the administration of President Barack Obama would seek a new engagement between donors, states, NGOs and the private sector to fight hunger.
Clinton addressed a United Nations conference in the Spanish capital Madrid over a video.
The conference bringing together ministers or other delegates from about 100 countries charted action against the global food crisis aggravated by the economic crash.
The fight against hunger was among Obama's priorities, Clinton said, stressing the need for developing countries to be able to invest in food production.
Jacques Diouf, general director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the number of malnourished people had increased by tens of millions in the recent years, reaching a total of 963 million worldwide.
This happened while world cereal production reached a new record in 2008, he pointed out.
Development aid to agriculture and cattle raising had gone down from 18 per cent of global aid in 1980 to only 3 per cent, Diouf said, urging the international community to mobilize more resources against hunger.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stressed the negative impact of rising food prices and the international financial slowdown, describing the food crisis as a threat to global stability.
The meeting bringing together UN officials, representatives of international agencies and the civil society was to be closed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday.
The conference was aimed at charting the progress in meeting the goals of the Rome food summit in June 2008.
It will draw a road map to ensure the enforcement of the Rome agreements, issuing a Madrid declaration on how to move forward, according to Spanish government sources.
Representatives of several NGOs demonstrated outside the conference building, stressing that the meeting should not become a 'farce.'
The demonstrators accused the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank of having created the food crisis with their neo-liberal policies.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
like she will read this
you just get stupider every day don't you?
Hillary will soon show herself for the marxist that she is. It is all about global wealth redistribution. Obama believes it as well. Of course, the elite left will not have to give up their wealth. This will be no different than what happened under Stalin and Mao. Most of the people were 'normalized' and the elite (left) lived in wealth.
This is so crazy. The article references soaring food prices, but it does not name the cause (war, corruption, diverting corn from food use to ethanol). It mentions the reduction in funding for beef production - yet any other time the MSM would be screaming about increased beef production and the effects on global warming. This is simply a cheerleader article with no intelligence in the reporting.
US Motto:
While the rest of the world strives to be like the U.S. we strive to be more like they are...
translation for Rush listener:
More countries are striving for capitalism while the U.S. is striving for socialism.
page: 1
SP4: dear Mrs. ClintonJan 26th, 2009 - 20:00:05
Hunger, in the world is predominantly brought on by corruption in government. Zimbabwe once the breadbasket of Africa is the golden standard, now has to import food to feed itself. The congo, and numerous other nations either suffer from corruption or Marxism, and this is the real cause.
That being the case, no one in the current government knows more about corrupt behavior than you. Best of luck.
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