Opinion: Fighting world hunger; U.S. leadership on global issues

Oct 22 2009

USA Today Column Examines U.S. Efforts Against World Hunger

In a USA Today column, writer DeWayne Wickham examines the connection between hunger and global security. "Helping poor countries feed their hungry masses is not just a grand humanitarian gesture; it is good diplomacy — a refreshing change from the jingoism and dollar diplomacy of previous administrations," he writes.

Reflecting on uprisings over food shortages in recent years, Wickham continues, "Understandably, the Obama administration's efforts to keep Iran and North Korea from joining the world's nuclear club and to end the long-running Jewish-Muslim conflict in the Middle East grab the headlines. But it is the shortage, or unavailability, of food that is the immediate threat to global security." Wickham refers to the Obama administration's commitment to reduce worldwide hunger "along with the countries with the world's eight strongest economies, [as] movement in the right direction," but also emphasizes the importance of the "urgent need to feed hundreds of millions of starving people now" (10/20).

New York Times Opinion Piece Examines Obama's Commitment To MDG, Eradicating Poverty

In light of President Obama's receipt of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, musician and advocate Bono, in a New York Times opinion piece, reflects on statements made by the president during his speech to the U.N. last month, regarding support of the Millennium Development Goals and commitment the eradication of extreme poverty. "The president said that he considered the peace prize a call to action. And in the fight against extreme poverty, it's action, not intentions, that counts," Bono writes.

The statements Obama made during the U.N. meeting "last month will ring hollow unless he returns to next year's United Nations summit meeting with a meaningful, inclusive plan, one that gets results for the billion or more people living on less than $1 a day. The Nobel Peace Prize is the rest of the world saying, 'Don't blow it.' But that's not just directed at Mr. Obama. It's directed at all of us. What the president promised was a 'global plan,' not an American plan. The same is true on all the other issues that the Nobel committee cited, from nuclear disarmament to climate change — none of these things will yield to unilateral approaches. They'll take international cooperation and American leadership" (10/17).