...Understanding Famine: Entitled failure, Food Availability Decline or something else? Famine is defined in the dictionary as “extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area, any extreme and general scarcity, extreme hunger; starvation.” (Dictionary.com) Famines happen as a result of things such as Natural Disasters, Lack of rain/drought and not much money. Most droughts happen in the developing countries (Third world countries), which aren't economically successful and also near the equator (latitude), as their climate is very different. Amartya Sen’s paper “Ingredients of famine analysis: availability and entitlements” looks at other approaches of famine. The paper looks more into the command of food and the legal means in society more then the shortages and availability’s of food. Firstly Amartya Sen looks at the Availability approach: This looks directly into the availability of food. He highlights the main increasing problems with lack of food and confesses his concern on the continuation in famines. Sen seems to question the traditional definition of the Famine “extreme and general scarcity of food….”. Sen believes that starvation is directly as a result of people not having enough food and not the there is not enough food available to eat. If there is enough food available surely means that famine should not exist. Unluckily this is not the case and Sen’s paper continues and looks at the “Entitlement Approach”. The Entitlement...
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...charge of the administration of Government relief to the victims of the Irish Famine in the 1840s. In the middle of that crisis Trevelyan published his views on the matter. He saw the Famine as a ‘mechanism for reducing surplus population’. But it was more: ‘The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated. …The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people’. Such racist and sectarian views of the Irish were common enough within the English governing classes and were more crudely expressed by others. For the most part, Trevelyan’s views reflected the prevailing Whig economic and social opinion and that of the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, who held office from 1846 until 1852. Trevelyan was stiff and unbending. He firmly believed in laissez faire (essentially, the importing of food should be left to the food merchants), he thought that the Government should not intervene, and warned of the danger that people might get into the habit of depending on the state. From March 1846 he controlled the public works through the disbursement of public funds. Under Trevelyan, relief by public works in 1846–7 was too little too late but also it was slow, inefficient and sometimes corrupt. He defended the export of grain from famine-stricken Ireland on the grounds that the Government should not interfere with...
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...Introduction Famine is described by the Global Express Edition as a “crisis in which starvation from too little food results in a sharp amount of deaths in one place,”[1] and a crisis it is. In addition to war, famine is also one of the most common ways of which people are dieing in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Famine, on the other hand, is not as widely talked about, around the world, but leads to the same result, numerous amounts of deaths. Hundreds of thousands to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa have died as a result of this crisis in different nations, such as Sudan, Ethiopia, (fill in different countries). However, famine is not something that happens overnight, and many factors lead to this major crisis. There are many major factors that build up to the final occurrence of a famine in sub-Saharan Africa. The major causes of famine are droughts, war, economic issues, and food distribution. One of the five causes may lead to a major famine, however, when two or more of the causes “work together” to produce a famine, the situation may become hectic. For example, if a war happens to erupt during a drought, it becomes harder for a nation to prevent an all-out famine crisis rather than if their was just a drought. It has become apparent that international and national intervention is needed to help prevent future famines from taking place. Organizations such as the United Nations (UN), Food Association Organization (FAO), United States Aid...
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...The aim of this essay is to define famine and also to identify the underlying causes and possible solutions. To begin with, major concepts will be defined followed by a discussion, thereafter a conclusion shall be drawn. Famine has been defined differently by many scholars. In terms of food supply based, Brown and Eckholm (1974) have defined famine as sudden, sharp reduction in food supply resulting in widespread hunger. In food consumption based, famine is defined as lack of food over large geographical areas sufficiently long and severe to cause widespread disease and death from starvation (Chamber’s Encyclopedia) and in relation to mortality based, Ravillion (1997:1205) defines famine as an unusually high mortality with unusually severe threat to food intake of some segments of a population. In general terms famine is a complex process, usually arising from a combination of factors over an extended period. Famine is caused by a number of factors. The immediate causes are drought, flooding and low levels of crop planting. In addition, chronic poverty and inadequate policies in developing countries are also contributing factors. These conditions have combined to result in severe shortfalls in food production and in turn high prices for maize, the staple food of most developing countries. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (the standard used by the UN), famine occurs when the following conditions occur; 20 percent of population has fewer than 2...
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...Name Class Professor Date The Famine Ships: A Wing and a Prayer The Famine Ships is a book written by Edward Laxton about the Irish exodus from their ravished homeland. The focus on the book is describing what it was like to travel on these ships across the Atlantic Ocean while encountering storms, icebergs, disease, and starvation. The trips were often long and horrifying for the passengers, but they were forced to make the journey due to worsening conditions in Ireland at the time. As the potato crop continued to fail, more and more Irish left their homeland for America and Canada on these famine ships. In search of a better existence, many Irish risked their lives by taking the 3,000-mile voyage on ships that weren’t fit for service. Many of them died from sickness, starvation or accidents while in route, yet they kept coming, for their fate at home was even worse. Between 1846 and 1851 emigration from Ireland to America and Canada increased drastically due to the deteriorating famine conditions in Ireland. When the potato crop failed in 1846, “more than 100,000 had crossed the Atlantic by year’s end” (Laxton 13). This mass evacuation of people required more ships than were available, so many ships were refitted in order to carry passengers one way and then freight the other. The living quarters beneath the ships were over crowded and unsanitary. Wooden boards were thrown together in the ship’s hold as makeshift bunks, and each passenger had a very...
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...Famine Case Study 2011 Shohei Morita 3 November 2011 Examine causes and consequences of a recent famine. Since July 2011, Somalia has been hit with East Africa’s worst drought in 60 years, with over 12 million people in east African region needing food aid, according to the UN. They have also warned that this drought and famine could cause death of over 750 000 people in Somalia. As it can be seen on Map 1, other countries around Somalia such as Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia have been affected as well. The key on the map shows that the areas marked with dark red are areas affected the most. The UN officially declared famine on 20 July 2011 in southern Somalia. Since then, 4 more regions including the entire Bay region in Somalia were declared famine. Somalia has been affected by constant drought for the past 30 years, while having civil war causing destruction to its rural and urban economies. Somalia has been categorized as a “failed state”. So what has caused them to become a failed state? Causes of this recent famine can be categorized into social, economic, and environmental. Somalia is also known as a failed state, a country without government. Besides the civil war they have had for the past 20 years, corrupted governments and lack of infrastructures. Firstly, Somalia has a corrupted government and lack of infrastructure. This prevents any form of aid group or government from transporting food and any other aid items. Also, the Somalia ordered 700 tons of...
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...of Irish to America and other English-speaking countries. But even emigration was no panacea -- shipowners often crowded hundreds of desperate Irish onto rickety vessels labeled "coffin ships." In many cases, these ships reached port only after losing a third of their passengers to disease, hunger and other causes. While Britian provided much relief for Ireland's starving populace, many Irish criticized Britain's delayed response -- and further blamed centuries of British political oppression on the underlying causes of the famine. The Irish Famine of 1846-50 took as many as one million lives from hunger and disease, and changed the social and cultural structure of Ireland in profound ways. The Famine also spurred new waves of immigration, thus shaping the histories of the United States and Britain as well. The combined forces of famine, disease and emigration depopulated the island; Ireland's population dropped from 8 million before the Famine to 5 million years after. If Irish nationalism was dormant for the...
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...Famine, Affluence, and Morality Terry Simmons PHI 208 Instructor: Stephen Carter January 28, 2013 Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer opens his argument by introducing the reader to a famine in Bengal setting up his first premise stating “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad”. (Singer, 1972) Singer elaborates to say this is merely one point of view and that some “people can hold all sorts of eccentric positions, and perhaps from some of them it would not follow that death by starvation is in itself bad.” (Singer, 1972) He continues to say that for this discussion it will be assumed all accept the above argument. The next argument continues with “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it” (Singer, 1972). Singer gives an example of what this would entail, “if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing.” (Singer, 1972) He then points out that there are flaws in our way of thinking (Singer, 1972). The socially acceptable standard is that we would offer help to one who is physically near us, simply because of the close proximity. The flaw lies in the fact that we are less motivated to help someone who is further...
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...“How Fish Cope in a World of Feast and Famine” Samantha Erickson I attended a seminar on “How Fish Cope in a World of Feast and Famine,” given by Dr. Johnny Armstrong. Dr. Armstrong received his doctorate in Ecology from the University of Wyoming with a emphasis in physiological ecology, specifically the adaptation and survival of fish. The study he explained in his seminar was completed in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska and studied Sockeye salmon. He talked about how he studied how the Sockeye ate in patterns where there were no food supply verses times where food supply was abundant. The object of his experiment was to watch the behavior patterns of the feeding of the fish at those different times and how the sockeye dealt with famine and with an overflow of food source. He set up areas in the middle of the streams where he could catch the fish at different times of feeding, or lack there of, and examine the contents of their stomachs. He found that in times where food was abundant, the Sockeye would stuff themselves to absolute breaking point with laid eggs. Then they would keep the eggs in their system by hardly swimming. Doing this they were actually able to not eat for three days in a row before having to eat again. In times where there was very little food, the fish would again use this method of hardly swimming, more just floating up stream to the warmer waters during the day, and travel downstream to cooler waters at night to scrape the bottom of the stream for...
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...Peter Singer – “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” Dora Crawford Prof. David Tredinnick 12/19/2012 When it comes to the article "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" mostly argues about not one but more than several things. In some point most people can agree with his arguments unlike others whom may not see his point of view. One of these arguments was lack of food. This was brought up or inspired by the starvation of Bangladesh his main focus was that if one can use one's wealth to reduce suffering for example, by aiding famine-relief efforts without any significant reduction in the well-being of oneself or others, it is immoral not to do so. According to Singer, such inaction is clearly immoral. If a child is drowning in a shallow pond and someone can save it but chooses not to; nor does placing greater geographical distance between the person in need and the potential helper reduce the latter's moral obligations. “It makes no difference whether the person I can help is a neighbor's child ten yards away from me or a Bengali whose name I shall never know, ten thousand miles away. The moral point of view requires us to look beyond the interests of our own society. Previously, this may hardly have been feasible, but it is quite feasible now. From the moral point of view, the prevention of the starvation of millions of people outside our society must be considered at least as pressing as the upholding of property norms within our society.” Singers main...
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...In the 1840s, Ireland was plagued with a blight in their most important crop, the potato. This event was a major travesty as millions of Irish people emigrated or died of starvation. Since this event, many different viewpoints have arisen to explain the deaths, the blight, the overall effect, and many other specific occurrences that became a staple of the potato famine. In the article by Hubert Nusteling, “How Many Irish Potato Famine Deaths? Toward Coherence of the Evidence”, it takes a stance on the miscalculation of the deaths during the famine by using models, predictions, and records accounting the population (Nusteling). On the other hand, “ The Great Potato Famine and the Transformation of Irish Peasant Society” by Dean Braa, assess the change in peasant lineage population resulting from the potato famine, and how British Colonization had first caused the dependency on the potato (Braa). The two articles take varying approaches in quantifying the...
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...Munachonga Banji David St. Aubin PHL 102-004 November 10, 2016 Commentary In the essays “Famine, Affluence and Morality” by Peter Singer and “Poverty and Parenthood” by Stuart Rachel, both authors argue on their different viewpoint of what is morally right when it comes to preventing suffering and what hinders us to prevent or reduce that suffering. They both agree that donation to charity to reduce suffering is a short term solution, while reducing the population on the planet is a permeant solution to the suffering of starvation. They argue that it is our individual duty to make reasonable choices that will help prevent the suffering, but their view on what these choices are differs. In his essay, Perter Singer argues that affluent nations have the duty to prevent avoidable poverty and death in poorer nations. He states that our negative actions towards the suffering caused by poverty and death are not justifiable. By ignoring the suffering, we as a society are taking life for...
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...In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Peter Singer begins by stating, people in East Bengal are dying from a shortage of food, shelter, and medical assistance. Singer says, this is a completely avoidable problem if richer nations took more notice and provided appropriate aid. He then continues to say that Britain, who provided the largest amount of financial aid to the people in East Bengal, provided more than thirty times that amount on a means of transportation. Singer then equates this and says that due to their actions, Britain values this project thirty times more than it values the people in East Bengal. Singer also uses this example to set up the rest of his argument by stating a general belief that, suffering and death from a lack of food, shelter and medical assistance is a bad thing....
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...Ethiopia`s development from famine to economic growth The classic theory of modernization has its origins in the 1950`s, a post-war period which challenged strategists to investigate the problems faced by the underdeveloped countries, in their attempt to provide aid programs and technological assistance and promote long-term economic growth and political stability. Typical traditional societies were analyzed in the processes through which they should develop into modern social structures by following an unidirectional path similar to the ones already tested by the Western societies. Several factors that contribute to the development of a modern society (including technological, economic, social, political, military and cultural innovations) were illustrated in many studies of this theory. The complexity of outcomes was generally overlooked, making necessary more than just the classic theory for a proper analysis of a country`s modernization. Thus, the Harvard Project, the most relevant study on the social and cultural aspects of development, emphasized that an ideal model can`t be defined, as the modern personality corresponds more to a desirable plan of modern society than to the contradictory nature of modern reality. Therefore, I will further seek to determine Ethiopia`s (one of the countries severely affected by famine for the last years) development in its process of modernization. Ethiopia has been plagued by famine going back to the 16th century. While climatic conditions...
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...the scale of the great famine in China, 1958-65? Mao introduced collectivisation in 1956, two years before the beginning of the great famine. It lasted between the years of 1958 and 1961, where millions of peasants and industrial worker died due to a severe lack of food. Most historians argue that the scale of the famine was due to the agricultural reforms introduced by Mao in the Great Leap Forward, but Mao blamed other factors. Collectivisation involved the peasants joining together to farm collectively rather than individually. They then had to share the food produced with the rest of the community, as opposed to just their families, which had been the way the previous, traditional system worked. This, in theory, was a good idea; if the peasants worked together they could share knowledge and potentially grow more food. However, they didn’t like the policy as it meant, regardless of how much they grew individually, they would only get a set amount, and it was never enough to feed the whole family. Mao believed that many peasants were growing more food than necessary and keeping some for themselves, however this was proved not to be the case; production rate had fallen from 200million in 1958 to 143.5million in 1960, proving that they were innocent; Mao simply didn’t trust the peasants, believing they were ‘inherently capitalist’ and were against being a communist state. The policy of collectivisation contributed hugely to the scale of the famine; the peasants resented...
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