[thechat] Ending famine - politician style

[Martin Burns]

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, Madhu Menon wrote:

> http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002391624,00.html

Hi Madhu

You do know that the Sun is a comic, not a newspaper, don't you?

> <quote>
>
> THE sickening champagne and caviar lifestyle being enjoyed by Earth Summit
> delegates was exposed yesterday.
> They are gorging on mountains of lobster, oysters and fillet steak at the
> Johannesburg conference — aimed at ending FAMINE.

One of the (iirc) 4 conferences. Actually, the conference as a whole is
about sustainable development...

> While people are going hungry at shanty towns just a couple of miles away,
> Mr Morgan told how he had stocked up with an extraordinary array of
> delicacies and fine wines.

> He has also got in more than 4,400lbs of fillet steak and chicken breasts,
> 450lbs of salmon, 220lbs of a tasty South African fish called kingclip —
> and more than 1,000lbs of bacon and sausages.

None of which are in short supply in South Africa. SA doesn't have a
*lack* of food problem, it has an economic inequality problem.

Particularly, meat of all kinds, but steak especially, is pretty much a
staple diet, and while Kingclip sounds like a delicacy to UK ears, it's
pretty much "the default fish you get when you eat out, and you may not
get a choice," rather than anything extravagent.

If you're feeding *anyone* with professional catering, that's pretty much
what you'll get in RSA. And giving the total amounts without also saying
how many you're feeding and for how long is pretty much straight out of
"How to lie with statistics"

> </quote>
>
> Gorging on extravagant food at a summit to end famine - at taxpayers'
> expense. Oh, the sickening irony...

As I said, only one of the conferences is at taxpayers' expense.

Cheers
Martin

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