Pope blames speculation, corruption for "scandalous" food crisis

[Judi Lynn]

Pope blames speculation, corruption for "scandalous" food crisis
June 20, 2013 03:09 PM

ROME: Pope Francis said on Thursday that financial speculation and corruption were keeping millions of people in hunger and the financial crisis could not be used as an alibi for failing to to help the poor.

The speech was the latest in a series of criticisms by the Argentinian pontiff, the first Latin American pope, of what he has called "the dictatorship of the economy" and the spread of consumerist values.

"It is a well-known fact that current levels of production are sufficient, yet millions of people are still suffering and dying of starvation. This is truly scandalous," he said in a speech to participants of a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome.

Francis has made repeated calls to tackle poverty and focus on the needs of the poor since he succeeded Pope Benedict in March. He has made it his mission to rejuvenate an institution reeling from scandals, including widepread sexual abuse by priests, and losing people to other faiths.

More:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Jun-20/221020-pope-blames-speculation-corruption-for-scandalous-food-crisis.ashx#axzz2WsB2WedX

[Socialistlemur]

1. Easier said than done

I guess the Pope is a good man and knows the Bible very well. I was happy to see him get the job. Ad I really disliked the scurrilous attacks against him which came out from under the rocks as soon as he was named.

This pope is one of those men who is likely to get everybody mad at him at one time or the other because he's not respecting anybody's status quo, sacred cows, or conventional wisdom.

But when it comes to food and hunger he is going to have to deal with his own conventional wisdom and deeply held beliefs. We can't continue to increase population on this planet and expect to feed ourselves. It's a mathematical certainty. And it has nothing to do with poor distribution. So he's going to have to show if he's indeed ready to act on all fronts and stop forbidding contraception and behaving as a medieval wonk when it comes to abortion and women's rights. If he shows he's like a claymore mine and only shoots shrapnel outwards and doesn't deal with outdated church dogma then he's going to fail.

Furthermore, the key to ending hunger, besides solving the overpopulation and environmental collapse as we have seen in countries such as Rwanda and Kiribati, there needs to be a realization that giving food away in a given area is a guaranteed formula to destroy local farmers. And this just makes matters worse.