Jeremy Irons está loco de rabia porque 1 000 millones de personas en el mundo sufren de hambre crónica, y quiere que también ustedes estén furiosos. Firmen la petición para poner fin al hambre ahora!

 

TOP 4 HUNGER STATS

 

I grew up in Japan. I’m accustomed to earthquakes. But nothing could have prepared me for this one. It was the first time I saw buildings in Tokyo actually sway back and forth.

I watched live TV coverage as the tsunami swept away entire communities. It was like a horror film, but these are real people – thousands are dead, thousands more are missing. In one city, nearly half of the population is still missing.

And now we’re gripped with the fear of radiation from nuclear power plants. It’s a real-life nightmare.

In the past, Japan has helped the World Food Programme respond to some of the worst disasters around the world. Now, when my country is coping with its own tragedy, I feel proud to stand united with Japan to help people in need.

I’m deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from all over the world. Thanks to the generosity of friends like you, in just 36 hours we raised all the funds we require for our operation in Japan. Thank you.

Amid the devastation left behind by the earthquake and tsunami, transporting goods is an enormous challenge, but families remain in desperate need of emergency supplies and WFP is providing its expertise to make sure those supplies are delivered quickly.

As the lead logistics agency for the United Nations in emergency operations, WFP has decades of experience in delivering food and other relief items in the most difficult environments.

It will take a long time to recover from this disaster. But, between the heroic rescue efforts coordinated by the Japanese government and the incredible support of the international community, I know we’ll get there.

Thank you for the role that you are playing.

Sincerely,

Yuko Yasuda
Japan Spokesperson
World Food Programme

 

The World Food Programme has been asked to assist in the relief efforts of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last Friday. Your donation today will help us provide specialised logistics support to the Japanese government in the delivery of water, tents, and blankets to families who need them the most.

In the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, the World Food Programme has been standing by to provide emergency assistance.

Today we were called upon to help deliver water, tents, and blankets to tens of thousands of families in desperate need.

This was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan, triggering a 10-metre wall of water that washed away scores of people, houses, and farms. Many communities remain inaccessible. Some estimates suggest as many as 10,000 people have been killed. Thousands more are missing.

In times of crisis, the international community looks to WFP for our expertise in disaster response. We have extensive experience in moving food and other relief items quickly to those who need them most.

After the Haiti earthquake, WFP took the lead on solving the logistical challenges of the entire humanitarian community. Now we’re providing specialised support for the massive emergency response operation in Japan, and we need your help.

We’re ensuring families receive the basic supplies they need by addressing the major logistical challenges on the ground.

Should donations to our Japan relief efforts unexpectedly exceed our expenses, any surplus funds will be directed to our crucial emergency operations elsewhere in the world.

As the race continues to reach those in need, please join us in helping the people of Japan.

Thank you for your support in this time of critical need,

Nancy Roman
Director of Communications
World Food Programme

 

where is the meaning of world womens day, when there are still mothers out there sacrificing their dinners so that their children don’t go to be hungry?

i thought quite a bit about the whole celebration of women liberation yesterday. and it is not that i don’t think that it is all well and good, but i think the meaning of it all needs to evolve. to me, successful women celebrating themselves or expecting people to celebrate them is rather redundant. i know the struggled and worked really hard and yada yada, but you know, that is what being human is all about. hard work. and now they are at the top of their game, and i know that it was really difficult for them to get there and they sacrificed a lot, but like i said, every successful human being would tell you that same story. and i know the issues women face and how some of us have it harder than others, so in this very essence, i do believe the struggle continues, but not in the sharing of the joy in successful women, but in the sharing in the pain of women who are still battling to have their humanity acknowledged.

i have never been a feminist, in whichever sense of the word. i do believe however, that all humans are equal. instead of screaming about burning bras, i think we should pass around more pants to more people, men and women. we all work just as hard. we all have our own constrains and we all handle it differently. and that is well and good and fine. THAT should we should be fighting to uphold.

and so it is in this light that i see the fight for womens rights should come from. you know, read about all kinds of parties and celebrations yesterday and all i can think about is how all this money can go to helping those who don’t have much to celebrate about. we delude ourselves into thinking ‘yes, i have made it!’, when in actuality, there is still a fight going on and just because we can’t see it and it is not our fight, it does not concern us. then you know what, that’s not what world women’s day should be about. instead of patting ourselves on your back and pounding your own chests, we need to realise that the fight is still out there. it’s still going on. and we cannot celebrate until our sisters have their humanities recognised and their rights served.

as you shimmy about your party in your little black dress and with your ladies’ cocktail at hand, think about this: where is the meaning of world womens day, when there are still mothers out there sacrificing their dinners so that their children don’t go to be hungry? how can you celebrate world womens day where there are still girls out there dropping out of school so that they can beg on the street or work on the field, just to bring some coins back home for the family?

on world womens day, we need to remind and give hope to our sisters that they are not alone. that things are getting better. that help is on the way. that they are not unworthy. that they are human too. just like the rest of us. we need to take action. we need to believe.

world womens day should be a celebration of all women in the world. not just the successful ones at fancy parties.

 

could we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are shooting stars? i could really use a wish right now…

i don’t eat because i am fasting for ramadhan. this is my own free will. but to our brothers and sisters in pakistan, they have no choice. everything was washed by flood waters. there is no break fast that they can look forward to. there is no sahur to prepare for another day of struggle, for another day with a growling stomach.

you know what? if this happened to you, you’d wish that there was someone somewhere thinking of you, praying for you and reaching out to you too.

 

for the first time in human history, the number of hungry people will exceed one billion this year… ~ world food programme

now here’s something that will really mess you up good. well, it got to me anyway. see, i was sitting in a series of talks some time ago and we’re all talking about saving the world. usual business. deforestation. coral bleaching. the plantations controversy. and we thought we were actually going somewhere with all the big players looking to put in fat dollars into reducing greenhouse gasses and all that jazz.

and then the last speaker comes up. and totally breaks my heart. he was from the world food programme. he goes to the stand, takes the microphone and tells us this: hunger is the face of climate change.

and suddenly, i realise that we have been making it all cool to save the environment and all, but who’s saving the people? and i know the whole chicken and egg story. save the environment and we’ll save all of life as we know it for everything on earth. and i feel that this is mega important. but the thing is, climate change is happening now. and despite projections that things can only get worse from here, with what ‘little’ effect the weather is having on us now, there are people out there who are dying because of this.

and what’s worse is how people are dying as a result of climate change. they are starving to death. and if you ask me, this is the absolute saddest and most unfair way to die. when you look at the rest of the world and see people eating like there is no tomorrow, wasting food, becoming unhealthy because they eat way too much; and then you see people clawing each other over a cup of rice – you know that there is something very wrong with how we’re managing the world.

and the reality is this, it is not that we don’t have enough food to go around. i seriously absolutely refuse to believe this. all i got to do is stroll over to the canteen downstairs and wee how much leftover there are, and how much half eaten food there is wasted on every other plate to see this proven again and again. and this habit of wasting is not just a local thing. see this blog, i have travelled all over the world and i can tell you that people throw food away everywhere. and if only, IF ONLY we control our own consumption, we really would not waste so much, and seriously people, we would not be so unhealthy.

because i know what it is like to be hungry and it is not cool. at all. i have undertaken fasting for a full month every ramadhan for years. but more than that, i have been that poor backpacker venturing into the big bad world out there. that poor backpacker who set out to see the world, but could only afford one meal a day, with meals so simple, i go to sleep with grumbling stomachs and wake up to it filled with air.

and i look around me, colleagues and business partners with blank looks on their faces because suddenly, they’re stuck in between. who do we save now? the environment? or the hungry people?

and here’s another reality bite: there is no glamour in saving hungry people. there is a new glam to saving the world and going green. but you score no publicity points really, for sharing a meal with a hungry person. no carbon credits earned for donating food to a welfare home. and that puts us on a bridge, doesn’t it? why pledge to help hungry people?

the answer is simple: because you know what it is like to be hungry. we all business suited corporate people know what it is like to skip breakfast and/or lunch, for whatever reason, and be hungry at the end of the day. and because of this, we all know that giving to help people who need food to eat, is the right thing to do.

we all want to save the world. we are the world. the trees, nature, the environment. but closer to our hearts, the people, our brothers and our sisters.

 

hope for haiti

the thing is this, people are saying the casualty count is like 200,000 – 300,000 people? that’s the death count. that’s how many friends and family members lost. everyone else is injured and homeless and hungry. among them are over 50,000 kids and almost 20,000 pregnant and breast feeding women.

and haiti was not exactly the most well off country to begin with. even before the quake, there was violence on the streets, high number of homelessness, low literacy and hunger.

this is the video made by the uk artistes + friends to raise money for haiti relief. the tauke is simon cowell. like duh. it starts with leona lewis. the song is a remake of REM’s song with clips of scenes from haiti and snips of the artistes kat belakang.

and this one was made by the americans + friends. to me, this song initially struck me as overdone. i mean, pop + hiphop + rap + carlos santana and lil wayne going electronica in the same studio? don’t get me wrong, i actually adore the rap part. and wyclef jean’s creole twist. tapi it is a bit too much to hit you at one go. gotta listen to it a few times before it sorts itself out in the brain. but hey, its supposed to show unity and all that kan? so ya. that works. harmony out the window, seriously (except the rap), but unity ada.

a home is an awful thing to lose. home as in family. where you rest your head at night. where you sit around the dining room making fun of your little sister. where you feel safe.

and then, it is gone. it is not your fault. not anyone’s fault. the earth moved. and i was reading in the papers how the night the buildings came down, hundreds of thousands of people people slept in the streets because there really is no where else to go.

 

i’m starting with the man in the mirror. i’m asking him to change his way. ~ michael jackson

following the copenhagen proceedings and press conferences via webcast has been greatly exciting and frustrating at the same time. i simply cannot imagine what i would do if i was actually there in denmark. seriously, i really wouldn’t know if i would be one of those screaming at the airport, or behaving so that i would be allowed in the conference facilities. i know a lot of people who are pessimistic about the outcome of the conference, but even with all the cynicism, i have a good feeling about this. i think something will happen. note, i did not say something good will definitely happen. but something will.

the thing i notice about people who are pessimistic about the conference is that they are waiting for governments to do something. governments should come up with policies la, regulations la, laws la, subsidies la, incentives la. so much so that they see the climate as a government problem, not their problem. and to me, this is where the denial dilemma comes in.

see, they need to realize that if things go to the point that governments need to impose this and that, our life as we know it will be forced to change. if they impose higher electricity tariffs, for example, in order to promote the use of renewable energy, we complaint. if they increase the price of food, to prevent wastage, we complaint. and yet, if governments don’t do anything, we blame them for being complacent to the trends.

i’m not defending any government here. i have mentioned many times that i really cannot be bothered to delve into petty politics. it is just that i truly believe that change should be a personal choice. that is why awareness and practice is important.

for example, we don’t have to wait for someone to tell us that it is wrong to waste food, we should know ourselves that that is wrong. and we should not give ourselves stupid excuses to waste food either. i know a lot of people who say that they are kenyang already so cannot finish their rice. this is classic stupidity. when taking your rice, you should already know your limits. i have not yet met a single mamak who forced me to take a full plate of rice when i tell him that i want nasi separuh only.

and if that is the issue with food, can you imagine the issue with the environment? i have actually started this thing that i was at a traffic light and someone in front of me throws a tissue out of their car and onto the road, i would totally honk at them. yang sedihnya, they would give me that look, that they genuinely don’t know what they did wrong. now that, is a problem.

and so back to copenhagen oh copenhagen. in the most extreme end of the spectrum, kalau la in the next week when all the leaders arrive they can put all the squabbles aside, we can finally see a politically binding text (because the negotiators say that it’s too late for a treaty already, oh sigh) and we will see all kinds of environmental pollicies finally shoved down the throats of the world’s people – not that its a necessarily bad thing. sure, lots of people will complaint. but this is because we have not taken the effort to understand why and do something about it awal-awal.

or copenhagen could flop and nothing happens and the leaders go home dengan tangan kosong. in my prediction, if this happens, it will cause slowly but surely built tension between countries. remember, if copenhagen flops, it will not be because everyone agrees to do nothing. no way, man. if it flops, it will be because some superpowers don’t want it, and other member blocs were out veto-ed. and you know what, the world will then shift. huntington calls this one of the signs of the clash of civilisations. i read the book. it ain’t pretty.

so, apa nak buat in the mean time? i would actually echo what the copenhagen delegates in the interfaith press conference said, search inside ourselves, and do what’s right.

if i were in copenhagen, i would be singing michael jackson songs in the hotel lobby. yea.

 

there is enough for everybody’s need. there is not enough for everybody’s greed. ~ gandhi

in my social circles, i have been listening for months now how badly our economy has been crippled. how bad times are. how people got to tighten their belts. how companies are retrenching and jobs are hard to hang on to. bla bla bla.

and here’s what i say about it: all of you saying that the world has gone bad just don’t know what bad is. and i have a very easy way of proving this to you. go to any gerai makan or mamak or food stall or even fancy restaurant. that is how you can tell for sure. because as long as people don’t finish their food on their plates, that is as long as we are NOT in some sort of crisis.

people say times are bad, but we still put more food on our plates than we can finish. we still put too much rice. we are still greedy with our food portions. we still push away plates of half eaten food when we are done. and we continue to do this over and over again day by day by day.

seriously, man. you know how much you can handle. if you are not able to finish, then don’t take so much in the first place.

and i am not saying there is anything wrong with eating a lot. as long as you know that you can finish the food, go ahead and heap it up. nothing wrong there. i have an ex that ate rice by the mountains. i am serious. but he always finished his food. because he knew he could.

and don’t give me that crap about dah kenyang so cannot makan any more. then don’t take so much in the first place, DUH! and don’t give me that bull that you can’t help the portion. everywhere i go, i can tell the mamak or the makcik at the gerai to kurang nasi. or bagi nasi setengah. and they are too happy to oblige.

you want to know the biggest nonsense i have ever heard? when someone takes a big portion of food and claims that they nak rasa saja. just to taste? you need to take a heap of the thing and all you want to do is nibble a taste of it?!

there are one billion people going hungry in the world everyday this year. i bet you did not know that. i bet you don’t think of them when you are pushing away your half eaten plate of rice and half eaten piece of fried fish and the vegetables that you say don’t taste so nice so you won’t eat them. i bet you don’t know that more than half of the one billion hungry people in the world everyday are asians. our neighbours.

so here’s some food for thought on this rainy tuesday morning. lunch is in about two and a half hours (for some of us, anyway). think about this on your way to the cafeteria this afternoon.