All Those Starving Children With The Distended Bellies In...Quebec?
Yes, they're all over Canada. Or they must be, because the UN Human Rights Council's hunger monitor, Oliver de Schutter, is not going to Syria, where a 12-year-old boy told Reuters Thursday, "There is no food and no clean water, nothing."
No, the UN hunger monitor is going to investigate...Canada! (Hello, crazytime!)
Hillel Neuer writes for the NatPost:
That's right. Despite dire food emergencies around the globe, De Schutter will be devoting the scarce time and resources of the international community on an 11-day tour of Canada--a country that ranks at the bottom of global hunger concerns.A key co-ordinator and promoter of De Schutter's mission is Food Secure Canada, a lobby group whose website accuses the Harper government of "failing Canadians...and [failing to] fulfill the right to food for all." The group calls instead for a "People's Food Policy."
I asked De Schutter if his time wouldn't better be spent on calling attention to countries that actually have starving people.
"Globally, 1.3 billion people are overweight or obese," he responded via his spokesperson, "and this causes a range of diseases such as certain types of cancers, cardio-vascular diseases or (especially) type-2 diabetes that are a huge burden."
In other words, the hunger expert is not even that interested in hunger, but the opposite. Sure, we should all eat less fries, but do Canadians need a costly UN inquiry to tell us that?
via Kate Coe
"Food Secure Canada" hasn't been eating right, itself. If they think food is a "right", not only are they deluded, their opponent is Mother Nature herself, ready and able to punish their stupidity at a moment's notice regardless of their wishes.
I'm sure rural Canadians, who know what winter brings without fail, find them amusing.
Radwaste at May 8, 2012 2:42 AM
"The group calls instead for a "People's Food Policy"
North Korea has a People's Food Policy. It's not working out (not much obesity there, I'll admit).
Martin at May 8, 2012 6:48 AM
The UN is government, for those who don't already have enough. I'll pass, thank you.
MarkD at May 8, 2012 7:05 AM
Ah, Canada. See, unlike those other troubled places in the world, De Schutter isn't likely to be shot at/taken hostage/blown up in Canada.
I R A Darth Aggie at May 8, 2012 7:12 AM
It is simple the hotels are better in Canada. I would suspect the hotels in the middle of Syria would not have room service or turn down service.
The UN is useless. Good idea that has morphed into a useless body unlike the League of Nations.
John Paulson at May 8, 2012 7:35 AM
well, you see, compliance, doncha'know?
Compliant people are so much easier to control than violent ones...
SwissArmyD at May 8, 2012 8:34 AM
This is all a clever ruse to try and capture the SPR (Strategic Poutine Reserve).
Peter H at May 8, 2012 11:38 AM
"People's Food Policy" sounds like something out of North Korea.
Lobster at May 8, 2012 2:16 PM
Maybe while he's there investigating Canadian food, he can find out why they insist on calling ham "Canadian bacon."
Conan the Grammarian ... eh at May 8, 2012 3:13 PM
Well food insecurity and obesity aren't mutually exclusive--often they're two sides of the same coin. Forget about eating low carb--when you're hungry and you don't know where your next meal is coming from, you take what you can get or what you can afford, which is invariably cheap, starchy carbs. When I helped package up food boxes at a homeless shelter, everything we were giving these people was absolute crap (crackers, boxes of mac and cheese, cookies, canned fruit etc)--but that's what companies donated so there wasn't much of a choice. The meals the shelter served typically had a protein and vegetable, but they were still very starchy and high-carb--because that's what's cheapest. You don't necessarily have to be overeating or spending a ton of money on food to get obese, you just have to be eating really, really badly and for many people there's no other option.
Shannon at May 9, 2012 9:00 AM
"It is simple the hotels are better in Canada. I would suspect the hotels in the middle of Syria would not have room service or turn down service."
That, and the civil war has killed the sex-tourism industry there.
Cousin Dave at May 9, 2012 1:07 PM
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