On The Horns of an Absurdity

The situation in many parts of the world facing food shortages is dire.  It is estimated that fifteen million people in western and southern Africa are facing starvation, from Niger to Burkina Faso to the Sahel regions.  And then there is North Korea where, like Africa, prolonged drought has added to continual situations of low crop yields, along with a government that has little interest in providing for its people.

In Syria where the government of President Bashar al-Assad is attacking his own people demanding his ouster, there looms mass starvation.  According to the World Food Program, a half-million Syrians haven't enough to eat.  The "Arab Spring" phenomena, of masses of people protesting against their autocratic governments was as much about food availability and cost as it was about greater freedoms.

But it is to Canada, representing the first advanced country of the world, where the "special Rapporteur on the right to food", is going - to investigate charges levelled by a lobby group, Food Secure Canada, whose website claims that the current Conservative government is "failing Canadians...and [failing to] fulfill the right to food for all".

A creature of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN's food monitor is set to investigate the situation not in the Horn of Africa, in Syria or in Egypt or Tunisia, but in Canada, a wealthy, First-World, advanced economy where food is plentiful and relatively inexpensive.  Olivier de Schutter of Belgium who is the Special Rapporteur, doubtless feels his search will validate the complaints launched by Food Secure Canada.

The United Nation's "right to food" agenda under the mandate of the UN's Human Rights Council is a political tool, one wielded by nations of the world sitting on the Council whose record in providing for their people's basic needs is less than stellar.  But as a political tool, allegations and investigations to reveal provisions shortages in countries that do provide for their populations, the one-upsmanship game prevails.

The original individual selected by the newly-launched 'right to food' offshoot of the Human Rights Council nominated by Cuba, co-sponsored by China, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe among others, was a politician who in 1989 announced the creation of the Muammar Gadhafi Human Rights Prize.  Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez were awarded recipients of the Muammar Gadhafi Human Rights Prize.

And the man elevated to the original position of Special Rapporteur, Jean Ziegler himself was awarded the prize, along with a Holocaust denier, Roger Garaudy.  Those whom Special Rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler attacked were not those countries of the world whose politics and social constructs denied their people the basics of existence, but rather the West in general and the U.S. and Israel in particular.

Current Special Rapporteur De Schutter blames the countries of the West for a lack of food in depressed parts of the world, not their governments.  Furthermore, De Schutter, his predecessor and the UN Human Rights Council are so consumed with the perceived need to attack Israel for its very existence, they maintain that the 'occupation' is responsible for food shortages in Gaza.

De Schutter was not dreadfully pleased and issued a rebuke to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's conclusion that Israel's blockade of Gaza, meant to put a halt to the importation of missiles and arms by Hamas was absolutely legal.  The very legitimate issue of hunger in the world and a shortage of food to feed the hungry and the desperate is ill served by this political sham.

But then, just as the UN Human Rights Council has proven itself over time to be an outright, outrageous political sham whose work runs counter to the name they proudly preen before, the position of the Special Rapporteur is also an outright sham.  Canada will ensure that the Special Rapporteur will meet with all the bureaucrats in various government departments he wishes to interview.

But meetings that Olivier de Schutter requested with Cabinet Ministers are not likely to eventuate.