Billionaires need to feed the hungry

Ikhtiar Mohammad

While there are millions who cannot afford bread and butter even once a day, there are others who have ample wealth which is impossible for them to spend in their lifetime.

“I cannot manage to feed my son even twice a day let alone paying for his medical treatment,” said Hasan’s mother. Hasan Mirza Mohmmad is a ten years old boy, weighs only nine kilograms, and he has got several health complications. Similar to Hasan, around 25 million children in Yemen are suffering from undernourishment. Save the Children International said, families faced impossible choices on whether to pay to take a sick baby to hospital at the expense of feeding the rest of the family. This is only a part of the scenery. One in nine people in the world go hungry each day and suffer from nutritional deficiencies as a result.

The world is heading towards a terrible famine. Acute food crisis is projected to strike countries across continents. Millions of people could starve to death.

The whole human race is at the forefront of a catastrophe. From the advent of the covid-19 outbreak, the United Nations has been repeatedly insisting on this word of warning. International organizations are urging the world’s richest individuals to help fight this dire situation.  

Currently, 270 million people around the world risk going hungry, which is 82 percent increase from the pre-coronavirus time. World Food Programme (WFP) fears that at least 30 million people would die from hunger if immediate assistance is not extended. Approximately, $4.9 billion a year is needed to save those 30 million malnourished dying population. The famine can wreck Africa and the Middle East severely.

A WFP report says about 10.5 million people are fighting hunger in Congo. In Nigeria, four to six million people are striving for food.

Three million people are already starving in Yemen and another two million are on the verge of losing purchasing power to buy one meal a day.

At present, there are no less than 2,000 billionaires in the world, each of whom owns at least one billion dollars. Their accumulated wealth, including annual income, is more than 8 trillion dollars. This is commendable that even in this extreme situation, many of them continued making fortune.

The Institute for Policy Studies reported, the total wealth of US billionaires has increased by at least 19 percent since the onset of the corona virus crisis. Since January 1, 34 of the wealthiest 170 U.S. billionaires have seen their total net worth increase by tens of millions of dollars, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. These include eight billionaires who, as of April 10, have seen wealth gains of over $1 billion. This is high time for those well-endowed riches to come forward and stand by the helpless humankind.

The planet is going through a horrendous cataclysm, which many of us have never seen before. In the face of unfolding food insecurity globally, it is a matter of moral obligation, humanity, and human rights to extend support to the marginal people. While there are millions who cannot afford bread and butter even once a day, there are others who have ample wealth which is impossible for them to spend in their lifetime. Letting people starving to death and being indifferent is unexpected, especially for them who are lucky enough to have a fortune. With that note, let me conclude from the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, “…a peaceful world cannot exist one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.”

Ikhtiar Mohammad is a Fulbright grantee at the Institute of International Education (IIE) Exchange Programs – U.S. Department of State and is a graduate public policy student at the University of Maryland, College Park