We saw famine in Biafra and Ethiopia. In the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s ‘aid distribution system’ we see an attempt to destroy a whole society
Alex de Waal has been a humanitarian worker and written on famine and related issues for 40 years
When mass starvation grips a community, something rare and terrible occurs. Starvation is not only the biological phenomenon of the body wasting away. It’s also the death rattle of society. Famine is the sight of people scavenging for food in a garbage heap. It’s a woman cooking in secret, hiding food from her starving cousins. It’s a family selling its grandmother’s jewellery for a single meal, their faces blank and emotionless, their eyes glazed. This is the degradation, the humiliation, the shame – and, yes, the dehumanisation – that happens when human beings scrabble for food like animals.
This is a reality that no statistics can capture. And the methods for measuring food emergencies and assigning them grades – “famine” being the worst – break down when society breaks down in this way.
Alex de Waal is executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University in Massachusetts. He has been a humanitarian worker and written on famine and related issues for 40 years
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.