International outrage continues to grow as over a million survivors of Cyclone Nargis desperately stuggle to survive. Over a week after the devasting storm smashed into Myanmar, the ruling junta is demonstrating a callous disregard for its citizens that is as shocking as it is immoral.
Tons of relief supplies and disaster aid float offshore, but is […]

Last week, on May 5th, there was yet another eruption of violence over rising food prices, this time in Mogadishu, Somalia. Somali police fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis, killing at least two.
The rioting broke out as protesters marched against the refusal of traders to accept older 1,000 shilling banknotes, blaming them and a […]

Cyclone Nargis devastated the Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta on May 3, leaving about 62,000 people dead or missing. The U.N., however, has suggested the death toll is likely to be more than 100,000.
The United Nations has reported that only a small portion of international aid so desperately needed for Myanmar’s cyclone victims is making it into the country. There is also […]

Providing charity for the poor and hungry weighs as heavily as all the other commandments of the Torah combined.  

                                          Baba Bata 9a TALMUD
All the world’s great religions agree that providing help for the poor among us is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. Providing for our own daily needs may be a material issue. […]

Abu Sulayman al-Darani used to say; “If I owned the whole world to put into the mouth of a brother of mine, I would still deem it too little for him.”
He also said, “I feed a morsel to a brother of mine and find the taste of it in my own throat.”

                                                          al-Ghazzali
In Sufi literature, […]

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has now joined the growing number of world leaders in warning of the immediate need of addressing the escalating global food prices. On Sunday, the UN top official stated that food production must be increased to help ease the skyrocketing prices.
The Secretary-General also pledged to establish a task force to deal […]

“My children, whenever you give sustenance to the poor, I impute it to you as though you gave sustenance to me.” Does God eat and drink? “No, but whenever you give food to the poor, God accounts it to you as if you gave food to Him”

                                                                         Midrash Tannaim
 
Jewish theology, like both Christian and […]

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank stated  a week ago that global food prices have risen 80% in the past three years. He then warned that at least 33 countries face serious social unrest  as a direct result of these rising food prices.
As I discussed briefly in yesterday’s post, skyrocketing food prices have already […]

This morning I talked with a colleague in Sierra Leone. Francis Webber is the Director of the Sierra Leone Alliance Against Hunger. I want to share his comments.

Life is becoming very hard for the average Sierra Leonean as the price of food commodities are on the rise. Sierra Leone poverty is wide spread over 70% […]

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, has now joined the growing chorus of world leaders in urging for immediate action to deal with escalating food prices. This storm of rising prices is causing increased hunger around the world, and has incided protests, riots and deadly violence in a growing number of countries. (My post, Agflation: a […]