#74 A WOMAN'S BRIEFS -- FOOD
BREAD APLENTY HERE IN THE USA, in case you’d like a slice of toast
I ate breakfast this morning, old fashioned oatmeal with sliced fresh strawberries, blueberries, banana, and mango. No sugar (however, I could have added sugar, it’s here in our house). I did add a bit of half-half cream. Then, after forty minutes or so at the gym, I had a snack.
I filled the bird feeders this morning. The birds have plenty. I wish the small Douglas squirrel robbing from our feeders stayed in the nearby woods rather than visiting our balcony avocado trees, and from those jumping to a window screen here in front of my desk, and from the screen to the window-attached feeder. She’s hungry, and she knows where food is.
My husband had breakfast. Scooter our dog did, as well. The three of us will eat again today easily enough. There’s plenty.
I brought some mixed nuts with me to my desk where I am now, where I meant to write a bit about AI. I’m trying to learn about it. AI and Crypto-Currency are pushing against my brain as things I wish I didn’t have to understand even ever so slightly but are upon us in our world so a bit of understanding should be sought.
I opened my computer and the first thing I saw was this from The Atlantic: “The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food”
Now . . . Quiet your knee-jerk reaction. This is not a Trump criticism. Maybe the last time this sort of food action occurred was during a Democratic administration. Next time, it may be an Independent or Third Party action. It isn’t “WHO” that concerns me, it is “HOW” can we Americans permit this.
How can I sit at my computer, munch on a roasted almond, offer a bite to my dog, Scooter, and not respond to this article?
It begins,
“Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it.
EGGS? PLENTY HERE NOW
Here’s what AI told me when I asked, where in the world are people starving?
“Several regions and countries are currently experiencing severe hunger crises where people are dying from starvation or related complications. These include parts of Sudan, Gaza, Yemen, and South Sudan, with Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, and Somalia also facing significant challenges. Additionally, areas like Syria, Nigeria, and Myanmar are also at high risk.”
I can’t help but think of our South Sudanese friend, Arketa, who ran from rebels into the jungle, who knows the meaning of hunger, who was a refugee, an immigrant to America. Arketa understands the value of, and need for, food.
The Atlantic article continued,
“Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow, according to current and former government employees with direct knowledge of the rations. Within weeks, two of those sources told me, the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash.
Since Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency disbanded USAID and the State Department subsumed the agency, no money or aid items can move without the approval of the new heads of American foreign assistance, several current and former USAID employees told me. From January to mid-April, the responsibility rested with Pete Marocco, who worked across multiple agencies during the first Trump administration; then it passed to Jeremy Lewin, a law-school graduate in his 20s who was originally installed by DOGE and now has appointments at both USAID and State. Two of the USAID employees told me that staffers who sent the memos requesting approval to move the food never got a response and did not know whether Marocco or Lewin ever received them. (The State Department did not answer my questions about why the food was never distributed.)”
“Here, Scooter. Want a bite of apple?” We’ve got plenty.
See how easy it is for me to deal with hunger while “people are dying from starvation or related complications”? 500 tons of food exipre tomorrow. I wonder if my Senator knows.
(Arketa’s story is here at pinewordworks.com as the book: ZAMBAKARI)
