There is a
lately common maxim that states poverty as a great business. Different authors
have developed this declaration to explain why the rich become richer and the
poor become poorer. The economic system that enables these pronouncements is
the Capitalism, which is based on private ownership of the means of production
and their operation for profit[1].
With Capitalism come specific actors: owners able of decision-making and
investment. This figure can be seen in dominant countries, international
organisms and big private corporations that have a clear interest in making
things happen in a very specific way. These calculated moves are thought to be
applied over developing countries, wage labour and people with needs, who are
more likely to accept deals in which the balance scale clearly leans to the
side of the most powerful.
An evident
example of help and deals with hidden interest is the food aid provided by
different organisms during stages of drought or floods when food production of
agricultural countries is lost. This statement can be named “food aid used as a
weapon”[2]
that destroys the alimentary independency of farmers, getting them used to
external supplies, and leaving aside their traditional work force, knowledge
and way of generating economic incomes by selling their surpluses products.
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Philippines and Jamaica are examples where food aid
seriously affected the agricultural practices, economic incomes and, as a
result, acquisition of imported expensive products. Again, rich industries get
richer, and poor population gets poorer.
From these
examples there are two important considerations: the first is scarcity of
resources because of climate conditions and the second, how the shortage of
food and water can lead to war. Asia and Africa are prone continents to suffer
these conditions, making people and social movements fight over supply sources.
Syria, Turkey and Iraq have a conflict over water in the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers and oil resources. Palestine and Israel battle over the control of water
that comes from Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. The
region of Darfur in the western Sudan is in conflict because of water scarcity
and the rainfalls have decreased by one third over the last 80 years and Rwanda
suffered the terrible genocide in which between one half and one million Tutsis
were slaughtered by Hutus over a few months in 1994, basically as a war over
access to the fertile land in this densely populated small country.
These are
reliable examples, among many others, of how water and food are assets that in
case of scarcity can lead to serious struggles. Not in vain has been said that
if there is a third World War the reason would be the fight over water. All
though governments, media and power groups frequently make believe that
religion or politics are the reasons why conflicts are taking place, it is
pretty evident that under those arguments, environment, resources, water and
food are the genuine motives that lead to violent encounters.
But why are we
most often presented for other explanations for these conflicts? There can be
several reasons. The first one can be that developing countries are more likely
to have raw materials and agricultural practices, but it’s a business for
developed countries to sell them fertilizers, pesticides and expensive seeds.
In addition, this can also lead to higher rates of importations, that benefit
Capitalism, so they are clearly not interested in changing this consumption model
or making obvious the importance of valuing the natural assets. As a second
fact, land grab has become a new kind of war over food, in which countries like
Japan, China, Libya, United Arabic Emirates and Egypt have acquired “vast land
areas in the developing world, to secure the food and biofuel production they
need”. It is pretty obvious that these deals are not known by everyone, and
governments have no interest in people knowing the social, economic and
environmental impact these negotiations mean, as an undeniable damage of their lands
and sustainability.
“Of the more
than 900 million hungry people in the world, 80% are small farmers. They
constitute more than one third of the two billion people depending on very
small portions of land to make a living”. It is ironic that the people from
whom we get the food supplies, don’t have food security, and the worst is that
they are in risk of losing their lands, their incomes and their way of applying
traditional knowledge. The issue is not about having enough food for 7 billion
human beings, but ensure small “farmers get access to land, training and
capital to improve agricultural production, getting access to markets without
unfair competition from cheap, subsidized products. This requires that
governments of poor countries are assisted in promoting agricultural production
instead of the current situation where they are forced into unfair trading
positions. It also requires a movement away from corporate farming and the
dependency on fertilizer, pesticides and other oil-based products”[3].
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COUNTRY
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CONFLICT
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Palestine vs. Israel
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Control over water that
comes from Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River
|
|
Darfur
|
Water resources. The
conflict is shown as a Muslim vs. Christians issue. The rainfall in this part
of Sudan has decreased by one third over the last 80 years.
|
|
India vs. Pakistan
|
Conflict over water from
the River Indus
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Rwanda
|
Between one half and one
million Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutus over a few months in 1994, is
basically also a war over access to the fertile land in this densely
populated small country.
|
|
Turkey, Syria and Iraq
|
Conflict over water in
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and oil resources.
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|
Kenya
|
Issue in the fertile
Rift Valley escalated into violent conflict at the start of 2008.
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|
Congo
|
Food crisis in 2008.
Conflicts have resulted in the proportion of undernourished people increasing
from 29% to 76%.
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[1] Wikipedia. 2016. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism#cite_note-1
[2] History Front: Wars over food and water.
[3] History Front: Wars over food and water.
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