Today Obama changed the World FOREVER

(8 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

There has been a lot of talk about the G20, solving the world financial melt down and regaining our stature on the world stage. Hearing Nicolas Sarkozy say Obama is the man who can change the world, pretty heady stuff. In fact Obama did change the world today in a far more important way than solving the world financial crisis or bringing an end to terrorism, nope. Follow me below the fold for the single statement that changed everything forever and you may have missed it.

I can’t find the direct quote but basically it is this, we will give more than a billion dollars to assist the most impoverished nations of the world move toward food security.

More than 852 million people are chronically malnourished, their suffering is needless because it is a circumstance that is so easily changed. 2 billion people are at risk of hunger and malnourishment  because of varying levels of poverty. For years we have thrown billions in food aid at famines and never once moved to help them raise enough food to support themselves. Today Obama changed the historic axiom the third world exists solely for pundering and pillaging of their natural resources.

It gives us the ability to bring environmentally sound sustainable farming techniques to the Third World. We now have the means to stop the continuing deforestation of the Amazon and other areas as farmers are pushed into areas not suited for agriculture. We can stop and even reverse the depletion of existing arable lands and the exploitation of water resources. Food security makes it possible to address the loss of biodiversity, the hundreds of crops already hardened by nature gone to genetically engineered crops. It provides an opportunity to put the developing nations on the right path environmentally, to allow them contribute positively to mitigating the effects of Global Warming.

Food security will help end refugees and displacements, fighting over too few resources, the spread of disease and significant life long health problems cause by chronic hunger. It is also important in the effort to end terrorism and human rights violations.

Hungry malnourished populations aren’t a work force, they aren’t the next educated generation, they don’t buy or produce goods or services, they aren’t the future of any country.  Many countries facing endless hunger cycles are unable to fix these problems because they simply do not have the money to fix them. Food Security is also the first step to ending poverty, the building of trade agreements and eventually a revenue base able to sustain their nation. Obama sells it as opening more markets but as you can see, it is so much more than making money.

Never underestimate the importance of knowing you can feed your children, provide for your family, instead of using all your energy just to survive. Food security is the first step in self determination. It will empower every human being on the planet. No longer will there be millions languishing, waiting to die without the political or economic power to change their circumstances.

This is enormous, just enormous. It is about acknowledging our collective humanity, recognizing every human being has the right to live free from hunger. It is about embracing the truth when we raise the least among us, we raise us all. It makes not only ethical and moral sense, but economic sense. It isn’t going to happen over night, it will won’t be easy for the political and corporate oligarchies to let go. But Obama has a way of showing us how to find our better selves, it is from that place we will find the best solutions for all the problems facing us.

Thank you,  Stanley Ann Dunham.