Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-155"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000503.9.3-155"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I am, of course, in favour of food aid for starving people, despite the commercial operations that are hidden behind this aid and despite the conflicts of interest which divide rich countries on this issue.
First of all, I wish to condemn the derisory extent of this aid compared to what is actually needed. The European Union prides itself on having given a commitment to supply 1.322 million tonnes of wheat equivalent, but, at the same time, the report states that there are 791 million people suffering from malnutrition in poor countries, 124 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa alone, where Europe is supposed to be particularly closely involved. Work it out for yourself: European aid comes to around 7 kilos of wheat equivalent per person per year, which is less than twenty grammes per day, and the report is cynical enough to stress the fact that food aid must not discourage local production.
It is not food aid that has ruined agricultural production in many African countries, however. It is the iron grip of huge European and American industrial or agricultural concerns, which have imposed the cultivation of hevea, coffee, groundnut, cotton and even out-of-season fruit and vegetables for the European market, at the expense of their own food crops. Even in terms of food production, habits have been foisted on the populations of these countries by forcing them to consume rice or wheat-based products, which they can only obtain on the world market, generating profit along the way for a handful of huge Western companies.
In places, the report smacks of “Lady Bountiful” and presents this aid as an act of charity on the part of Europe, but Europe, or rather its privileged class, is responsible for the ruin of Africa, and that includes the ruin of its self-sufficiency in food. It is not charity, then, that Africa needs. What it needs is the European and American multinationals to stop bleeding it dry. It needs Europe to provide the African people with simple machinery, such as water pumps and industrial products to compensate for what it plundered throughout colonial times and afterwards. Africa will then be in a position to develop its agriculture to a level where it can produce the food to feed its people properly.
Of course, I am not naïve enough to think that one decent resolution passed in the European Parliament will be enough to guarantee this. It would require an end to capital’s dictatorship of Europe as well as of Africa, and the only reason why I have voted in favour of this report is in order not to stand in the way of this aid."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples