Global perspective #3

Each student needs to find an article on food security and analyse it to find the contention, bias and purpose.

article:

Food distribution, not shortage to blame for India's food insecurity

The contention of this article is to point out the failure of food distribution that results to food insecurity, not lack of food. It also compares the directly contrasting situations in India and America, where in India 62% is starving and in America 62% obese. The journalist of course is not supposed to be biased, but we can see that he is siding with the criticism of the government and the country's corruption that allows "320 million people" to go hungry when they have "a surplus of 82.3 million tonnes of crops," by seeing that he only interviewed one person, food and trade policy analyst, and entirely writes from his point of view. The whole argument of this article lies in the title itself as you can see. The purpose of this article is to speak out for the people, and of the unfortunate reality in India, and to make everyone aware of India's abundance in food that that doesn't correlate with satisfied stomachs.

Global perspective #2

Write and post a comparison on what food insecurity means to countries like USA and the UK against countries like India and Pakistan.

Identify the Bias, purpose (informative, persuasive, etc), main contention of the writer (what is their argument), evidence and discrepancies between ‘A further attack on the PDS’ and ‘fighting for food security’. Post these ideas and either bring a computer into class with you on Monday or print out your analysis so we can work on these in class.

The two articles pretty much have the same argument. They both criticize the corruption and failure of the Indian government to reduce food insecurity in India. The bias of the second (UK) article was against the Indian government, stating that the "debate has shifted from starvation and subsistence to dignity and justice." It describes the "scandal of the country bursting at the seams with 60m tonnes of stored food grains as starvation, death and migration afflicted six states." The article from the Frontline suggests similar, stating that "while more than 500 million people are undernourished and many more are vulnerable to food insecurity, 45.5 million tonnes of foodgrains are being held by the Government of India." However, being a magazine produced from the publishers of The Hindu, it stands more on the local citizen's side and fights from the local perspective. The Guardian only revolves around the government of India, not the individual residents. The Guardian states the problems, the solutions, and the improvements made over the past years, whereas Frontline gives massive statistics and numbers, and also unfamiliar terms such as APL, BPL, TPDS, etc. Both of them are pretty informative, as they state the facts and give information on this issue, but also somewhat persuasive on their indirect attack on India's corruption. Both of the writers are Indians, who obviously would be concerned about their own country's conflicts and which portray their contention to publicize this topic, give spotlight on this topic, draw people's attention, and educate everyone of the problems and corruptions that are taking place in India. Since the first article was written in 2001, which is when the scandal happened according to the second article that was written in 2012, the second article mention the actions taken, and the progress, not failing to include more improvements to be made. The first article just states the situation and criticizes faults in the system of public distribution. The first article is very obscure. Not only there are many errors in the article, but the English is poor with continuous repetition of the same words and a not very smooth flow of the sentences. 

Global perspective #1

Food security & poverty/hunger
-who is affected?
-how many are affected?
-is this a major problem
-what are some solutions?

Anyone who starves is affected by this worldwide issue. Specifically, the people who cannot afford food or are in situations of food scarcity are all who are affected. As I remember someone telling me, over 50% of the world population is suffering from poverty. The world "we" (that is, anyone who is be able to read this with a proper house, computer, and internet access) are living in, is just the beautiful half of the world. Of course this is a major problem! People are dying from starvation when in some parts of the country, people are suffering from obesity and trying to prevent food wastage. Can you believe that? People are talking about food wastage when some are not even getting any at all. This is certainly a big problem. It's messed up. The solution is to better manage food distribution all around the world because there certainly is enough food to feed everyone on earth. We must stop indulging in so much luxury. Instead of buying a new car, which is very unnecessary, you could help the African kids. The whole system needs to change. The Africans should be provided with foods of equal quality and equal abundancy as those we find in North America or Europe. It's not fair that some people get enough food - enough to waste by truckloads - while some don't even have drinking water.

Video response
1. To encourage people to give
2. People need physical nutrition and love. Therefore, we who have these, should give those who don't already. As Krishnan states, "the ultimate purpose of life is to give." Also he believes that we should do so because "everybody's the same."
3. I do agree with the fact that we should give the needy. However, I wouldn't say that would change the world. It won't put an end to world hunger. It's just nice to give.
4. It's a story.