if. in july two thousand and eleven the horn of africa was struck by a wave of famine. again our screens were flooded with images of a may see that africans. over

thirteen million people in somalia kenya ethiopia eritrea and djibouti are once again threatened by famine. the u.n. approaches the international community for immediate food aid.

and. the only thing you notice are children from the most horrific that we've seen in years in fact we grew up learning about africa's hunger problems. that the african people always suffer from hunger and the so-called developed world always sends food.

is there perhaps something wrong with the food aid mechanism. if you're looking at all this money that's been pumped in the fifty's and you're still starving. then it means that something's not right incomes or the interest of those who are putting to be assisted in kenya or any other african country to improve their food security one of the hate. between the movie popped. and you can see it in a bit of the many ways because it becomes almost like. a business. to do what. it given once you put together speaking we're looking at a very wealthy continent which has been now sustained into public teat just see for the aid in the street and that's why we need to put two and.

these approach both language. as i would or you know changing the predicament. the afghan people. yeah. yes. northern kenya was one of the regions affected during this recent famine

wave. the land is arid and barren. that was. how i know i was carried here that was written i am the turkana are this region's inhabitants one of kenya's most traditional tribes that were never. forgotten my. dad did that with. their nomadic pastoralists for centuries they have learned to survive on this harsh land depending on the rain periods. that i. might never have yet. i. but in recent years the ongoing droughts threaten their very

existence. i give you that yeah. i guess in northern kenya we had a year with basically no rain and tools to come in a region as seen. successive droughts of the past few years and what we're seeing is the stress of getting more and more frequent so the rain is becoming less less common. the travelers left many of the enemy is very very weak so people didn't have that didn't have the usual income. money trisha live was really short on. what the global acute malnutrition bricked fifteen percent in some areas of true can it was up to fifty seven percent that is more than double.

the. yard work i had to go to. i mean to go to not five and they all died. even then we couldn't eat them. your little boy in my small field was of no help the seeds died before they could sprout. a year young it was a bad year without train we couldn't plant anything. there was great hunger. even the wild fruit became rare. a rule while my sister died last year during the long drought that. she was old

and as there was no food. no she died and i came to take care of her children. there was no food or water because it was too dry and a lot of the. animal immediately there. must be back you probably know how bad it was last year on the way most animals died. you get this is a man's tomb and the other two are women. and they died of hunger. there was no food and the government didn't help.

if hope would come sooner with these people have been saved a year they are all the guests they would be alive and these tombs wouldn't exist you've gone. up she was complex there are stately thought well arguably. all of the above with it she couldn't sustain herself. but everybody knows we need food and water to live. it with it in. how long after her death did the food arrive. after five months.

it is chilling to say the least to hear that the two thousand and one drought had been predicted and that lives could have been saved if the system functioned differently drug does not happen just like switching on and off of electricity. drugs is something that comes with being a period of time. after ethiopia's famine in one thousand nine hundred fourteen one thousand nine hundred five which left one million victims the us created a forecast system for dangerous droughts in order to avoid similar tragedies in the

future. in two thousand and ten this system had already warned of things to come. yeah we saw it coming and we've been warning for months before you know people were paying attention death sometimes to problems you know the problem often with the world attention is that sometimes. people only pay pay attention if you see the dying children. but i will warning systems nowadays our knowledge is so sophisticated we know months in advance we've been warning about this since the for the before the crisis happened and because we could see that the rains weren't

good enough. but people were left to starve. they had to die before the international community was mobilized. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. mission free accreditation free transport judges free. range month free. three stooges free.

download free broadcast quality video for your media projects a free media dog a hearty dog tom. cole or like. anything. don't tell me how much on my. primary. morning morning walk.

spies are us and us in this case is the us in its files on just about everyone in the world including its so-called friends and allies washington seeks total global information dominance and this is being done we're told just like care would need people in the us monitored its intelligence community rather than snoop on the rest of us let me let me i want to know what all the let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our knives out. to do this right it's a bad thing never get here it will be an ideal way to talk about the name and where . the problem is the government spiced national and international donors so also the

the shroud of turin community. during its always acts as quickly as they can. and it takes unfortunately it takes you know those pictures on t.v. screens to really mobilize public opinion and get governments and politicians interested in the crisis. when it becomes of more interest to the international media then you tend to get a very strong public response which is extremely helpful which pushes the politicians into action because when the public cares about it then the politicians know they need to to respond because. the public expects them to do something. unfortunately you know action could have been taken at the start of two thousand and eleven oilier in the year. pictured really have stopped it becoming such a big crisis but unfortunately. far too often the action isn't taken until it's too

late and so people are already suffering. and it's not the first time that the turkana people receive help. international organizations and n.g.o.s have been visiting their area for the last fifteen years . and they always welcomed them with joyous songs am.

every. now that we. did. about milo know that i don't know him other than they are not your mother and i don't know how you why didn't i mean i could tell they provide them with food that accident the children and check them for signs of malnutrition. on the way that you come from nothing from the tell of. not that i don't know how far is know to load. many hours away which means that i left with the

sunrise. for decades to turkana have been living in a constant state of hunger. they belong to one billion people around the world who have no access to their daily nourishment while at the same time more food than ever is being produced on the planet. contrary to crisis periods this chronic hunger phenomenon rarely reaches the evening news. never the less it is deadly. it kills over fifteen million people yearly three times more than those killed during the gear of the second world war. approximately six and

a half million of them are children eighteen thousand dollars every day. so to fight hunger the international community decided to distribute food to those in need. however since its birth in one nine hundred fifty four and until today food aid has never been a matter of sheer humanitarianism. it's been a matter of economic and political correlations with the u.s. playing the leading role the simple reason everyone focuses on u.s. food aid policy is us accounts for more than half of all the world's food aid so as goes the united states so goes the global food aid regime you know the united states is providing fifty to sixty percent of the world's food aid any given year

all of europe combined only provide fifteen to twenty percent of. the. we have given much to the impoverished peoples of europe. but i'm sorry. but as a countermeasure against the attempt by the soviet union come you know if you're up the american people sharpen the strategy for cooperating with the non communist countries in a comprehensive bipartisan european recovery program. after the success of the marshall plan which delivered tons of food to western europe. in one thousand nine hundred eighty four president eisenhower signed the famous public law for eighty whatever. the new laws purpose was to distribute the u.s.

agricultural surpluses serving at the same time as a tool for economic and foreign policy which would help promote the country's interests. according to the president's own words the new law lays the basis for expanding our exports of agricultural products with lasting benefits to ourselves and peoples of other lands. oh and the pope and the deleterious our football. team we're going to break the bonds of their very we play our best effort to help them help them. all whatever period is required not because i mean it may be doing it not because we think they're both but the god that is right in one thousand nine hundred eighty one president kennedy acknowledged public love for eighty as being

a fundamental importance to the united states and renamed it food for peace. so the primary objective of food aid policy was surplus disposal but it had a secondary objectives the hope that it would also build future export markets for u.s. agricultural commodities and that it could achieve humanitarian objectives associated with reducing hunger and under-nutrition and that it could perhaps with some our allies abroad. with the same law kennedy founded usaid the u.s. organization responsible for international development which would administer civilian foreign aid. is. the u.s. government for spreading beyond many foreign policy through human

and. systems. during the cold war large quantities of food were sent to countries of strategic importance to the united states like india indonesia and pakistan. likewise large cargoes were sent to eastern asia during the korean and vietnam wars. during the seventy's a large bulk of food aid went to the middle east. during the ninety's after the fall of the berlin wall today it was directed to countries the former eastern bloc the same pattern was repeated in afghanistan and iraq during the war on terror. if you are took aboard diplomacy it's a very subtle way of pushing a message of agenda. to another country you know because if you if you've seen even

more so because the training elephants for their training even cheap and since they use food is that if you don't train much upon such a dance like a human being you keep rewarding it with a little biscuit or something so. then they tell you jump up american people saying jump up you jump up see what i mean. from very early on africa became the focus of attention as the u.s. and soviet union were trying to gain zones of influence countries like somalia ethiopia and kenya received help.

there's a lot of pieces that the u.s. would be easy to prove to them or the police doesn't mean that the united states is doing business to actually providing you know the city time. there's no politics behind it it's going in there we're trying to do things in a way that is most effective way to save lives so i don't think that criticism really holds true. i'm honored to work for this organization i think we do fabulous were partners in the united nations and it's really inspiring. when the bug of lives with an american plug on made from the american people. if they're the first thing is this the appreciation of the american people because if

somebody helps you then you have to appreciate the. country that assists your people in this tough in they approach you to bring in the investor. you see the be very much willing to tell them good them come and if you're not just doing the the the funding in the hole in last year. the child needs to study what the western countries should do the chinese also for the first time brought their food aid completely to trucks there was a must of much is that wait a minute this food aid thing is not just the tusk another soaked up torch in terms of winning over a country to dominate over to push their budgets across the globe. apart

from helping foreign policy food aid also had other benefits and help with internal affairs namely the large american agribusiness and shipping companies. but there are other important beneficiaries lurking in the shadows one are agribusinesses and i emphasize agribusinesses rather than for. farmers because very little food aid is sold by farmers directly that sold by large firms the great hidden beneficiary for u.s. food aid and this is distinct from any other food aid program in the world are the shippers.

wealthy british soil the sun. has no time to write let's go carting around the. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines join in to cause a report on our. last time as a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news in the alexander family cry tears

of joy at great things that. a wall around alive is a story made for a movie is playing out in real life. looking for a lover to adopt up in the field that while they won't find it here if you're looking for relevant stories we need perspectives on top of my scans to end our. lead. to more news today violence is once again flared up. again these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

marvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture a special edition of the show with two conversations with great minds we'll talk with dr douglas rushkoff an expert on technology and its role in society but first my conversation with five time presidential candidate ralph nader. joining me for tonight's conversations with the great minds ralph nader attorney consumer advocate and five time candidate for president of the united states in the one nine hundred sixty s. one nine hundred seventy s. mr nader spearheaded the campaign to improve automobile safety standards in the decade since.