an incredibly effective lobby to fight for the status quo of sourcing in and shipping from the united states the us government is the only government in the world that hasn't made substantial movements in the direction of enabling local procurement of food aid in developing countries in order to respond faster and more cheaply to food emergencies as they arise. so even today the food must first be balt then loaded on a ship in american harbor and then travel for several months in order to reach africa. that would be approximately four to six months from when it has been termed that we want to participate in our in a particular appeal and so when the food arrives. the g.a.o. where mr alito works issued a report which presented the problem to congress president bush tried to

change the system so that a portion of the food would be procured from local markets and thus arrive faster and cost less. they failed and they failed because of the lobbying efforts the highly successful and very sophisticated lobbying efforts of those who benefit from the status quo and use food aid programs from the american taxpayers' money only forty percent goes for the purchase of food aid for the starving people in africa there are maining sixty percent goes to the shipping companies. that mean yes yet it was a good idea that i. was

. very happy that i was. like you i don't like depending on others with of what think about. all that much and all of them on the but our land doesn't produce any saying and deprives us of sewed. did a month ago we sowed some wheat but it was aired in the sun on holland i met them yes i missed in the world. and i met out one and we appreciate that other countries take care of us that are going to go the government of kenya. knows that the drought causes problems but it ignores us. we could sustain ourselves and the

government could build a water tank. and an air a geisha system to water us fields. but. it was one we have people who like to work. it's emitted. rather than receiving food for which we have not worked yet. it is a good work but we don't like to be idle that is why they could help us by giving us work. imo because for example we have no fields as a matter the model when we proposed to our government to construct good water supply lines for our crops it's like talking to defeat is. we have appealed to the government many times.

the government of kenya has utterly abandoned this district there are no roads water or electricity the state of kenya has built absolutely nothing. so it is through that part of the country. to be in. continuous famine relief because that is a bitter bitter development going on because all. we'll be right if we have something to to you know eighty nine percent of the people not going out to do that night so it's a mentor strategy for the country. we hope in that with a new constitution would up with will develop and those who come up short of my generation people and those kind of communities have the country. it is obvious that the government of kenya prefers to ask for help from abroad in order to feed the starving turkana instead of doing infrastructure and development

work in the area. millions of kenyan from us producing grain. and a must it becomes difficult for once the scheme of ten percent to go moving from village to village asking that i need ten percent of the grain for myself but if it's food aid you can put it tons of to send it to becomes easier for you to skim off from that the food if it's not about food aid it could be about import food importation such becomes easier to make more money importing food. at the expense of course of the starving people as opposed to having killian's producing more food for themselves.

however before nine hundred eighty kenya not only produced but also exported products. the government had goodies that caused guaranteed minimum returns g.m. are weak means that. if you. invest in one because. and they needed it's not enough to recover you a cost the government to top up so that you don't go at a loss because if you good if you go at a loss you will not. plan to the next season and the country would stuff and that is why in the one nine hundred sixty s. the name hundred seventy s. when there was among. was net food exporting countries. despite all this kenya was immersed in debt which couldn't be paid without

international help. it's just a clear lustration no a country that east coast by global forces to surrender policy making that ought to be. of strategic importance to its own citizens why was kinda so enduring because they need aid from the world bank because they need aid from the i mean they were told if you don't change you don't get money from us. so everything including education health communication transportation energy and water follows the free markets rules. agriculture was no exception governmental support was withdrawn and farmers were now on their own. asked us actually that just meant the subsidies that were buying me into fertilizer into seeds and the entire

cultural extension services were removed and this is a cinch and services now have to be paid and because people did not have money to pay the never consulted extension workers so the food production just slumped and as we're talking now it is a basket case we need food importing countries. so what happens you don't have enough to feed the people so you have to say they import and if you don't have enough money to import you get food aid. behind nairobi skyscrapers and the shadows of the kenyan capital's luxuries lies

kibera. it is one of africa's largest slums. approximately three hundred thousand people try to survive here. many of them are immigrants from rural regions who came to the city to escape hunger. i was a farmer but i didn't always has a crop. i needed money to feed the cows but i had none. when i had a good crop i needed money again. to pay the workers to plow the fields i couldn't live like this it was all too much for one person i couldn't cope as

expenses. cheer it is better because someone may pity and help here. without a welfare system the citizens of kabera must pay for everything even public toilets since houses don't have these luxuries. the average computer is two roughly two dollars that is a most cobbled world and you have to pay for your room you have to buy a water you have to pay for the toilet to go to you have to pay full electricity you have to pay for school fees you have to buy food you have to make the food yes . there is no only delicious it's free market. we have somebody really people can't afford to be really food because the body.

moved by everything to each. war. for decades now the world food programme organisation has been providing food to the pupils in canberra schools. at this school three hundred children receive aid. some of these children sometimes it's the only mean if they did that they get so they going to school move so they have bad flu to meet and in addition it provides an incentive for children to come to school. i've always dreamed the media just grew up fast. and maybe

help my phone. it is the terrorists me is it's my mum moved dad leukoma to school kids would do over to do steve hungry with. the dutch each year to know much more than look each other victims who bring so much. holds assume much. maybe i've been to food in that way i. just say i just got to play on that but i won't let someone know that i'm on the oh it's just you know almost my feelings i don't need to chennai how about just keeping. them so that even then they may just see that you fancy stuff love love as she is being with us john she has a good school. i

. could be here arguing that there are six countries set up the motive so brands of islam that ultimately lead to that but i can see that there's a come to push because i don't see that to be snobbism open of a new country. do we speak your language doesn't imply they will not advance to. the music programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn it into angles couldn't stories. for you here to. enjoy it all to spanish find out more visit i to allahabad r t dogs comb.

my. food is so many things

it's just a life support it's the sestet did you you see. it is an economic is zero is sub zero drug development it is so many things and therefore as long as you a food dependent as no less you do not i was sober and in the means and the infrastructure abusing and distributing food. then. you cannot claim to be so free and cannot claim to be independent sixty percent of. utter bollocks in africa is contradicted. and and adept tells you that all you need is to then invest this pumps but again because of the dependency culture what we've seen is that the political elites have been selling and listen this line to for us. we're

not investing in farming us part of us to take security element for the country. the american company dominion among other things builds prisons in the united states in kenya it is rented seventeen thousand hectors and produces food like rice dish and bananas mostly for the capital's big supermarkets. this farm. is an investment van american mom called mr collin by this and his family they had

some money but they thought should be put towards helping him put security in africa so he came here in the two thousand and three and the lease this farm for twenty five vs and number twenty five vs but he knew it. was too much work you. would like. the american investor introduced himself through the church claiming that he wanted to help eradicate poverty by offering new jobs and food. and not. only what busing to move dominion came here through the church. because it couldn't get in contact with us it used the priests. to use it promised to give us work so that no one would be unemployed. there would be great changes it would

build schools and it would give us part of its hottest look at that within the school but there would be food for everyone it was for us was the biggest joy. so these multinational companies we thought big coming to transform a lack and we really celebrated at the time to minerals coming. this thing turned out to be something. one. of. the communities agreed the company would take the swamp and transform it into fertile fields while simultaneously undertaking projects for the public's benefit. drainage works began and a cement dam was built in order to control the river gelis flow for the irrigation of the water letting rice crops. but as the inhabitants

claim this intervention caused floods. much the teeth of the water came during the day and got inside our home. the corn's one right now. and so they got completely ruined in the day. the house started leaning. and so we demolished and rebuilt this and you. all when i walked my whole body was underwater i know only this spot stayed above the water level. then i'm

a little carried away by the water and we just did what can you do with a cal which you can't feed because the water has covered it completely willing to put it many animals drowned everything i had was taken by the water. which is killing people killing everything from people and. it is very visible who. we are not the course but what happens here is when when people start to think politically when the river floods they think we have opened the gates and sometimes they come to us when we are not doing we're not even using we're not even in growing rice so there's a season when people come in and say we have floods they don't understand that the

source of the river was flooded so the river would be flooding here so then they think it was a problem to do with us we have nothing to do with it we were just being all things . i was cultivating in favor here i was getting my vegetables from here i was getting my income in fact i was a cultivating underselling yeah i had some sugar canes here some yams groups under so many things and even on yarns under the models i was selling those and maybe if not very badly i was an almost a getting one thousand a day. to manage my family and now i've got nothing.

close to our own food no we can't have the money to pay school fees for the children because of these not just you can't plan the clothes you planned here today what has come sunday. that was going to work you know. that time was a rich man and that's why i left. looking for jobs in a row be to come here and create an employment for myself and have a decent life life. it could fetch up to twenty five bucks of ways and one day. i'm back when all is not lost you can hardly get a bag of maize saw or demand newness to get to the days and yet now. more poorer than we used to be because what we're experiencing now. as never before.

give the communities one to use part of that this one this one is about six hundred thousand make us it does not belong to us we only have seventeen thousand take us why do we have communities always complaining about the person that was given to they invest us yes why don't they also go on a drain of a pot that is flying back. with our government is sitting in the offices and it will be as if the american people help they destroy their. grants coming from outside the nation all over every time they need food. but we have found my as well very very hard working so we are not being taken as human beings in fact i hate to say this still in colonial days.

we have to strive to be just like us you know after the. us was in the middle of sources to excess ministries. and therefore we have to run promptly with it. in the next three years if the trend continues i think the kenyan community will really. appears for more relief or depending on. nationals is known treaty sustainable for these countries.

today is a joyous day in this community of the turkana region. the people are harvesting their crops from the communal field. but their own hands they also build a smaller earth and dam. for this project to happen the world food program n.g.o.s and the government how to cooperate and all for the turkana food provided that they work on the project. the dam may hold some of the rainwater and help the turkana gather water for the next drought. when our screens are again flooded by images of

starting out for cans and the international community asks again for humanitarian aid then we will know that the drought is not the real culprit. in my view see drove us just an excuse that we use in order to you know make the aid in the street appear to be fair to chile the horn of africa receives more rain than soda rabia than even the drought but you know tides the saudis their own money is pleading for food aid. to the problem really about funding now for it is no it's about drugs it's about how we have money. so to to help with the african pulse. we need nor stop yes delivering a few bugs of grain to the people we see stopping we need to start interrogating

the global food system and how it's been truly makes individual up for things in the rural villages end up having no food at all.

the interview. cut. to. wealthy british.

margetts why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy. 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 don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. as. it.

has. it.

was a lower on the run edward snowden could be heading to latin america with the leaders of three countries they're ready to grant him political asylum this after his latest leaks reveal that brazil and russia have been targeted by the u.s. snooping program. egyptian is rocked by deadly clashes between backers and opponents of the ousted leader mohamed morsi as russia's president who warns against an escalation into all out civil war. and also this week with no sign of a let up in the guantanamo bay hunger strike now in its six month prison guards are resorting to new harsh techniques to end the standoff.