Wealthy Polo Crowd (Not) Jarred By 35,000 Deaths a Day from Starvation

McCamy Taylor

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Tue Apr-21-09 04:34 PM
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Wealthy Polo Crowd (Not) Jarred By 35,000 Deaths a Day from Starvation

I. Perspective

I am sorry that 21 horses died in Venezuela. I am sorry when the U.S. federal government advocates killing wild horses, too.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081114-mustang-killings.html?source=rss

Thousands of wild mustangs kept in U.S. government holding pens may have to be killed as costs escalate for their upkeep, according to a new federal report released this week.

I am jarred by the deaths of over 35,000 people a day worldwide from starvation.

http://www.starvation.net/

On Tuesday September 11, 2001, at least 35,615 of our brother and sisters died from the worst possible death, starvation. Somewhere around 85% of these starvation deaths occur in children 5 years of age or younger. Why are we letting at least 30,273 of the most beautiful children die the worst possible death everyday? Every 2.43 seconds another one of our fellow brothers and sisters dies of starvation. Starvation doesn't just happen on Tuesday September 11, 2001, it happens everyday, 365 days per year, 24 hours per day, it never stops.

II. Greed

In America, we take the tortilla out of a starving child�s mouth, so that we can pour it into our gas tank as ethanol.

(O)ur industrial center in the United States has already put in the infrastructure to produce the ethanol from corn and soybeans and other edible products. The result being that the world may well starve is an insignificant event to them. As long as the profits roll in from this "new" source of energy, the process will continue and according to Castro, will result in "More than Three Billion Premature Deaths from Hunger and Thirst".
Americans are basically decent people. We have been sold down a road that makes life unsustainable in other nations for our own comfort and mobility. Meanwhile we are spending over 13 Billion Dollars a month to sustain the wars we are fighting throughout the globe. At this time America doesn't look so good in the eyes of the world. We can continue down this self-centered path of conquest and the destruction of vital food that could feed many in the world, or we can ignore the rest of the world at our own peril.

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2008/04/ethanol_the_sta.html

In America, we breed �suicide seeds� for the greater good of Monsanto, so that third world farmers who will not or can not pay for new seed each year will starve.

Monsanto is in the process of acquiring and patenting their newest technology, known as "Terminator Technology." This technology is currently the greatest threat to humanity. If it is used by Monsanto on a large-scale basis, it will inevitably lead to famine and starvation on a worldwide basis.

Billions of people on the planet are supported by farmers who save seeds from the crops and replant these seeds the following year. Seeds are planted. The crop is harvested. And the seeds from the harvest are replanted the following year. Most farmers cannot afford to buy new seeds every year, so collecting and replanting seeds is a crucial part of the agricultural cycle. This is the way food has been grown successfully for thousands of years.

With Monsanto's terminator technology, they will sell seeds to farmers to plant crops. But these seeds have been genetically-engineered so that when the crops are harvested, all new seeds from these crops are sterile (e.g., dead, unusable). This forces farmers to pay Monsanto every year for new seeds if they want to grow their crops.

In less rich countries, hundreds of millions of people rely heavily on small farms which produce foods for the region. If these farms begin to use Monsanto's terminator technology, and cannot afford to buy new genetically engineered seeds from Monsanto the following year, many of the people in the region may starve. Under normal circumstances, food could be brought in from other regions. However, many of those other regions will likely have the same problems with famine due to Monsanto's terminator technology.

http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/terminator.shtml

Show of hands. Who thinks that members of Monsanto�s board of directors ( from wiki Frank V. AtLee III, John W. Bachmann, Hugh Grant, Arthur H. Harper, Gwendolyn S. King, Sharon R. Long, C. Steven McMillan, William U. Parfet, George H. Poste, Robert J. Stevens ) give a fuck about the world�s starving people? Who thinks they are disconsolate over the deaths of 21 polo horses in Venezuela? Monsanto cares enough about polo to sponsor the 14th annual Polo match and dinner which will be held on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Blue Heron Farms

http://www.epworth.org/news/special-events.php

What has Monsanto done to end world hunger? Nothing. If not for world hunger, they would not be able to persuade their lackeys in the U.S. and world governing bodies to write laws and introduce regulations which force Monsanto products on the world, whether we want them or not, on the grounds that their expensive new products will feed more people----people in this case, referring to those people who can afford them. While terminator crops are proving to be a tough sell---some countries have already outlawed them, amid fears that the �suicide seeds� will induce sterility in normal crops---the battle to patent the world�s food supply continues. Monsanto and others claim that genetically modified food will end hunger, even though

The world today produces more food per inhabitant than ever before. Enough is available to provide 4.3 pounds to every person every day: two and a half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of meat, milk and eggs, and another of fruits and vegetables -- more than anyone could ever eat.
The real problems are poverty and inequality. Too many people are too poor to buy the food that is available or lack land on which to grow it themselves.
"Why Genetically Altered Food Won't Conquer Hunger" Peter Rosset, New York Times,
September 1, 1999

http://www.biotech-info.net/GE_hunger.html

Genetically modified foods (including suicide crops, if they are every successfully marketed) will do nothing to correct the problem of wealth disparity. Indeed, they are a great big Fuck you! to the world's poor from Monsanto, since they will only serve to drain more resources from third world countries and put that money in the hands of folks who are already so filthy rich that they can afford to spend their free time playing polo.

III. Hypocrites

We say that we love animals. And yet, we kill and eat them. And in doing so, we drive up the price of foods that could be used to feed the world�s starving.

The main reason for the growing shortage of food needs to be tackled: animals specially bred and fattened to be killed for meat. If the crops fed to them were to be consumed by humans, there would be no shortage of food. As much as one-third of the approximately 2000 million tons of annual global food production is used for feeding these animals for their flesh. The feed-to-meat ratio varies depending upon species (poultry, pigs, cattle, sheep & goats) and whether produced in a developed or developing country, but on an average 4 kilograms of feed yields only 1 kilogram of meat.

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/other/200804208909.htm

The same folks who grow pale at the thought of eating horseflesh think nothing of killing a cow---or even a calf---in order to devour it.

IV. Traumatic

Those who worry that we love our animals more than other people should be relieved by the stories in this section of my journal. The truth is we hate our animals as much as we despise other human beings. If we loved them, we would never treat them the way that horse owners below have.

The team La Lechuza Caracas belongs to Venezuelan multimillionaire Victor Vargas and has been playing annually in the event since 1999. Victor was "in seclusion," according to Peter Rizzo, United States Polo Association executive director.

"This is a very, very traumatic time for him," Rizzo told dpa, the German news agency, Monday.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/265289,argentina-considers-doping-tests-on-polo-horses-after-deaths.html

I am sure the deaths have been traumatic. Certainly, the lives of animals who are bred for the sports world are full of trauma---and, by some counts, drugs. There are no rules in place to protect polo horses from doping.

This article describes the use of the diuretic Lasix on polo horses.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-horses-died-wellington-doping-p042109,0,1976489.story

If misused, a diuretic could induce dehydration and chemical imbalances.

Here is an article which describes in more detail the practice of doping horses. According to the author, it started right here in the U.S. and was fueled by greed, i.e. race horse betting. The list of drugs given to animals includes amphetamines, narcotics and barbiturates.

http://bjsm.bmj.com/cgi/pdf_extract/10/3/100

Starvation is a problem in the horse world, too. I guess if your running days are over and all you are �good for� is breeding, then food is just an unnecessary extravagance.

"The animals had their bones sticking out, were extremely thin, wormy, and many had skin infections and some had untreated injuries to their feet and eyes,'' Perez said. He said Paragallo was not at the farm during the raid but described farm workers as "very cooperative.''

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=13926

Here is another link about another herd of "thoroughbreds" that were allowed to starve to death. Warning, the photos of the dying animals lying on the ground are pretty shocking.

http://www.theolivepress.es/2008/08/08/horse-slaughter/

Even if it gets fed properly, the very fact that a horse has been chosen to participate in the dangerous game of polo means that it suffers. The next article is not for the faint of heart.

http://www.bihartimes.com/Maneka/poloponies.html

Sometimes the heart of the horse ruptures or literally "bursts" with extreme exertion. Last month in Delhi, a polo horse died of a heart attack during a game. Spectators witnessed his death throes after which he was slung over a beam and thrown off the field. He is the second horse this year to thus collapse.

Victor Vargas has a spokesman to tell the world that he feels �traumatized�. Too bad the horses can not speak. Maybe we should change the sport, let the human players run around moving a ball across the field----oh, wait. That sport already exists. It is called soccer. Only it does not cost an arm and a leg to participate in soccer, so the rich can not flaunt their wealth by participating in it.

Which brings me around full circle to wealth disparity, and how so many of the world�s wealthiest people are actually proud of the fact that they have more than they will ever need while so many others do not even have the basic necessities of life. This kind of attitude does not just immunize the rich against the suffering of the poor. It makes them enjoy it, for the misery of their fellow human beings makes their own privileged status all the more remarkable.

Folks like that will take the crust from a starving child�s mouth and feel proud of themselves for doing it.

V. Moral

The failure to act compassionately towards those in need, whether human or animal, occurs for the same reasons, mostly because some people forget that we are all linked. If you do not love others, you will not truly love animals either, and if you are cruel to animals, you will be cruel to other people. You will treat other living things as if they were put upon the earth solely for your enjoyment. You will begin to call them your "property". You will lose the ability to love your family and finally, you will stop loving yourself---for how can we love ourselves if the only way we know to feel good is to make someone or something else suffer?

Love is reckless; not reason.

Reason seeks a profit.

Love comes on strong,

consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,

Love proceeds like a millstone,

hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died of self-interest,

she risks everything and asks for nothing.

Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;

without cause, give it back again.

Rumi