Neff Zone Column -- May 17, 2008

Print Edition: May 17, 2008

A LESSON IN GENEROSITY

If you watch the news or go to the grocery store it’s no news to you that the price of food is increasing at an alarming rate. Close to home the cost of staples like milk, eggs, bread, and meat lead a parade of items that cost more each time you buy them. That’s nothing compared to the situation worldwide, though, where a shortage of rice and other basics are at the root of starvation for whole populations and food riots have happened in several countries.

Against this backdrop, however, you can be proud to be an American because when it comes to helping the world’s hungry the United States has no peer. Regardless of who is the president, which political party is in power, or the situation at home, the U.S. does its best to aid the world’s hungry.

We’re so generous that we even feed the hungry when it’s not in our own best (theoretical) interests. A case in point is Afghanistan.

Headline #1: Afghan poppy crop sets record (Associated Press). In this article it states that Afghanistan is the "near-sole supplier of the heroin source" and the article goes on to say that most of the profits go to financing the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Headline #2: Food crisis leaves Afghans desperate (Associated Press). In this article it states that "rising food prices have hit few places as hard as Afghanistan where wheat flour has shot up 75%." Food crop failure and an inability to import more food have made for harsh conditions.

Headline #3: Donors pledge $31 million in food aid (IRIN News). A coalition of the countries headed by the United States, Canada and Denmark are sending wheat to help feed the stricken Afghans ($19 million from the USA alone).

To sum up…The Afghans plant a poppy crop instead of food crops, the poppies wind up as heroin, the heroin profits fund the Taliban, the Afghans can’t eat poppy profits, so the United States sends them food. Now if that’s not being generous to a fault I don’t know what is.

What this extreme example illustrates is that when it comes to helping human beings in need, the United States is the country that the rest of the world counts on. We have the best record in doing what is right, regardless of world politics.

This leads us to a logical question: Which countries have the worst record? In other words, we know the USA is the most generous in providing food aid to the rest of the world, so which countries are the least generous?

That question was answered last week by the United Nations World Food Program and was reported by FoxNews.com and other worldwide news sources http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/donors2008.pdf. The United States has given $363 million to the WFP this year and President Bush is seeking another $770 million to add to that total. Rounding out the top ten most generous countries: Canada, Japan, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany.

Meanwhile, guess which countries are the biggest cheapskates; why our good buddies at OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). The countries that make up that organization have magnanimously chipped in a whopping $1.5 million. That amount equals one minute and ten seconds of the organization’s $674 billion annual oil revenues in 2007 (revenues due to dramatically increase in 2008).

Of the top 57 donors to the WFP, only one OPEC country, the United Arab Emirates, made the list; they donated $50,000 (they made $63 billion last year). Saudi Arabia didn’t even make the list.

By contrast Bangladesh, which seemingly is hit by a natural disaster every twenty minutes, gave $5.8 million to the WFP. The Republic of the Congo managed a $1.25 million contribution, and countries like Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Zambia finished ahead of the Emirates.

The U.N.’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to confront the OPEC countries at a global summit in June, citing their "near invisible amount of money" given to the WFP. Good luck on that one. It takes a lot of dough to finance indoor ski resorts in the desert and pay $1 million for vanity license plates (as reported in past Neff Zone columns). My guess is that OPEC will politely give the WFP a few perfunctory millions and then raise oil prices to cover the cost of their "generosity."

Ah, but do not despair my friends. What goes around eventually comes around. Please note that no OPEC country grows enough food to feed its own people. There will come a time (whether oil profits dry up or a hostile neighbor invades or a royal family gets overthrown) when the OPEC countries will ask the rest of the world for a helping hand. My guess is that the world will respond with the same level of generosity the OPEC nations are exhibiting now.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.