Fighting to Prevent Global Hunger

W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 61 FightingtoPreventGlobalHunger byRobertPollin RobertPollinisaprofessorofeconomicsandcodirectorofthePoliticalEconomyResearchInstitute(PERI)attheUniversityofMassachusetts-Amherst. party, send authoritative information to buttress your position , link interested people to relevant resources. The first rule of organizing is “out of sight, out of mind,” so whatever you do, remember to follow up. And don’t assume someone’s a lost cause until they say the word “no.” 5. Fundraising basics: Focus on an aspect of your issue that directly connects with someone’s passions. Ask for a slightly larger donation than you think the person is capable of giving. (They can always say no, but they may be flattered that you think they’re successful enough to afford that amount.) Don’t do the “pitch” until after the main event (luncheon speaker, film screening, or plenary session). People need to feel spiritually invested in your issue or group before they’ll invest financially. Don’t oversell . Be concise. If possible, be funny. Humor softens the transaction. Don’t disappear after you’ve got the money. Stay in touch. ■ 25 YEARS OF TIKKUN commodities futures trader to sell the crop at a fixed price when thecropisharvested. But such simple agreements became increasingly overwhelmed by big-time market speculators in 2000 when the marketswerederegulated,alongwiththerestoftheU.S.financial system. Deregulation produced severe swings in the global prices offoodandoil. The most severely impacted victims of commodity price volatility are people in developing countries, where it is common for families to spend 50 percent or more of their total income on food. The United Nations found that sharp price increases in 2008—a 40 percent average increase across a range of different food items—led to malnourishment for 130 million additional people. Low-income people in developing countries have been furtherhammeredbecause,eventhoughglobalfoodpricesdidfall sharplyfromtheirmid-2008peak,theyarestilltoday,onaverage, about 20 percent higher than they were in 2006. Moreover, just between June and September of this year, the price of wheat rose T he Tikkun Community should take justified pride in twenty-five years of fighting effectively for social justice and building from Jewish traditions and teachings in waging these fights. In that spirit I wish to pose what may seem like an out-of-nowhere question: are you following the current activities of the CommoditiesFuturesTradingCommission? My guess is that almost everyone is answering “no.” This is a serious problem. Despite its obscurity as a federal government regulatory body, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is making decisions now that could determine whether hundreds of millions of people experience malnutrition, hunger, andperhapsevenstarvationinthecomingyears. Futuresmarketsforfood,oilandothercommoditieshavelong been used by farmers and others to maintain stability in their businessoperationsandplanforthefuture.Forexample,undera “plain vanilla” wheat futures contract, a farmer could spend $50,000 planting her crop now, and agree now with a 62 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 25 YEARS OF TIKKUN 25 YEARS OF TIKKUN Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D., teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. His latest book is Popular ResistanceinPalestine:AHistoryofHopeandEmpowerment(PlutoPress,2010). A s a social species, humans build narratives tosustainandstrengthengroupbondageandidentity .Likeallhumanconstructs,narrativescanbring positiveornegativeresults.Weshouldgenerallyrespect different philosophies and narratives, but there are some narratives we simply cannot accept—for example, anarrativelikethatofawhiteEuropeanwhobelievesAryanwhite culture is superior to others and acts on this idea like fascists and Nazisdidinthetwentiethcentury. WhyshouldweacceptnotionsofChristiansuperiorityheldby some Catholics who supported massacres committed during the crusades, or similar notions among some Orthodox Christians who supported massacres committed during the crusades and during the civil war in Lebanon? Why should we accept the notions of an Islamic “Umma” as articulated by Osama Bin Laden that all Muslims should stand as one and justify mass killing of “the others”? And why should we accept the political Zionist narrativeof “theJewishnation”thatresultsindisplacementofnative peoplewhohappentobeChristiansandMuslims? Narratives based on mythologies can of course be harmless when believed by people living their ordinary lives in a multicultural and multireligious society. But they can be highly destructive when practiced via state power. That is why the founding fathers of the United States...