AFRO-NETS> Food from a Commissioner's thoughts (2)

[Ted Greiner <ted_greiner@hotmail.com>]

Food from a Commissioner's thoughts (2)
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Dear Claudio,

I agree with what you write on this, but in one sense the greatest 
foe of the human rights approach is the almost total ignorance of the 
American people, even of the existence of something called economic, 
cultural and social rights. Whereas most US governments either ignore 
or give only moderate support to such rights (as Clinton actually 
did), the current US government, safe behind this cloud of public ig-
norance, is taking an active anti-human rights stance (in the sense 
of these three types of rights). This is clear from its explanations 
of its current stance in joining Somalia as the only country not to 
sign the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Thus I wonder if the best way to fight poverty on a global scale 
would not actually be to establish an internationally funded institu-
tion whose aim was to educate the public in rich countries on these 
other human rights, what is actually going on in the rest of the 
world (particularly in the case of the US public), and how their gov-
ernments directly (and indirectly through the WTO, patent laws, and 
in some ways the Breton Woods institutions) prevent potential solu-
tions from being implemented. (I say "in some ways" because I do be-
lieve that most--not all--of the poverty alleviation and social sec-
tor work of the World Bank is an exception, and that indeed it does 
more than most development agencies which escape negative media at-
tention.)

Attack is doing a good job of raising awareness of some of these is-
sues, but a complementary approach is needed that goes more into 
depth and is institutionalized, working on an ongoing basis, not 
linked to getting sporadic media attention.

Cheers,

Ted Greiner, PhD 
Head, International Nutrition Research Group 
Department of Women's and Children's Health 
Uppsala University Academic Hospital
Entrance 11 
751 85 Uppsala, Sweden
Tel: +46-18-611-5937
Fax: +46-18-508-013
mailto:ted_greiner@hotmail.com

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