Short note 2020

Everybody -- at least in the "West" -- has continued to be fed DURING the virus period, so why should they suffer famine when the problem recedes? It is a nonsense

And it is mainly the lockdowns, not the virus itself, that have done the economic damage. So as lockdowns slowly fall out of favour, we can expect an economic revival, not some kind of "emergency"

The article below is just a beatup. The "emergency" is just a fiction designed to raise money for the authors of the fiction

The world has always had disaster areas and that will continue. Neither COVID nor global warming are needed to produce more of them

Misery loves company. In the case of COVID-19, that company includes unemployment, economic turmoil – and famine. And they’re about to come knocking.

“2021 is literally going to be catastrophic based on what we’re seeing at this stage of the game,” said World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

And if you think Australia won’t be affected by all this, think again. The warning signs are already there.

Notice how scarce out-of-season foods have become on supermarket shelves? Many vegetables and fruits must come from overseas. International trade has been disrupted and Australia’s ability to exploit cheap international labour has also been choked. This leaves many of our crops at risk of rotting in the fields.

The situation, however, is much more dire in Africa and South America. And that could trigger a global shortages and economic shockwaves.

Beasley says 2021 would likely be “the worst humanitarian crisis year since the beginning of the United Nations ... As I say, the icebergs in front of the Titanic.”

Beasley was supporting an appeal for $US35 billion in aid funding to meet a 40 per cent spike in the number of people needing humanitarian assistance. “We’re not going to be able to fund everything ... so we have to prioritise,” he said.

The impending “carnage” was “almost entirely from COVID-19,” UN emergency relief chief Mark Lowcock added.

It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back for people already reeling from conflict, social upheaval and climate change shocks. As a result, he said, “multiple” famines are looming.

“The picture we are presenting is the bleakest and darkest perspective on humanitarian needs in the period ahead that we have ever set out. That is a reflection of the fact that the COVID pandemic has wreaked carnage across the whole of the most fragile and vulnerable countries on the planet,” Lowcock said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs predicts a record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year. This year, that figure was 170 million.

Lowcock warns that the “obscene” chance of global famine in 2021 would inevitably lead to war and civil unrest.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the world to “stand with people in their darkest hour of need”.

COVID had produced “new spikes of conflict in places that were previously more peaceful. We’ve seen that obviously recently in Nagorno-Karabakh, we’ve seen it in northern Mozambique, we’ve seen it in the Western Sahara and at the moment obviously, tragically, we’re seeing in northern Ethiopia,” he said. “We’re overwhelmed with problems.”

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/un-warns-that-2021-could-be-catastrophic-due-to-covid19-fallout-and-famine/news-story/af6ad98c72e1e6c14456df51dd3a2171