Right now, world leaders are meeting at a United Nations conference in Rome to discuss the crisis of exploding food prices. And they all annoy the hell out of me.For a start, you've got the Oxfam groupies dressed up as corn-on-the-cob, protesting outside of the conference at the effect biofuel creation has on food prices.
Then you have Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strolling around enjoying the Italian scenery.
Then there's ex-Nazi Pope Benedict XVI, ranting; "hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which has the resources and know-how to put an end to these tragedies."
The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy.
For a start, Oxfam have spent years attacking the oil industry and the effect it has on poor and developing countries. Now they've neatly sidelined their complaints to concentrate on an alternative they themselves were pushing a few years ago - bio fuels.
Mugabe and Ahmadinejad are the leading cause of starvation in their own countries, rigging elections and pouring people into the meat-grinder of petty imperialism. The European Union officially has a ban on Mugabe entering their territory and the United States refuses to meet Ahmadinejad face to face. Yet while the civilised world turns their nose up at discussing real and important issues with them, they're more than willing to invite them to a conference about feeding the poor - a discussion neither dictator is likely to make any significant contribution to.
Then there's that idiot Pope - he's the one who really gets my goat. Here he is, ranting that the world "has the resources and know-how to put an end to these tragedies" while just a few months ago, he was telling the people of Africa that using condoms was a sin against the church. AIDS is another tragedy that the world has the resources and know-how to put an end to - but the Pope's only interested in advocating his own agenda, not doing anything helpful.Even the good old Americans are looking like arses at this event - suggesting dropping subsidies and trade barriers to stimulate trade and production, while still having whopping great tariffs on imported corn and sugar and recently passing huge subsidies that are making farmers rich while the rest of America sinks into a recession.
This entire conference is a gigantic waste of time and money. It's puffery - as simple as that. A lot of self important politicians preening and squawking like peacocks, while simultaneously failing to do anything remotely positive about the problem they've identified.
Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. World hunger has abated slightly since they started this farce. I've certainly lost my appetite.
