Hunger in Haiti

Even as we absorb ourselves in the upcoming presidential election, the news reminds us that we are far more prosperous than much of the world. This was evident when learning about violent protests in Haiti over lack of food.
It is a shock for most people living in places like the United States to actually hear about these things. Yes, we have our monstrous national debt and our poverty, but there is almost no comparison. According to the CIA World Factbook, 2/3 of Haiti’s population are unemployed and 80% are below the poverty line (they do not define what they mean by poverty, only mentioning that the definition varies between countries and that wealthier nations have a more generous definition, so we can assume that poverty in Haiti is much lower than our definition of poverty). However, the United States has a 4.6% unemployment rate and 12% below the poverty line.
Now, this definitely isn’t me saying that we don’t have some serious problems in the United States (Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, anyone?) because we do. But if people are looking for an issue that crosses country lines and political party lines, this is it. We may argue about how to go about fixing the problem, but there’s no denying that something needs to be done about it. The sad fact is that half of the world lives off of less than $2 a day. Our poverty levels can’t even compare to certain countries in the world where people cannot find or pay for water, much less food. As someone who lives in a middle class home in the United States, I have no idea what it’s like to be unable to find food. We simply take it for granted that there will be supermarkets filled with so much food that someone in Africa wouldn’t believe their eyes if they saw it.
There are more statistics and information on the Internet, but we all know that poverty is an issue. We cannot let the fact that we are unable to relate to those who turn violent from poverty in order to get what we take for granted stop us from doing something about it. If you’re looking for a black and white issue, here it is.