Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

According to the Financial Times, "The World Food Programme has launched an 'extraordinary emergency appeal' to governments to donate at least $500m in the next four weeks to avoid rationing food aid in response to the spiralling cost of food." The FT pointed out that the WFP, the UN agency responsible for relieving hunger, said in a letter to donors that if "fresh money" did not arrive by 1 May, it might cut "the rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them during times of abject need".

If we go straight to the WFP site and query its official position on, oh, say, Zimbabwe, we get this: "Food insecurity in Zimbabwe is a result of several factors, including poor agricultural policies and a declining economy, characterised by hyper-inflation, high unemployment and a rapidly depreciating currency."

No word there, though, on the main cause of Zimbabwe's "food insecurity", otherwise known as hunger — Robert Mugabe. He is the cause of the country's sufferings and guess who feeds his tyranny? The UN. In the Times, Michael Holman noted that elections are two days away, Mugabe is fighting for his political life, the country is starving, but help is at hand. From the WFP. Worse, the WFP announced that it "plans to complete this month's food distributions in Zimbabwe earlier than usual to avoid any overlap with the final run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections on 29 March."

Can we, the WFP "donors" of "fresh money" do anything about this? Well, "Geography According to the UN Development Programme" shows that it is possible to get things done. Lisa Rosenberg used the power of email and the wisdom of crowds to force the UNDP to change its biased website text. Could a similar campaign get the WFP to acknowledge and declare that Robert Mugabe's misrule is one of the factors causing "food insecurity" in Zimbabwe?

Correction: It's "Liza Rosenberg" not "Lisa Rosenberg". Rainy Day dyslexia strikes again.