Advent 9

Volume 9 (Extracti to Gamb): Famine.

The sobering Britannica entry lists thirty-six notable historic famines then follows its list with a yet more disquieting reminder that it omits the deliberatley inflicted famines of the Second World War. As Do They Know it's Christmas issues from our radios, we hardly need prodding into the knowledge that famine is ever with us. Britannica (speaking, remember, from 1959) offers us a potent clarion call:

Only a blind optimist can think this tale complete. Half the population of the world consists of peasants struggling to produce food against the uncertainties of primitive agriculture. In the industrial cities, the social and economic factors that poise the delicate balance between the outflow of manufactured goods and services to the countryside in return for a supply of food are uncertain and readily upset. Then hunger and perhaps famine must follow.

I apologise that I cannot be more cheery. I go where the book takes me and these reminders are all too necessary.