Madam,

One missile equals 40 000 school lunches. Guess which we choose daily?

The planet creates no empty bellies; systems do. There is enough food grown worldwide to feed everyone, but logistical and political barriers prevent equitable access.

How can we boast about our space programmes when we can’t even deliver bread to our own planet’s starving children? How can we debate gluten intolerance, while millions would gladly eat any bread? The real pests in our fields are the ruling vultures, who intercept nourishment before it reaches mouths.

We safeguard endangered pandas more fiercely than starving children. A child left to die because treatment was ‘too expensive’ is the logical conclusion of for-profit medicine. When a mother has to watch her baby die because milk costs more than her week’s wages, who is guilty? The mother, or the system that chose exploitation over nourishment?

When leaders feast on 12 course meals while their citizens boil shoes for soup, should we still call them leaders? Or should we call them executioners?

Inarguably, these aren’t ‘leaders’ watching children starve, rather, they’re sociopaths conducting a hunger experiment on the poor. The same politicians who panic over ‘defence gaps’ yawn at nutrition gaps that kill millions. In reality, we don’t have ‘food shortages’ - we have compassion shortages, morality shortages and human decency shortages.

Bullets are made quicker than baby food. Army trucks arrive faster than ambulances. We reach for Mars but can’t feed Earth. Is this justice punishing bread thieves but rewarding food hoarders? If we can fund endless wars overnight, why can’t we fund the end of hunger just as fast?

Bullets are made quicker than baby food. Army trucks arrive faster than ambulances. We reach for Mars but can’t feed Earth. (Pic: CAFOD)