finanacial crisis: poor will starve even more, page-4

We haven't got it right. Maybe it's time for some culling through a global war - or have we one already?

CANBERRA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - East Timor is facing a food
crisis and more than half the fledgling country's youngest
children are now going hungry as global food prices soar, a new
aid report warned on Thursday.

More than 70 percent of households surveyed across East Timor
were "food insecure" and unable to find enough to eat each day
for almost half the year in what was fast becoming a food crisis,
a group of international aid organisations warned.

"They've had what they call the hungry season," Oxfam
Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett said, adding the lean
period in the poverty-hit nation generally lasted only months.

"That's been prolonged and we're now talking about people not
having enough to eat, going to bed hungry every night, for about
five months of the year," Hewett said.

The survey covered most of East Timor, including the
Manatuto, Liquica, Manufahi, Bobonaro, Oecusse, Covalima and
Lautem districts.

The number of children under 5 suffering from chronic
malnutrition was as high as 59 percent in many areas, while in
some districts food insecurity touched 90 percent of households,
it found.

"Children are lacking protein, lacking enough food, suffering
from chronic malnutrition. It's about one in two children under
the age of five," Hewett said.

Asia's youngest country has been unable to achieve stability
since a hard-won independence from Indonesia in 2002. As well as
ethnic and regional divisions, youth unemployment in the
$320-million economy is above 60 percent.

Adding to poverty problems, the East Timor army tore apart
along regional lines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were
sacked, triggering violence that killed 37 people and drove
150,000 from their homes.

Hewett said East Timor was facing a hunger crisis reflected
in other parts of Asia, the Pacific and Africa as global food
prices spiralled beyond the reach of ordinary people, with an
extra 100 million people now being pushed into food security.

In East Timor, rice prices had doubled due to climate change
and a global shortage, hitting thousands despite a government
subsidy to blunt the impact.