Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Food for Thought 4

Many of the world's famines have been documented, even if their human causes have not. But did you know about this one? In 1950 a photographer, Richard Harrington, went to the arctic in a year that the caribou did not appear and famine stalked the land. More than once he photographed people who died the next day. In 1950 southern Canadians were welcoming a
prosperous decade of suburbs and big-finned cars and were unaware of the famine, "It's not a story that's well understood or appreciated." Said Arctic sociologist, Frank Tester. No details of numbers are given but it has to be noted that ten years earlier the Canadian government had no trouble getting men, supplies and armaments across the Atlantic Ocean, but failed to do the same in their own country when the need arose. John Ayers

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