OSLO, Dec 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in a
ceremony held online because of the coronavirus, the World Food
Programme (WFP) warned of a “hunger pandemic” it said could
be worse than Covid-19.
“Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of
hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health
pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse, 270 million
people are marching toward starvation,” WFP executive director David
Beasley said.
“Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which
will dwarf the impact of Covid,” he said, removing his facemask to
make his remarks broadcast from the WFP’s headquarters in Rome.
The largest humanitarian organisation fighting famine, the UN
agency founded in 1961 feeds tens of millions of people each year —
97 million in 2019 — across all continents.
The WFP was honoured with the Nobel for its efforts “to prevent the
use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict”, committee chairwoman
Berit Reiss-Andersen said when she announced the winner on Oct 9.
With nationalist tendencies taking hold across the globe, the WFP
“represents exactly the kind of international cooperation and
commitment that the world is in dire need of today,” Reiss-Andersen
said Thursday, speaking from a deserted Nobel Institute in Oslo.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Nobel officials to scale back the
traditional festivities to a bare minimum, both in Oslo where the
Peace Prize is announced and presented, and in Stockholm, which hosts
the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics.
Cancellations hit the lavish banquets and glittering ceremonies
attended by distinguished guests and royals in tiaras, replaced by
more austere events mostly online.
Because of the exceptional circumstances, the Nobel gold medal and
diploma were sent to Rome in a diplomatic pouch.
“This Nobel Peace Prize is more than a thank you. It is a call to
action,” Beasley said.
“Famine is at humanity’s doorstep”, he said, and “food is the
pathway to peace.”
In recent weeks, the agency has expressed alarm about the risk of
famine in Burkina Faso, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Yemen.
Already at record levels, malnutrition in Yemen is expected to get
even worse due to the pandemic and lack of funds.
“We stand at what may be the most ironic moment in modern history,”
Beasley said.
“On the one hand, after a century of massive strides in eliminating
extreme poverty, today those 270 million of our neighbours are on the
brink of starvation.”
“On the other hand, there is 400 trillion dollars of wealth in our
world today. Even at the height of the Covid pandemic, in just 90
days, an additional 2.7 trillion dollars of wealth was created. And we
only need 5 billion dollars to save 30 million lives from famine,” he
added.
The usual Nobel festivities in Sweden were also cancelled.
A ceremony was nonetheless held in Stockholm’s City Hall on
Thursday, decked out with red and pink flowers but void of a live
audience and broadcast online instead.
Pre-recorded musical interludes were interspersed with speeches and
footage from the past week of the other laureates receiving their
awards in their countries of residence.
“The Nobel Prize shows humanity’s ability to constantly find
solutions to the difficult challenges we face. This year, when we are
all deeply affected by the corona pandemic, it feels especially
important to highlight scientific, literary and humanitarian efforts
that inspire us and give us hope for the future,” Nobel Foundation
chairman Carl-Henrik Heldin said.
This year’s laureates will be welcomed to Oslo and Stockholm at a
later date, probably in 2021.
In order to receive the prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor
(975,000 euros, $1.18 million), Beasley must hold the traditional
Nobel lecture within six months.
Saying he goes “to bed weeping over the children we could not
save”, Beasley concluded his remarks with a desperate appeal.
“When we don’t have enough money and the access we need, we have to
decide which children eat and which children do not eat, which
children live, which children die,” he said.
“Please don’t ask us to choose who lives and who dies… Let’s feed
them all.” — NNN-AGENCIES
