The hunger of others

In the time it takes to read this sentence, another person (most probably a child) will have succumbed to starvation. Every hour there are 1,000 deaths from hunger or from diseases to which the malnourished body is prone. The 3,000 or so people whose deaths in the 9/11 attack have had such an impact on the lives of people in the West were a fraction of those who died from hunger on that very day. What is more, for an eighth of the world's population, some 820,000,000 people, hunger is a permanent companion (Vernon 2007)

For most of us, for most of the time, other people's starvation is of little concern and is readily eclipsed by concern with the pursuit of pleasure, the fortunes of our football team, or unhappy love. For many, perhaps, it is of no concern at all. For only a few (to use Keats's words in “The Fall of Hyperion”), “the miseries of the world / Are Misery, and will not let them rest”.