As I recall 'Golden Galleon' was the brand of a butter retailed in our local corner shop on those seemingly sun-drenched halcyon days of my youth.
The world's children are dying of hunger even as you read this statement.
We, as the human race, are to a degree all to blame. Economists would predict that giving vast amounts of food aid by emptying the grain and huge surplus food warehouses of the affluent west onto the third world, would create massive loss of revenue to the food markets of the world. In my opinion this is nonsense, there may well be fluctuations on the stock markets, where overweight avaricious tycoons congregate, and this action may result in a few pounds being shed from their overflowing bank accounts, but this would only be marginal and would soon subside.
I am of the opinion that every man, woman and child in an affluent caring society like our own would gladly pay that little extra if only to have peace in mind - knowing that they have contributed to combat against the world's most abominable act would secure and bond nations together. Also they would restore a degree of normality to these once proud people.
A figure of twenty million people has been estimated to be at risk from starvation in Africa alone, and an estimated two hundred and fifty million in the poverty trap in the areas of the third world.
Without action, what will the above figures be in say ten years time? I predict, if things stay the same, the stench of poverty will linger distastefully across the frontiers of the third world, causing unbelievable loss of life.
Let's take a look at the words "Civil War" and "Africa" today. These events throughout Africa's history have been mainly manipulated by the superpowers to meet their own political ends. The mainly affluent western nations exploiting the weak or ignorant third world, entrapping their nations cultures and infiltrating their societies. The use of covert operations cause serious anguish, distress, turmoil and unrest bringing down governments and political factions, culminating in "Civil War"
So the seed is sown, the beginnings of a man-made holocaust has begun. The food chain becomes a political weapon, it takes on the role of an economic lever, a monster to control and manipulate the masses.
I predict that in twenty years from now, if the present polices do not change, the western nations will have to envelop and enclose the African continent under a strict policy, encompassing a military blockade. The nations and their people monitored and kept under strictly controlled rules of movement.
This will not only be due to massive food and water shortages, there will be an onslaught of unrest, uncontrollable epidemics. All this created by outside covert operations.
But there lurks an even greater catastrophe for this continent, the seeds being sown in the early fifties. Doctors and scientists are facing their biggest challenge to date.
AIDS... A daunting task. Its origins are found deep inside the African continent and have spread world-wide, but mainly hitting the third world countries. India as an example is in dire straits, the disease is of epidemic proportion. Western nations, coupled with an economic strategy, will protect their own interests, making entry into a western country totally impossible. Leaving Africa will no longer be tolerated, in reality 'Africa' will become synonymous with 'leper colony', a gigantic wasteland. Food and economic aid will cease to be a policy, thus creating a downward spiral of the living standards that will be intolerable.
The Crisis Can Be Avoided
Why pay an employee unless for greater future returns ? Yet the outlay to relieve Third World poverty is miniscule compared with the on-going future resources wasted by inaction and the waste of life.
People matter, THEY produce the goods...