Blaine enables: A hunger artist draws attention to a mounting death toll

Stat House
October 2003

Blaine enables: A hunger artist draws attention to a mounting death toll
The magician David Blaine has been attracting huge crowds in London as he continues his stunt-fast, suspended in the air in a glass box near London's famous Tower Bridge. Many visitors have been jokingly throwing food at the contemporary hunger artist.

During the month since David Blaine started his starvation stunt, a staggering 672,000 people worldwide have died from hunger, according to the British economic development agency, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development. One in seven people in the world do not have enough food and go to bed hungry each night. Unlike David Blaine, the group points out, they cannot choose to leave their situation. By the end of Blaine's stunt, more than 1 million people worldwide will have succumbed to hunger.

The scandal of this daily death toll in the 21st Century is that it is entirely preventable, according to a CAFOD press release. "People are hungry not because of a global shortage of food but because there is a global lack of interest in their plight. [Eliminating hunger] will mean governments, businesses, and international bodies changing policies to prioritize fighting poverty."

Every day 24,000 people die from hunger and related causes according to United Nations figures, and 800 million people worldwide go to bed hungry every night.

Thousands of CAFOD supporters joined Blaine in choosing to go hungry this October 3 in a 24-hour fast to raise money to help those who do not have that choice. Members of the Catholic agency made the trip down to the Tower Bridge to draw attention to the plight of the world's hungry.

Media coverage of Blaine's endurance feat has highlighted the devastating physical effects of hunger. Permanent damage to the heart, liver and kidneys, blindness, risk of serious infection, and hypothermia are just some of the effects of going without food.

These are the same risks as faced by the hundreds of millions of the faceless, anonymous hungry, according to CAFOD. Long-term hunger also stunts children's growth, hampers their education and reduces both their life expectancy and the choices they can expect from life.

"If they survive childhood, hungry children risk becoming hungry adults as they become trapped in the desperate cycle of poverty. CAFOD is working hard to help poor people all over the world break out of that cycle. This Fast Day we are asking our supporters to go to bed hungry for just one day to empathize with those who go hungry every day," CAFOD's head of Advocacy and Communications Alison Fenney told the Independent Catholic News. "CAFOD does not just feed the hungry. It works tirelessly in order that the hungry are able to feed themselves and their children now and in the long term.

"Unfair trade practices, debt and preventable diseases all keep people hungry. The world has enough food to feed everyone but little political will from rich countries to ensure that everyone is fed."

For more information:
Bread for the World
Food Research Action Center
UN Food and Agriculture Organization's reports on global 'food insecurity'
CAFOD Trade Justice Program
Catholic Relief Services

Misc. hunger statisitcs:

More than 13 million American children are hungry.

Globally, more than 6 million children die each because of hunger.

The world’s farmers grow enough food to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per day for every person. This is more than enough food for everyone on the planet.

Worldwide, there are 2,750 calories in food available for each person, each day. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has set the minimum daily requirement at 2,35

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