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Morocco World News
Madrid, Friday 10, 2012
On January 27, 2009, Spain hosted food experts from all over the globe in order to combat poverty, malnutrition and the rising of food prices.
The summit opened with a keynote speech by the Spanish Foreign Miinister Miguel Angel Moratinos who proclaimed that little progress had been done in the global battle against famine and confirmed that Spain will reserve a budget of $500 million in agricultural as well as food aid over the next 48 months.
It seems, however, that the summit was of no no value. It did not provide an effective cure to poverty and famine in Spain. Recent reports claimed that a large number of Spanish people are suffering from the phenomenon of hunger. These people usually go scavenging in the dustbins looking for food among garbage, due to the economic crisis that attacked the country.
Hence, while some deserted Spain to look for more survival chances elsewhere, others preferred to stay at home and to face the crisis boldly. This is not the case of the majority.
Nearby the South of Seville, the president of a local municipality, called José Manuel Sanchez Gordillo of the Unified Left (Izuierda Unida) in Spain, resolved to break into one of the biggest commercial centers to bring out food supplies to the impoverished.
The President of the municipality and the federation of the Andalusian employers on Tuesday led about 500 people towards one shopping mall. He filled in many vehicles with the necessary food like rice, milk, oil…etc without paying any Euro. His fellows defied the police efforts in controlling the situation.
“In this moment of crisis, when they expropriating the people, we want to expropriate the expropriators, that is, landlords, banks and supermarkets, which are making money in the economic crisis,” Gordillo was quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais as saying.
After the incident, Gordillo told the local media that «hunger » was the main cause behind this intrusion». He simultaneously insisted that the «loot» will be given to one association of charity work, which in turn will distribute it amongst the impoverished.
The other members of the federation emphasized that such demeanor is but one step among other steps aiming at helping the have-nots in Spain.
On the other hand, some members of the same federation also broke into a private commercial center. Yet, the administration of the commercial center negotiated the matter with the intruders, and agreed to hand over 12 vehicles carrying food supplies to the poor. By doing so, the administration grasped the great perils of the crisis impacting purchasing power of the Spanish people.
The reactions vis-Ã -vis the intrusion differed. The leaders of the Unified Left Party in Spain supported their friend, while the President of al- Andalus province said he well understood the situation.
Parallel to that, the minister of interior in Madrid declared that orders were given to capture the intruders, namely their leader José Gordillo. The Right party considered the deed a sort of theft which the law should punish. The same view was held by other trading companies in the country.
