Extinction Level Event by Jose Pino Johansson Read Free Book Online Page A

European
Union, under a multi-billion euro plan to respond to rising hunger
around the world. The so-called EU Food Facility aims to bridge the
gap between emergency aid and long-term developmental aid. It is
done on a year-by-year basis, as opposed to either quick aid to
relieve emergency problems or a long-term strategic plan.
     
    Manjak signed. There was so much work to be done. The
FAO would be getting more overwhelmed with work with each passing
year, as resources on the planet grow scarcer and the population
increases. Funding for such a massive undertaking, despite being
generous, is nowhere nearly adequate to deal with the large
stresses that the FAO and UN will have to be facing by 2020, let
alone 2030. Unless significant and powerful leaders were made aware
of this, and soon, the United Nations would be facing major crises
sooner than expected. That is why he suggested that FAO host a
second World Food Security Summit this year. The last Food Security
Summit had been in November of 2009. While many ideas and proposals
had been floated about by the various politicians, experts,
scientists, and heads of state, at the end no real consensus had
been reached. Very few new programs came out of the Summit, and
Manjak had to note that it had been a diplomatic success but a
pragmatic failure. The Director-General approved the idea, agreeing
with Manjak that the time was overdue for another in-depth
discussion on world food security.
     
    Beep Beep! Trip picks up the phone. It's his head
secretary, Maria Pereira. Her English, mastered at a Brazilian
university, would still never lose her Brazilian, Carioca accent. “Hello?” “Your visitor from the Bangladesh mission is here,
sir”. “Excellent, send him in please”, Trip puts down the phone. At least I got my own secretary. A short, dark and swarthy
man walked into the room. Zahir Mohammed of Dhaka, Bangladesh used
to be in charge of operations in Bangladesh. A small, monsoon-riden
country in southeast Asia, Bangladesh had as severe food shortages
as any country in the third world. Trip had known Zahir for several
years, although they hadn’t had many assigments where they worked
together and subsequently Trip didn’t know Zahir as well as he
would have liked.
     
    Trip stood and extended his hand to his acquaintance.
“Zahir!. I haven’t seen you in a while. How are things in Dhaka?
They treating you well?” Grasping his hand and shaking it warmly,
Zahir quickly replied. “Trip. Good to see you. The question is, how
have you been treating me?” The two men laugh quickly at the joke.
Trip sits back down in his executive chair and motions for Zahir to
sit as well. Zahir sits down, starting his commentary, “Trip. As
much as it is good to see you again, of course I’m not here for
that alone”. A brief smile wavers across the shorter man’s face. “I
need to talk to you administrators about the Bangladesh project in
person. The funding for what we’re trying to accomplish simply
isn’t there. And you know it.” Zahir pauses for a moment, letting
the sharp comment sink in. “We have a rapidly increasing
population, soon to be far too large for that land area. Coupled
with the corruption in the local government agencies, and the lack
of new technological breakthroughs. . . . food security is rather
flimsy at best. And impossible at the worst, when it comes to
that”. Mohammed leaned back in his chair, hands raised in gestures
trying to help convey his message to Trip. “Every year the
proportion of people that are under-nourished decreases, but the
absolute number remains the same. It goes down from 26% to 25% to
24%, yet the number seems to always hover at forty million. Forty
million!! And in addition, over 40% of the country lives in
poverty. Do you think my $12 million budget is adequate to deal
with this?? Hardly, my friend.” With that, Zahir paused and looked
directly into Trip’s eyes. “Do you think the Conference will
approve an increase? If