主题：今天BBC说，印度的饥民超过非洲饥民的总数 -- 晨枫

Kakkaji Post subject: Posted: 29 May 2008 05:48 pm BRFite

While watching the news clips of the aftermath of the earthquake in China, I have noticed that the people, at least in the cities, appear to be well-fed and well-dressed. None of the stereotypical short, stick-thin Chinese there. In fact quite a few people, while not obese, could be characterized as 'stocky'. Very different from what I was used to seeing in pictures from 20 years ago.

It appears that within the space of a generation, China has conquered malnutrition. I would venture to say that the 'average' young Chinese is taller, healthier, and better-fed than the 'average' young Indian.

ramana Post subject: Posted: 29 May 2008 08:12 pm Forum Moderator

Kakkaji, Amartya Sen (he of the Nobel Prize fame) wrote a recent article published in Deccan Chronicle on how mvoing up the ecnomic sclae increases consumption and hence the food price increase! May be Asian Age might have archieved it.

Kakkaji: ramana:

Yes, but the point I want to convey is that China seems to have been able to move almost all of its urban population up the economic scale from 'semi-starved' to 'well-fed' within a generation.

And they seem to be determined and well-positioned (witness their contract farming in Cambodia, Laos etc) to keep their population well-fed, despite the rise in prices. It is the poor countries that missed the bus when China was surging ahead, whose population will face starvation due to rising food prices.

derkonig: All CCP propaganda.

Kakkaji: Boss,

I understand that the Chinese Govt. manipulates information. But propaganda cannot hide all the facts. For example, it is amply clear to me, despite all the CCP propaganda, that a number of school buildings collapsed in the quake because their construction was shoddy, which could not have happened without the collaboration of corrupt officials.

All I am saying is that the people appear "well-fed". which means the Govt. of China seems to have done a good job of taking care of hunger and malnutrition, even though they may have failed on human rights, corruption, environment, and other fronts.

shyam: Actually, one of my friends who visited Shanghai and Beijing recently told me otherwise that average chinese is not well fed. Their physique can't be compared to that of typical Punjabis. In fact, my friend lost 10lb in three weeks of visit there, though he resorted to vegitarian food there. He said, even the amount of meat present in regular food is very little.

What he observed is that average chinese is well clothed. The material may be cheap, but the design will be stylish. Because of cold weather they wear slightly thick dress and may look bit fat.

derkonig : What I am suggesting is that all those ppl in those vidoes can also playing their parts, all of this being orchestrated by the CCP. Its a bit strange that all these 'victims' are so well dressed, few look injured.

IMHO its all stage managed.

amit: Kakkaji,

I entirely agree with your point about the urban Chinese being relatively "well-fed" - certainly more so than their parents.

However, one small point - more an elaboration - China is desperate on contract farming due to the fact that it has very little arable land fit for farming. Despite having a land area which is almost twice that of India, its arable land area is far lower - off hand I forget the figure but its on the Net - than what we have in India.

And thanks to desertification in Northern China and pollution sinking into the groundwater and in the soil due to indiscriminate growth this arable area is shrinking even faster.

Another point: As people move up the economic ladder the quality of food intake changes. At the bottom is coarse grains, then comes rice, wheat etc and finally at the top, the amount of cereals and vegetables decreases and the proportion of meat in food intake increases.

Since historically Chinese have been under fed for countless generations - the poor country has witnessed more famines than any other in the world - as the prosperity increases all types of consumption is going up. Remember, the past 40 years or so has been, by Chinese standards an unusally long period of stabilty with steady economic progress. It's hard to find a similar period in Chinese history - one would have to go a long, long way back.