ITALY: Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt urges greater action against world hunger

Record ID: 214797

  • Title: ITALY: Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt urges greater action against world hunger
  • Date: 19th October 1981
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (VISNEWS - ROLANDO FERRARIO AND ANGELO FIORI) SV Willy Brandt greeted as he enters conference centre SV Hunger striker Panella, enters with Nobel prize winners Wilkinson and Wald CU PAN Signor Spadolini enters centre CU PAN Panella and others seated in conference hall CU PULL BACK SV Brandt, Spadolini and Italian Foreign Minister Emilio Colombo (nearest ca
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 1981 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA912F2ZZ69HOBNQ5FVBGSYRBQA
  • Story Text: INTRODUCTION: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has just celebrated its first World Food Day, created to make people throughout the world more aware of the earth's food and hunger problems. This year alone, FAO estimates that 420 million people will not have enough to eat, and that somewhere between 15 and 20 million children, all under the age of five, will die from starvation. To mark the day, on October the 16th, a special conference was held in Rome.
    SYNOPSIS: It was Willy Brandt, the former West German Chancellor and Chairman of the Brandt Commission into world hunger, who opened the conference.
    World Food Day, marking the organisation's 36th anniversary, was also attended by the Italian Prime Minister. Signore Giovanni Spadolini.
    The delegates were told some 800 million people throughout the world live in conditions of abject poverty. Most of these people are forced to endure chronic hunger.
    Willy Brandt, in his opening address, warned the conference of a growing sense of indignation about the failure of the wealthy nations of the world to take action. For this, Herr Brandt blamed the incompetence and complacency of government bureaucrats in the Western world.
    A demonstration was later held in the streets of Rome to draw public attention to World Food Day. The rally was organised by the Italian Radical Party, with the marchers carrying sheaves of wheat -- the international symbol of World Hunger Day. Although the record grain harvest in the United States has averted an immediate food crisis in the Third World, the situation is still critical in nations where food distribution is hampered by inefficiency and corruption.
    At the end of the rally, Prime Minister Spadolini welcomed the marchers, and promised them his support.
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