10. 2. 2012, Malenge Island
I tell our bungalow neighbours, elder Canadians: “It is so impressive for me to return to Germany and going shopping for food the first time. The variarity and the low prizes of all kinds of food in the supermarkets are shocking me.” They react on this: Oh no, go to “Carryfree”, this is a food chain with french management, based almost everywhere in the world, also in Asia.” I think: Interesting. They don´t get my point. Of cause, as a White, i can enter any Starbucks worldwide. What i wanted to say: “Food is so highly subventioned in Europe, i feel ashamed, when i see the prizes of the same from overseas imported products in other parts of the world. A Chilean whine in a german supermarket: 2 $. The same bottle somewhere in Africa or asia: 20 $. At the airport in Kinshasa, i talked to an UN project manager from Nepal, working in finances in the Congo. I asked him, what for the UN is the most important to do in Congo. He answered, building up a new agriculture. Every small farm could feed a whole family, and the investment would be not very high. But what, if the agricultural products prizes are not compatable on the local foodmarket? What is, if the imported food from overseas is cheaper than the local produced? This exactly is the case in many african countries. This is by Europeans and Americans subventioned global food production. What is the UN´s role in this? Just the left hand and the right hand of the same devil, as some of the art students here in Kinshasa say?
