Starvation of children in Syria – sanctions and the politics of revenge.

As Syria completes two years of western sanctions (2011–13), their dramatic effects on health are being highlighted with first reports of starvation deaths among children in the suburbs of Damascus. Although heavy fighting has taken place in this area, experts had predicted for some time the unworkability of sanctions for regime change, arguing that only civilians would pay the price in a country (Syria in this case) which was once well on the way to meeting the Millennium Development Goals 4 targets on reducing child mortality. In this, as in the case of other "sanctioned" countries, it is not just "civilians" but the most vulnerable among them – children, who are experiencing the tragic consequences of sanctions.

Famine and war / El Hambre y la guerra

History records that mankind has suffered at intervals from great famines. As recently as 1943, at least a million people died of famine in Bengal. In January 1943, a lot of soldiers of the Royal Hungarian Army died in Russia, at the River Don, because of the lack of food supply and insufficient healthcare. The enormous advances of science in this century have made the prevention and relief of famine technically easier. Subsequently, in many parts of the world, famine conditions have arisen, but fortunately on a smaller scale. In this work an attempt is made to set out a few general principles of famine.

La historia registra que la humanidad ha padecido grandes hambrunas a intervalos irregulares. Tan recientemente como 1943, por lo menos un millón de personas murieron de hambre en Bengala. En enero de 1943, muchos soldados del Ejército Real Húngaro murieron en Rusia, en el Río Don, debido a la falta de suministro de alimentos e insuficiente cuidado de la salud. Los enormes adelantos de la ciencia en este siglo han hecho técnicamente más fácil la prevención y alivio del hambre. Con posterioridad, en muchas partes del mundo, han surgido condiciones de hambruna, aunque afortunadamente en menor escala. Este trabajo representa un esfuerzo por exponer algunos principios generales de la hambruna.