Causes of famine.

A sharply observant and thoroughly disillusioned view of the world's political (as distinct from humanitarian) response to the Ethiopian famine disaster. While poor Ethiopian farmers with no seed to sow sell the last of their livestock to buy the food they cannot grow, U.S. delegates at the United Nations explain how international aid organisations deliberately exaggerate the extent of Third World famine and poverty in order to maximise their incomes and organisational growth, and delegates from emergent African and "socialist" countries dwell on the role of multi- national corporations and capitalist agriculture - both such potent factors in the Ethiopian context - in stripping the Third World of its natural resources. Other delegates scarcely attempt to conceal their bored indifference, or with becoming honesty sleep through the long, hot New York afternoon until cocktail time. Meanwhile, back in Ethiopia, well-fed cadres in grey suits endeavour to persuade a demoralised population of the advantages of the government's resettlement plans - adding that in any case they have no choice, since after having spent two years working to repair a communal rainwater cistern, support for the project is to be withdrawn. Despite its subject