LONDON: Fifteen million of the world’s poorest people are directly affected, contributing to a potentially catastrophic humanitarian disaster.

More than 12 million are currently at risk of starvation in Africa, as a major relief appeal seeks to save some of these lives. But putting $10 bill in a collection tin will not be enough if we do not understand the deeper causes and the crucial role we play in perpetuating them.

Famines are not natural disasters or acts of God, but the product of human acts and omissions. Even two years of drought should not leave millions starving. That six million of those at risk are in Zimbabwe is testimony to the human cost of a political tyranny.

That dictatorship and war are major causes of famine is a case that can be made powerfully by Africa’s democrats. But Western governments have at least an equal share of responsibility — indeed our hypocrisy on free trade contributes massively to Africa’s endemic poverty and political instability.

Africa needs a fair chance to sell its produce. Yet President Bush has just pledged an additional $180 billion to support America’s farmers over the next decade. The European Union, shamefully, wastes half of its budget on inefficient agricultural subsidies. We all lose out, in higher prices and higher taxes. But the cost in Africa can be measured in lives.

Europeans need to realize that every one million dollars given to charity does little to counter the $110 billion every year in subsidies, the rigged rules and the double standards by which we lock the world’s poorest people out of the global economy. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.