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$130m for Ronaldo? That's a lot of school meals
Written by: Greg Barrow
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File photo of Manchester United's Ronaldo. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh
After news that Manchester United soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo will move to Real Madrid for a record $130 million, World Food Programme spokesman Greg Barrow ponders what his organisation could do with a chunk of change like that... We could use it right now to feed 8.6 million hungry mouths in Ethiopia through to the end of the year. These are people whose crops have withered due to drought and who can't buy the food they want at the local markets where it still costs too much. We really need it right now in Pakistan where it would cover a gaping hole in our budget and give us the cash we need to feed more than 2 million people who've had to abandon their homes and flee fighting in the Swat region. One hundred and thirty million dollars is a handy bit of loose change. If you take our operations in Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Guatemala, Liberia and Swaziland, it's enough to fund them all for a full year - and leave some to spare. That's value for money when you consider what the money could buy in terms of free school lunches for hungry children, and support for families buckling under the strain of feeding hungry mouths when food prices are high and jobs are hard to come by. A hundred and thirty million dollars can also buy you arguably the best soccer player in the world. Please don't get me wrong. I admire Cristiano Ronaldo. He is a soccer player who combines grace with almost balletic athleticism, and sheer power on the pitch. Anyone who can place a ball on the ground in a Champions League game and swerve it from almost 40 metres past a wall of 10 players and a goalie deserves some credit His fans worship him. But $130 million? Good luck to Manchester United, who have just sold Ronaldo for this record-breaking transfer fee to the giants of European football, Real Madrid. It's money that will further grease the financial wheels of the world's most beautiful game. Sadly it won't be coming our way. But the good news for the World Food Programme is that Ronaldo will play in a team alongside our very own hunger ambassador, Kaka, who last week made the move from Inter Milan to Real for the relatively modest sum of $90 million. There's real potential for the new "Galacticos" at Real to get together and say something meaningful about the needs of the 1 billion hungry people around the world. Kaka has shown already how fame and fortune provide a great platform for raising awareness about hunger and how the World Food Programme can address the growing needs. Among the ranks of the hungry there are many millions of young boys who dream one day of following in the golden footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. From dusty streets in African villages to alleyways in the slums of Haiti, soccer is seen as a passport out of misery. Those looking for escape will be watching closely.
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Greg Barrow is the Global Media Coordinator for the United Nations World Food Programme. He is based at WFP's Rome headquarters from where he works with a team of public information officers based at the frontline of humanitarian emergencies. Before moving to Rome, Greg ran WFP's office in London. He has a background in international journalism and worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, holding posts for six years in sub-Saharan Africa, and reporting for three years from the United Nations headquarters in New York.
01 Sep 2009 18:41:58 GMT
Unforunately, there is a perception that there is so much crime and corruption in the process of feeding the starving, compounded with bilions of people feeling the world economic situation and wondering if they are next, people are more concerned whats happening in their own backyard and have little concern about the plague of the starving. It will take a lot to change the perceptions.