FRAGILE
Photos and text by Howard Buffett
The National Geographic Society Washington D.C., pp. 320
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0617-7
Reviewed by MARYAM JAMEELAH
The subject of this book- poverty and hunger- has afflicted mankind ever since the creation of the human race. Probably! Never before in all history has everyone enjoyed prosperity and plenty. Today explosive population growth combined with massive environmental destruct ion makes the agony of poverty ever more acute. Al though nobody denies that modern medicine has saved millions of lives, it has nevertheless created the population explosion by seriously disturbing the balance between births and deaths. Most of this excessive population growth has occurred in the poorest countries. Insatiable greed for more and more money and selfishness on a vast scale is mostly responsible for environmental destruction. It must never be forgot ten that the so- called advanced” industrialized countries could only achieve their prosperity by world- wide plunder and exploitation. The innocent victims portrayed in this book act only out of sheer desperation in their struggle just to remain alive!
But even the richest countries are not spared from poverty and hunger. There may be as many, if not more, as many as 30 million hungry, malnourished Americans unable to afford enough to eat, existing side by side with the epidemic of obesity.
Even poverty has been modernized and slavery reappeared in new forms. The poor today have not only been impoverished materially but also spiritually, derived of the One Faith which could make their tortured lives tolerable and give them dignity and hope.
Al though Islam is never mentioned, many of the individuals interviewed bear Muslim names and, most unfortunately, everything written concerning the unhappy fate of the countries described equally applies to all the Muslim majority lands as well, except, possibly Saudi a and Gulf.
The author of this book is a successful American farmer and businessman, a gifted writer and photographer and above all, a humanitarian and philanthropist with a genuine and sincere passion to help all those afflicted with poverty and hunger, irrespective of race or creed, by circumstances beyond their control.