Madam, – With all the furore and hysteria regarding the current financial crisis, it was depressing (yet not surprising) to read this week the UN’s announcement that 1 billion people do not have enough to eat (Breaking News, September 16th). It also appears that only about 40 per cent of this year’s commitments to the UN’s World Food Programme have been met, a mere €2.6 billion globally. Compare this with the urgency being applied to fix the financial markets. It’s obvious that the welfare of humanity comes a poor second to repairing the elitist, wealth-generating machine that is the established economic system. – Yours, etc,