Poverty: Stating the bleeding obvious

I am sick and tired of seeing one study after another "revealing" that the poor will be hardest hit by the economic crisis and food shortages. Do agencies really need to spend financial and human resources just to come up with headlines such as the following?

KYRGYZSTAN: Poor hit hardest by rising food prices, energy crisis

I wonder how many people would see such headlines and be deterred from clicking on the actual report because it is stating the bleeding obvious.

Of course the poor will be hardest hit - they always are and always will be.

The meek may well inherit the earth and if drought, floods, locusts, salinity and soil degradation haven't ruined it, or the produce been nicked by military and government officials, they may just manage to scrape an existence out of it. But it's the speechmakers who inherit the Mercedes, Armani suits and never-ending cocktail and back-slapping circuits where many words are spoken, multiple promises made and words such as "empowered" and "key to" are thrown around to show others they have the intelligence, education and analytical ability to come to the conclusion that the poor will be hardest hit by rising food prices.

Written and published by Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting
Putting principles before profits
This blog will be on holiday from Dec 15 2008 -Jan 12 2009!