Editor, HUNGER IS very bad. Many of us have experienced it in real terms, not academically. Let me just point out that not everything under the sun can be calculated. What price can you put on love? When one tries to put a monetary cost to hunger you run the serious risk of becoming one of those of whom the irreverent Oscar Wilde once said, “They know the price of everything and the value of none”. Hunger is very bad period. All of us must work very hard, each in our allotted roles, to eradicate it from this country so that no Rwandan child ever goes hungry again. Enough nutritious food for every citizen, a clean and secure living environment and access to quality education are all the basics of a healthy population; themselves the best indicators that a country is moving in the right direction. This isn’t rocket science; it is simple common sense – or a revisiting of Maslow, if you wish. Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda Reaction to the story, “Breaking down the cost of hunger to a nation” (Sunday Times, February 23)
