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Article: Hunger haunts Panama's Guaymis
- Article from:
- China Daily
- Article date:
- July 2, 2002
CopyrightCopyright 2002 China Daily. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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CERRO SOMBRERO, Panama : A group of sluggish children, their
stomachs swollen from malnutrition, stand around a pot of a lumpy
rice drink, while their mother, too weak to stand herself, ladles out
a spoon of the hot white sludge to each child.
The Tubris family, members of Panama's indigenous Guaymi people,
has been unable to sell its coffee crop this year because of the
collapse in world coffee prices, and is now too poor to buy enough
food or crop seeds to feed itself.
Like an increasing number of Guaymi Indians impoverished by the
coffee-price crisis, the Tubris family is suffering the ill effects
of hunger, with no immediate prospect of aid.
"My wife, Eneda, is too ill to speak," says ...