The British didn’t cause the famine, they “just” made it worse.
It's a common misconception but there are a few issues with "didn't cause the famine" for me:
Potato blight != famine. There was a potato blight across all of Europe at the time. Ireland still produced more than enough food to feed itself even in 1847, the worst year of the blight. It wasn't a case of making it worse, they literally wouldn't have gone hungry at all.
The only reason Irish peasants were so dependent on a single food crop to feed themselves was because it was what produced the most calories for a given area of land. The British stole the land from the Irish then forced payment at such a high rate from the people they stole it from that it left no choice but to use that single crop to feed themselves. They had to use their remaining non-potato land for higher value cash crops to pay rent on the land that was stolen from them.
An enormous number of people died from exposure after being fucked off their land and having their homes burned to the ground because they couldn't afford to pay rent to those landlords.
So the British did cause the actual famine in it's entirety and the deliberate lack of relief was seen as an act of God / retribution to reduce the population here (which they 100% left to starve, with some kind landlord exceptions).
It's why the Irish don't call it "The Famine" any more. It's "the great hunger" here because there wouldn't have been a famine at all if we'd just been left the fuck alone to grow a variety of crops instead of being raped and pillaged for hundreds of years.
I'm curious what it is for other countries so off to do a little searching....
Update:
Right, it's better but not wildly so when spread across the EU and lower in some places. This page is from the Irish Central Statistics office with 2023 numbers and puts us at 21% at or below the level 1 (at or below a grade 6 equivalent). On that page (2023 numbers) the US is at 28% so that 54% statistic in the OP smells a bit.
The main difference between Ireland and the US is that we're only 5% below level 1 where the US is at 12%.
For reference, Portugal has 15% below level 1.
Here's the definition of level 1:
Here's the relevant graph with all levels in picture format but you can get the individual numbers by going to the page and hovering over the individual levels.
Japan and the Nordics crushing it to nobody's surprise.
Ah yeah. I'm Irish and I don't blame modern folks over there for it. I know it was the ruling class but damn were they cold AF. To be fair though there were lots of acts of brutality from British soldiers over the centuries who I have to guess were working class. Well beyond just "following orders".
We do remember the acts of kindness at the time, especially the Choctaw as I mentioned in another comment. Just goes to show it's nice to be nice. You will be eventually be forgiven the sins of your ancestors they you do bad things, but you will forever be remembered as kind if your ancestors do nice things.
The British didn't cause the famine, they "just" made it worse.
This is absolutely false. They didn't cause the potato blight but they absolutely caused the famine by forcing the export of the remaining food stock which was more than enough to feed the population.
We still have not reached pre-famine population levels after 180 years.
Oh shit! You just reminded me....On the same journey as my story below my wife left her phone in Singapore airport. It was before passcodes or anything so just a Nokia with a simple unlock which at the time was menu and *. Anyway, they looked up "mum", phoned her mother and we picked it up on the return leg!
I'll give my story which is small but had a huge impact on me.
On my honeymoon. It's myself, my wife and a Chinese dude in a suit on our way to Indonesia on the last leg of the flight in the 3 seats.
We get chatting. Newlyweds, congratulations, yada yada. Back and forth. Lasts a decent amount of time. He laughs because we ask him if he's Indonesian (we've never been there before and Indonesian folks do not look Chinese lol).
Before he goes he gives us his business card and says we can call him 24/7 if we have any emergencies or difficulties of any kind on our trip. It was such a seemingly insignificant gesture but just took a bunch of hidden pressure off that we hadn't even thought was there.
It left a huge impression on me though we never needed it. Ever since I have liberally given my phone number to folks traveling to Ireland (including a nice chap on Lemmy that I nearly met up with). Nobody has ever called me but I would jump in the car on a moments notice if they did.
You're gonna have to elaborate on that for my tiredness addled brain. :) I only see 2 "it" in there and I don't see any of them being pivotal to the overall meaning.
Analogue one on the wall, microwave and oven. If they drift I'll fix them.
It's a busy house. Two of the kids get the train to school and minutes matter to them so in the morning you'll frequently hear "time check" from one room and whoever's in the kitchen (or has their phone to hand) will shout back the answer. It just makes things that tiniest bit smoother.
khannie @ khannie @lemmy.world Posts 24Comments 1,214Joined 2 yr. ago
It's not though.
It's a common misconception but there are a few issues with "didn't cause the famine" for me:
So the British did cause the actual famine in it's entirety and the deliberate lack of relief was seen as an act of God / retribution to reduce the population here (which they 100% left to starve, with some kind landlord exceptions).
It's why the Irish don't call it "The Famine" any more. It's "the great hunger" here because there wouldn't have been a famine at all if we'd just been left the fuck alone to grow a variety of crops instead of being raped and pillaged for hundreds of years.