Tony Robinson TV - Ian Mortimer TV - The Story of Ireland TV - Simon Schama TV - Royal Babylon - Ancient Apocalypse TV - The Independent on Sunday - Niall Ferguson TV - James Burke TV - Matthew Henry - Derek Walcott - Nostradamus - The Great Famine TV - Genesis 26:1-3 - Genesis 41:30-32 - Genesis 41:56 - Genesis 47:13 - Genesis 47:20 - Ruth 1:1 - II Samuel 21:1 - II Samuel 24:13 - II Kings 8:1 - II Kings 25:3 - I Chronicles 21:7-12 - Psalms 33:18&19 - Psalms 105:16 - Robert G Ingersoll - Joseph Smith’s Book of Moses 8:4&15&18&21&26&30 - Joseph Smith’s Book of Abraham 2:1&6&19 - North Korea Undercover TV - Black Hawk Down 2001 - Christopher Hitchens - Noam Chomsky - What North Korea Defectors Think of Korea - Tonight TV - Kim Jong-Il: The Forbidden Biography TV -
We call it the Little Ice Age and it delivered two brutal blows to the inhabitants of medieval Europe ... The great famine ... The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history; it began not in Europe but in Asia as a direct consequence of the impact of climate change on rodents. Man on Earth with Tony Robinson IV: The Modern World, Channel 4 2009
The famine devastates the country. Dr Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England I: The Common People, BBC 2013
The blight swept west throughout Europe. The Story of Ireland 4/5: The Age of Union, BBC 2011
Government soup kitchens were closed after being open for just six months. ibid.
Potato blight struck again and threatened another famine in 1878. ibid.
It would be many generations before Ireland’s population would recover to the numbers before the potato blight struck. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Empire of Good Intentions, BBC 2000
More than a third of the total population of Ireland. It was perhaps the greatest peacetime calamity in all of nineteenth century European history. And it happened not just on the doorstep of the richest country in the world but inside our own house. ibid.
What made the scale of suffering so obscene was that it happened during a time of grain surplus in other parts of India. But so fanatically devoted to the iron law of the market was the government that it refused to liberate those supplies for fear it would artificially bring down prices. So common sense not to mention common humanity were sacrificed to the fetish of the market and millions were abandoned to perish. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Empire of Good Intentions
A further four million died in Bengal’s famine. Royal Babylon ***** 2002
Fekri [Hassan] found evidence of something more devastating than political unrest ... The hieroglyphs tell of horrendous famines and the suffering of ordinary people. Ancient Apocalypse: Death on the Nile, BBC 2001
A Terrible New Front in Africa’s Deadly Famine. The Independent on Sunday 31st July 2011
In 1958 Mao launched the Great Leap Forward ... The result was a calamitous famine. Professor Niall Ferguson, China: Triumph and Turmoil II: Maostalgia, BBC 2012
It was an American fungus, and in 1845 it arrived in Ireland and destroyed the potato crop, leaving the Irish nothing to eat. Not almost nothing – nothing. There were too many corpses that winter to bury. James Burke, Connections s2e15: Making Waves, BBC 1994
They that die by famine die by inches. Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 1710
Famine sighs like scythe
across the field of statistics and the desert
is a moving mouth. Derek Walcott, The Fortunate Traveller, 1981
The great famine which I sense approaching
Often turning, then becoming universal,
So great and so long that one will come to pull out
Roots from woods, and babe from breast. Nostradamus I-67
In July 1921 noted Russian author Maxim Gorky issued a plea to the West: ‘Gloomy days have come for the country of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Mendeleyev ... I ask for prompt aid for the Russian people – give bread and medicine.’ The Great Famine, PBS 2011
The Famine of 1921 ... The worst natural disaster in Europe since the Black Plague. ibid.
Soviet Russia faced the worst famine ever. ibid.
Up to five million Russians had starved to death. ibid.
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. Genesis 26:1-3
And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Genesis 41:30-32
And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. Genesis 41:56
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. Genesis 47:13
And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s. Genesis 47:20
Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. Ruth 1:1
Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. II Samuel 21:1
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? Or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. II Samuel 24:13
And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.
And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria. I Kings 18:1&2
Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. II Kings 8:1
And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. II Kings 25:3
And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
And the Lord spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee
Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. I Chronicles 21:7-12
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Psalms 33:18&19