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What figure rose for this year?  The number of refugees uprooted from the security of their homes around the world.  In 1999 this figure rose, instead of falling as in the previous seven years, to 35 million persons who had to flee their homes, primarily in fear for their lives from ethnic fighting.  This is up 5 million from the year before!

What causes this problem?  Sometimes it's drought, flood or other catastrophe.  But historically, food shortages are at the root of many wars.    Many experts believe the Mayan cultures, with its great temple building and astronomical knowledge, failed primarily because they farmed out the land where it wouldn't produce sufficient for the population.   The great Anastazi culture disappeared from the face of the earth with scarcely a trace for the same reason.   It's surely one reason behind the slaughters of thousands in drought-stricken Africa.  

According to a report from the Agence France-Presse, the U.S. Committee for Refugees, in its annual World Refugee Survey, the Policy Director, Bill Frelick, states that:

"The end of the 20th Century has not brought an end to the bloodshed and persecution that force people to run for their lives.  Tens of millions of people have ushered in the new millennium in refugee camps and other temporary shelters, afraid that they will be killed if they dare to return to their homes."

Meanwhile the rest of us simply worried that the Y2K bug might bite our computers!

Ironically, when these people flee for their lives, taking little but their children and elderly, they often leave scarcity behind for outright famine, as refugee camps bulge in areas with little or no sanitary facilities, food nor clean water.