Thanks to good rainfall, Zimbabwe has been able to increase production of maize—the staple crop in the country—by 130% to 1.1 million tons. Despite this increase, however, 2.8 million people will still face food shortages this year, as the UN Food and Agriculture Orgaization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) report. Zimbabwe’s food security situation is still extremely tenuous, with basic necessities out of reach for most households.

It's worth noting that with all this triumphant talk about the Twitter revolution in Iran - especially when it's about a lesser-of-two-evils candidate - we can't summon a fraction of the energy and passion to save abused, raped and battered women across the globe. Nor can we muster the same attention and will to deal with the plight of children who are dying of hunger, deprived of the bare necessities of life.

Here are the brutal facts:

The number of hungry people on the planet will this year reach a historic high of 1.02 billion, FAO announced on Friday, putting the blame for recent increases on the global economic slowdown and stubbornly high food prices in many countries. Read news release

The world has reached a sad milestone, reversing a four-decade positive trend of nations pulling themselves out of hunger, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said, commenting on the new figure.