Essay Competition organised by the London-based Royal Commonwealth Society.

The presentations are to be made at Governor House at 4 p.m.

Winners are selected from thousands of essays submitted by students in up to 50 countries.

Entrants from five of the Island's senior schools have gained a total of 24 awards in the worldwide competition.

Mr. I.C. Cunningham, local organiser of the competition, said the number of entries sent to London is much smaller than the number actually written, because no more than six entries in each of four age groups are accepted from each school.

For instance, 510 essays were written in Bermuda with 69 qualifying for final assessment.

The highest rates of participation are found in the Falkland Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, and Bermuda, Mr. Cunningham said.

And the quality of Bermuda's submissions continues to be among the highest, he added.

The 79-year-old competition is intended to encourage a sense of belonging in the Commonwealth community and foster the ability to express a range of thoughts and ideas in English.

The following essay is by Miss Joy Parris, who has won commendations while at both the Berkeley Institute and at Harrington Sound Primary School.

Starvation? What could it mean to someone like me who eats three meals daily with snacks inbetween? The task of scraping the dinner or lunch plates of portions of food is that boring chore I must do before washing the dishes.

Starvation? The Oxford dictionary defines starvation as "to die or suffer acutely from lack of food; not enough food to support life adequately.'' What it brings to mind are the images of children with arms and legs of stickmen, with contrasting extended stomachs. These are brown and black people (mostly), with flies crawling over their faces, hands too listless even to swat them away and flies too numerous to bother to move.

Starvation in a world of plenty is a contradiction -- a paradox -- it sounds like a cruel joke.

Unfortunately, the inequalities are a reality and if we take the global view that "world'' means nations and the people who inhabit the land, perhaps these poems state the problem: EATING DISORDER Please Amanda, just take a taste It can't add inches to your waist I hate to see food go to waste The first year of drought we survived, But the second year two of my children died.

Please Amanda, why do you pick Your food as if it makes you sick When already your arms resemble sticks? My children now show their bones And still the soil's as hard as stones.

Please Amanda, why do you hate your body in its natural state And strive to keep it underweight? I watch my children grow weak and thin As their bones show sharper under tight skin.

Please Amanda, don't begin a Row by throwing up your dinner How can you possibly want to be thinner? Today we buried our youngest daughter Whose bowels ran red from the poisoned water.

Please Amanda, can't you see That starving yourself is punishing me? My children, I weep for you To watch you die is killing me too.

WORLD APART We are arguing again About his messy room And unmade bed, While on the TV screen A small girl scavenges On a festering rubbish tip To keep her family fed My anger sparks As if two wires touch Is it anger that she Has so little Or anger that he Has so much? The two worlds of the "haves'' and the "have nots'' seem to be growing further apart.

At the same time, there are major efforts being made to find solutions to this complex problem. Clearly, the most obvious answer is to provide more food and increase the crops, yet even if that is possible, is food production the solution? Combined with it is the necessity to find suitable distribution methods once food stocks are available. In addition, further considerations include whether the developed world ("haves'') see it as being their responsibility to provide the technology. Is it the will of the people to divert the energies from the arms race to saving the human race? Perhaps at no other time in modern history have the opportunities been available to reverse the trends of the international community from adversaries to allies. The recent events in Germany and the former Soviet Union -- the fall of the Berlin Wall and re-unification of East and West Germany, and the collapse of the USSR to form The Commonwealth of Independent States -- may signal a new era.

Economically what that means is that the free enterprise system will allow competition and cooperation amongst nations. If defence budgets can be drastically reduced and expenditures for weapons channelled into domestic programmes as the recent meetings between Boris Yeltsin and George Bush indicate, the path for the common good may now be that light beckoning world leadership.

Surely then, it becomes a matter of conscience. Do the peoples of the developed world have the willpower to assist in feeding those in need? The United States has agreed to send supplies to the former Soviet republics to help during this transition period.

However, the former USSR is only one part of the world in need. As a result of drought, encroaching deserts, floods, the countries known as "third world'' or "underdeveloped'' continue to have difficulties finding food to feed their populations. Health, diseases (such as AIDS), famine, poverty, malnutrition are all "equalisers'' in this equation. And, this worldwide issue -- starvation -- occurs in all populated parts of the globe. How then can these inequalities be addressed? The question asks "What measures do you think it might be possible to take to reduce the inequalities in food supplies throughout the world?'' The technology is available now to make a major impact and if the economic will is there, starvation could be "history.'' If all the food in the world were properly used and distributed, world starvation would cease. In the United States much of the food that is produced is dumped or ploughed into the ground. Farmers are paid not to produce crops.

Even here in tiny Bermuda much food is wasted -- cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables are left to rot in the fields because the farmers have produced too much. People with orange, lemon and grapefruit trees have difficulty finding people to give the fruit to, though my country has a growing economic problem as yet to be addressed.

Another example of wasted worldwide resources is that some nations have been catching millions of pounds of sharks and only using the fins (sharkfin soup) and dumping the carcasses back into the ocean. This practice must stop! In fact, some nations have banned commercial fishing for sharks in specified areas. Every year millions of mackerel which are highly migratory fish come within our two hundred mile fishing zone and are mostly ignored by fishermen.

The local Bermudian population seldom eat mackerel although it is a very popular food source in many other parts of the world. We are indeed spoiled! Yet these fish are a valuable source of protein and should assist in feeding the world's hungry.

The most promising methods for increasing food supplies seem to be applied technology to the seas and oceans known as aquaculture. In 1983 a group of scientists from many parts of the world came to Bermuda to discuss the potential for aquaculture. These well-known biologists had years of experience in their counties and all felt that such a system could work very well in Bermuda.

The species that they considered for aquaculture in Bermuda included catfish, carp, oysters, clams, mussels and scallops, shrimp, spiny lobster, queen conch, pompano and dolphin fish. If some or all of the species mentioned were produced or enhanced by aquaculture this would do much to tap the abundance of the world's marine environment.

Applying technology to farming whether on land or sea combines techniques as old as early man and as new as an only-dreamed-of future. Science and technology are developing modern techniques at colleges and universities throughout the world. The emphasis has been spurred by space technology and if we can send and maintain men in space we can extend the life of man on earth.

Even the early scientific findings of researchers like Dr. George Washington Carver, "the peanut man'', had not been fully developed for the benefit of mankind.

Certainly by taping the future, hydroponics can be developed to enhance production of a number of vegetable crops. Hydroponics use nutrients -- enriched water and no soil and therefore can be used in industrial areas. Both hydroponics and aquaculture are technologies currently available to increase food production.

Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas being seriously considered is the "iceburg'' in the desert. Thought by most to be sheer fantasy, yet Walter Hinkle, Governor of Alaska has proposed as a solution to the continuing drought conditions in the Western US -- especially California -- that portions of frozen ice flows be sent to alleviate the drought. Could the Arabs afford to provide fuel for the transportation of food supplies and transportation of icebergs from the polar regions to the arid lands? Could the Japanese provide technology and finances? The logistics involved under current conditions are mind boggling.

However, when the allies led by the United States and with the backing of United Nations declared war against Iraq, men and machines moved with lightning speed. The will was there -- a way was found. Therefore it is worth noting "Where there is a will there is a way'' still applies.

Fortunately, agencies such as Care, the Red Cross, UNICEF, Save the Children and World Vision are all in place as social programmes, mainly to focus on the world's starving children. If there are few aggressive actions on the part of the nations of the world, two developments will occur -- (a) there will be fewer deaths by man; (b) more money could be spent improving the lives of more people.

The technology exists to address the issue and conditions of starvation in a world of plenty -- we must now embrace the global view that no man is an island -- we cannot exist without cooperation and that is the meaning of "commonwealth''.

ESSAY WRITER -- Joy Parris.