The African Famine is back Worse than Ever..Do you Care?

Forums: Africa, Famine, Compound Interest, Exponential Functions, Misanthropy
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Eastern Africa is baking under a merciless sun; the last two rainy seasons have brought no precipitation at all. It is said to be the worst drought since 1950. And hunger comes at its the heels. In Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda, people are suffering like they haven't in a long while. The UN estimates that some 12 million people are already faced with hunger. And that is likely just the beginning.

There are many indications that the situation will only worsen in the coming weeks. For the moment, many of the regions in eastern Africa are classified by the UNHCR as "emergency" areas. But on Wednesday, the UNHCR declared famine in two regions in southern Somalia and said that it could spread unless enough donors can be found to help those in need. "If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months," said Mark Bowden, humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.

It is a catastrophe that has been a long time in coming. Experts have been warning of the approaching famine for months and the causes are clear. They also know that the current disaster won't be the last. As a result of climate change, it has become increasingly the case that rainy seasons fail to materialize in the region. Adding to the problem, the population in the countries currently suffering has quadrupled in recent decades, from 41 million to 167 million. Plus, aid organizations tend to budget most of their money for emergency situations, leaving little left over for wells, fertilizer, seeds and efforts to teach farmers how to make the most from their plots of land -- all measures that could forestall the next disaster.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,775338,00.html

Where are all of the concerts? The kids going door to door collecting change? The telethons? Sally Struthers?

Doesn't anyone care anymore about the poor unfortunate starving Africans?

HELLO!

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Type: Discussion • Score: 12 • Views: 7,125 • Replies: 69

@hawkeye10,

Sorry to be cynical, but in times of recession the general answer is likely to be "no", unless people have a particular linkage to the area. It always strikes me that prior to global communications, such "disasters" would have happened on a regular basis and nature would have take their"evolutionary" course without outside involvement. Unless a comprehensive population control policy is imposed, Western aid seems to be more of a conscience-easing exercise rather than a considered response.

3 Replies

@fresco,

from 06

Quote:

The Horn of Africa has long been haunted by hunger and by violence. The story of Bossaso is an early sign that these evils will continue, and worsen. Islamist expansionism in Somalia—and the armed resistance to it—plus uncontrolled population growth throughout the area could result in whole pockets of the Horn facing collapse. This would be a humanitarian disaster; it could also lead to a much wider conflict, involving several countries.

The assumption has been that the market will somehow find solutions for the dramatic increase in the Horn's population numbers (see table). So it may, in well-watered bits of the region, where land use can be intensified. In arid areas there is little chance of this happening. There, nature and politics will play their part, and the results will be disastrous.

http://www.economist.com/node/7270000

They demand to keep having babies fine, we cant control that, but we dont have to take care of them. Decades of feeding the Africans on charity has taught them to rely on others to feed them. But this area is under Islam now, so I say turn the problem over to the regional superpower Iran. This is a lost cause and is not even of our concern anymore. Over and out.

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@hawkeye10,

No. I care about AMERICA, not Africa.
If I give cash, it will be to Americans, not Africans.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

David - are you serious?

So what if an African child was walking in New York City, lost, homeless and hungry - would you ask him if you could see his passport (to prove he was an American) before you'd help him or even just impart a little joy unto him, (as you say has been your custom), by showering him with $100.00 bills?

And Fresco - we could pretend not to see or know and let evolution take its course as it would have before global communication enabled us (or cursed us, as some would see it) with seeing or knowing.

Yes, I care. I think the African continent has long been pillaged of it's natural resources and the people have paid the price. Yes, the rest of the world HAS made them dependent - that's exactly right.

2 Replies

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

David - are you serious?

Yes.

aidan wrote:

So what if an African child was walking in New York City, lost,
homeless and hungry [direct him to the police, or the I.N.S.]- would you ask him if you could see his passport
(to prove he was an American) before you'd help him or even
just impart a little joy unto him, (as you say has been your custom),
by showering him with $100.00 bills?

Your question is unclear.
Firstly, let us note that of the many 1OOOs of citizens by whom I have been surrounded,
to very few of them have I given any cash, nor had ANY social interaction whatsoever.
Most of the time, I just pass strangers in the street, taking no notice of them.

Secondly, let us note that the thread concerns a famine IN AFRICA.
In the circumstances that u describe, I don 't imagine
that there 'd be any social interaction between us.

If he were a beggar, then, as always: I have a choice to make.
I have given to some beggars and rejected others; a lot depends on my mood of the moment.

aidan wrote:

Yes, I care. I think the African continent has long been pillaged of it's natural resources and the people have paid the price.
Yes, the rest of the world HAS made them dependent - that's exactly right.

U r free (unless the English interfere with u) to send the Africans as much of your wealth as u wish.

I 'd MUCH rather send MY money to the 2nd Amendment Foundation.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

U r free (unless the English interfere with u) to send the Africans as much of your wealth as u wish

The English help me with this. Oxfam enables me to contribute £18 a month by direct debit.

1 Reply

@aidan,

We care and theres a ;lot of non gov aid going over there. I remember when I was doing work in Nigeria wed come to entire villages that were depending on polluted rivers for water and even for that theyd have to walk miles through mamba infested scrub. WE drilled several wells with the OK of our clients and AID. The wells were simpl screened holes well into a regional water table and good for sustained water use. In the next yer when we returned on a fateful exploration mission, the provisonal "Army" had commandeered all the wells and had built militia camps around them thius forcing the people to return to thwe rivers for water.
They have th technology to fix this themselves and they have the tools to drill irrigation Qanats and wells along the toporises where recharge gathers . WHY dont they do it? This is still a political problem . WE have entire vacation cities built in the deserts of Nevada that are similar to the Danekil. WE know how to ransfer water around and so do they. They would rather kill off thweir populations and then blame us for "not caring"
Theyve gone to our good will wells many many times and we supply and build infrastructure only to have it all m ismanaged and outright stolen .

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Well, I'm not prepared to stand or sit comfortably by and watch children starve while I ask corrupt politicians why they don't help their own people.
Fact is, they don't- I'm not disputing that.
I do believe however that Oxfam is a reputable charity that will make good use of the funds I contribute to try to feed starving children.
That's the bottom line for me.

1 Reply

@aidan,

we all have a need to want to "do" something, thats undesrtandable. The sad fact is that all this aid and charity will most likely be diverted to "other" uses that conflict with the mission.Just be prep[ared for that eventuality.

1 Reply

FM has shown how politics and militarism trumps food aid and other types of aid so desparately needed, such as clean water. When the Gulf War started in 1990, the price of petroleum shot up, and destabilized many African nations. In Somalia, Mohammed Said Barre, then the president, could no longer guarantee food and clean water to the clans who were propping up his regime, and anyone who pays attention to the news can see, 20 years later, the consequences of that.

But there is another, very sinister problem here which NGOs don't seem to see, or maybe just don't care about. Even in nations which have relatively stable governments, food aid can wreck their agricultural economies. So, an NGO comes in and sets up food distribution centers, which makes logistical sense to someone with no more than a shallow understanding. So, Farmerman, who grows millet and chickpeas, is now obliged to walk two days to the food distribution center, wait in line for a day to get enough rice and oil to feed the Famerperson family for a few days, and then has a two day hike to get home (if he can do it in two days now that he's loaded down with rice and oil). That gives him just two days a week to actually work his farm. In the end, he'll find he can't carry a week's worth of food in each trip, so that soon, his wife or one of the older children must accompany him, meaning even less work, or no work at all gets done. Eventually, he throws it all over, and the Farmerpeople clan just move to the food distibution center and abandon the farm.

Traditionally delivered food aid from European and North American sources creates a continuing cycle of famine. Even when a drought ends, there's a high probability that such a nation will not be able to produce enough food to feed their population.

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By the way, there are many, many other problems which aren't addressed, or which arise from how food aid is distibuted. One of the most glaring problems, which almost never gets addrrssed is signing contracts to produce cash crops. If your family is starving, there's not a hell of a lot of utility in growing coffee or bananas for a western-owned export company that doesn't care if you and your family live or die.

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@aidan,

David wrote:

U r free (unless the English interfere with u) to send the Africans as much of your wealth as u wish

aidan wrote:

The English help me with this. Oxfam enables me to contribute £18 a month by direct debit.

OK. U shoud do whatever pleases u most with your own property.

David

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

we all have a need to want to "do" something, thats undesrtandable. The sad fact is that all this aid and charity will most likely be diverted to "other" uses that conflict with the mission.Just be prep[ared for that eventuality.

Lets not forget the out right murderous attacks on people as they bring aid.

Many thousands of people have been KILLED while dropping food, digging those wells and providing help all across the country. There is a reason the air drop of food is popular. Because you can SEE who is shooting you and where they are so you can avoid them.

Our military are often gunned down during food drops.
Doctors shot and killed while working in clinics
Construction workers are taken hostage while creating shelters.

It isnt that people are not helping africa. It is that they HAVE TO do it carefully, which means in limited fashions and over a slower period of time so they dont die. The tv shows are all too much into showing the little baby cuddled in his mothers arm with flies around their face. And that is what people are lead to believe is all that is going on in that country and it could not be further from the truth.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Where are all of the concerts? The kids going door to door collecting change? The telethons? Sally Struthers?

Doesn't anyone care anymore about the poor unfortunate starving Africans?

HELLO!

there is a major part of me that wants to answer this pretty simply.

They all joined PETA. Since animals are apparently more important than humans...

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

OK. U shoud do whatever pleases u most with your own property.

Yeah - I should and I do.

Quote:

Oxfam. What springs to mind? Charity shops and second-hand clothes? Donkeys from our Oxfam Unwrapped gift catalogue, bought for people in far-flung lands? They're part of the picture. But think bigger. Much bigger...

Oxfam is a vibrant global movement of passionate, dedicated people fighting poverty together. Doing amazing work, together. People power drives everything we do. From saving lives and developing projects that put poor people in charge of their lives and livelihoods, to campaigning for change that lasts. That’s Oxfam in action.
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Current emergencies
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And if people want to do nothing, let them do nothing while they decry what other people have done wrong and watch people starve.

I'd rather have faith that some of my money is getting food to someone who might need it.
At least then I MIGHT be helping a child as opposed to doing nothing and definitely NOT helping a child.

1 Reply

By the way, I just saw the ad at the bottom of this page. You can text 3£ and buy a mosquito net for a child t00 - might be a scam - but it might not be and for the price of a cup of coffee and a donut - you could save a kid's life.

1 Reply

I think many people care, but feel overwhelmed and powerless to help. As others have pointed out the problem goes far beyond a raising some money with a concert. There was an article on the BBC about mothers having to abandon weak children in order to survive themselves and save their other children. How could someone know that and not feel grief? These problems have roots in bad politics, corruption, ignorance, greed, religious fanaticism, and climate change. It's natures brutal way of dealing with these things when humans refuse to address these problems. It's only to get worse and could be coming to a country near you.

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

By the way, I just saw the ad at the bottom of this page. You can text 3£ and buy a mosquito net for a child t00 - might be a scam - but it might not be and for the price of a cup of coffee and a donut - you could save a kid's life.

if that were true, africa would be the mirror of america with the amount of aid sent over there.

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@aidan,

David wrote:

OK. U shoud do whatever pleases u most with your own property.

aidan wrote:

Yeah - I should and I do.

That is implicit in the concept of property.

aidan wrote:

And if people want to do nothing, let them do nothing

Such is freedom of choice.

aidan wrote:

while they decry what other people have done wrong and watch people starve.

There are better things to receive our attention, in America, than to watch that.
Its not our fault, except to the extent that the farmer indicated.

aidan wrote:

I'd rather have faith that some of my money is getting food to someone who might need it.
At least then I MIGHT be helping a child as opposed to doing nothing and definitely NOT helping a child.

Theoretically, there is A CHANCE that it will; it might.
In my opinion, u r perfectly within your rights
to place your faith wherever u choose.

David

1 Reply

The African Famine is back Worse than Ever..Do you Care?

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