Between Anderson Cooper, Bono, and the New York Times choosing to (at least briefly) put a story about famine on the front page, it seems the world has finally taken notice of the unfolding disaster in the Horn of Africa.
It is about DAMN time. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) created the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) in the wake of famines in Ethiopia in 1984-85, in an attempt to predict future famines and mitigate their impact. Unfortunately, all the alarms in the world do no good if no one is paying attention when they go off. Since January, aid agencies on the ground have cautioned that failing rains could mean drought and famine for a huge swath of people in East Africa.
Which brings us to today. The rains did fail, and the current drought is the worst since 1950.
Famine is not a word thrown around lightly in the humanitarian sphere. Much like "genocide," there are specific metrics that have to be met for an incident to qualify. In the case of famine, the UN has three concurrent conditions that must be met:
First, 20 per cent of the population must have fewer than 2,100 [calories] of food available per day. Secondly, more than 30 per cent of children must be acutely malnourished. And finally, two deaths per day in every 10,000 people - or four deaths per day in every 10,000 children - must be being caused by lack of food.
In some areas of Somalia, including parts of Mogadishu, the death rate for kids under five is 13 per 10,000 -- roughly the equivalent of 10 percent of kids under five dying every three months.
Somalia is far and away in the worst shape, particularly southern Somalia -- the area not-so-coincidentally controlled by the Shabab, an al Qaeda affiliated group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization. Thankfully, the Obama administration relaxed its sanctions against the Shabab. Humanitarian organizations often have to bribe the militias to gain access to the areas they control, and without relaxing the rules, those same organizations could be prosecuted for giving material support to terrorists. This is not unilaterally good news, though. In an effort to eliminate all Western influences, the Shabab have gone so far as to kill aid workers and refuse Western food and humanitarian assistance.
Right now, there are roughly 12 million people in need of immediate assistance. Some have made it to refugee camps in Kenya (Dadaab) and Ethiopia (Dollo Ado). Many others have not been so lucky. With their own levels of hunger rising, Kenya and Ethiopia are not necessarily in the best position to provide food, medical care, and shelter for the refugees that do make it over the border.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Republican-controlled congress is still trying to severely cut, if not outright eliminate, funds for emergency food aid.
Follow Dion Nicole on Twitter: www.twitter.com/belmontmedina
Craig and Marc Kielburger: Dadaab: What Will Happen Now?
Sami Awad: Giving 1 Percent of Jesus to Somalia
Dr. Sipho Moyo: African Artists Call For Long-Term Famine Solutions
Famine in East Africa: How you can help - CNN.com
Why Americans should care about famine in Africa - CNN
We give freely to war efforts. We champion victories continents away as if they were our own. We take sides. We vow not to abandon foot soldiers of freedom, proponents of patriotism, and defenders of democracy. Yet when it comes to efforts that do not involve guns, drones, and battle we briefly take up the cause of aid and then forget it as soon as the next war comes along.
http://changecomesslow.com/2011/08/22/looking-over-somalia-for-libya/
I'm sorry, but that statement is just no true. The USA has given over $ 500 Million dollars so far to the famine stricken areas in Africa and that does not include aid from ordinary citizens and charities. President Obama has given more than any country in the world, as we should.
Near the bottom of this article it will show you how much each country has given so far:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/01/drought-food-crisis-africa-data
Let's stop playing the victim card once and for all, shall we?
Where is the rest of Africa? Where are the so call African governments? (you know the one that sits throughout UN meeting, but aint' really doing shiz, just hoping for some monie from the West to steal)
They complain about not getting help, however they are mass murdering their own, creating political unrest, stalling progression, torturing women and children, and that's just the stuff out in the open.
Until and unless I am exposed to evidence that the political/monied-classes in the drought affected countries are themselves starving, then I BELIEVE that those who are starving are because it is their government's WILL FOR THEM TO STARVE TO DEATH.
Bring them food. And after the famine is over, and the babies live forget about them. Until of course the babies have babies that are themselves starving.
Repeat until the entire environment collapses, and an immense die off takes place.
Apparently the "do-gooders" of the world have either forgotten how babies are conceived, or they choose not to think about it, because to do so is a no -no.
Without free and convenient birth controal available, all other remedies are merely useless tourniquets on a hemmorage.
Not so complex. Make the knowledge and availability of birth control available to every human being on the earth.
But that is not allowed. It would require that the "do-gooders" recognize that humans are sexual beings.
How much of the donated money will be spent to assure that the human population will continue to grow in a drought and famine stricken area?
How much will be spent in trying to bring the population into balance with the carrying capacity of the environment?
Actually spending millions of weddings, handbags, etc. doesn't directly do harm.
Keeping people alive until they can reproduce, and produce more starving babies, is doing direct harm.
Birth control must accompany the provision of emergency food.
Good for you Glenn. I guess the figures on SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps) provided by the U.S. Government are all made up, like the dangers of radioactivity, or the bogus claim that the earth is a sphere that revolves around the sun.
I am recommending you for a Lifetime Membership in the Flat Earth Society.