This is the second installment of Scarlett's video journal from her trip to Dadaab, Turkana and Lodwar with Oxfam to shine light on the drought and food crisis that continues to unfold across East Africa. You can view the first installment here and the last here, and please visit Oxfam for more information and to help out.
In the Turkana region of Northern Kenya, there is some sign of hope. The area is home to herders and most communities are devastated by the loss of their livestock (goats, sheep, cattle) which once provided a source of food and income. However, some of these people have weathered the crisis, due to Oxfam's hunger safety network which provides grants for land, tools and support for agricultural development. As a result, former pastoralists have developed small plots of gardens, enabling mothers and fathers to both feed their families and sell off the remainder of the crop. In Kenya's poorest communities, small initiatives like these kitchen gardens allow some a sense of dignity and pride that they are once again able to work.
Several months ago I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about a refugee camp that profoundly struck me. I was aware of the global food crisis, but the statistics this particular article stated were overwhelming. Dadaab, which I had never heard of before, is the largest refugee camp in the world. It was declared full occupancy in 2008, but has received between 600 and 1,500 Somali refugees daily since.
These are victims of political conflict, severe drought and famine, and the population in these camps has now reached roughly 400,000. I tried to wrap my head around what the conditions of that camp must be like, how its occupants were surviving everyday life in the barren, arid landscape with the barest of essentials. How did anyone manage to source food or clean water? And what must the conditions be like in regards to sanitation?
As an Ambassador of Oxfam since 2004, I knew that our organization must have a presence there. Sure enough, I learned that Oxfam has been working in Dadaab since 2009, providing water sanitation, building latrines, digging boreholes, laying pipe and constructing tap stands amongst other aid. We planned a trip for late September and decided to not only highlight the crisis amongst Somali refugees but another global crisis affecting the entire Horn of Africa, the worst drought the area has seen in over 60 years.
Pastoralists, farmers and fisherman have seen their means of survival virtually die off, while entire communities are left in a state of flux and starvation with no means of relief. These communities are dependent on Oxfam's relief for both emergency response and for long term sustainable solutions. The media's spotlight on both of these crises is inconsistent and insufficient. These issues need to be addressed on a global scale immediately, as roughly 13 million people are at risk and most of Southern Somalia has been declared in a state of famine.
I visited Dadaab, Turkana and Lodwar with Oxfam and wanted to write a journal with accompanying pictures for Huffpo. But after one day in the fields, I realized the scale of what we were witnessing was almost impossible to put into words and decided to do a video log over the three days time so that I might shed light on the crisis as well as Oxfam's vitally important work. If you are inspired as I am and are able or would like to contribute to the cause, please help me raise funds by going to oxfamamerica.org/scarlett.
Please remember that no amount is too small and Oxfam's low administrative cost means that the maximum amount goes directly to effecting positive change in virtually millions of people's lives.
BBC News - Somalia famine: UN warns of 750000 deaths
Somalia's Worsening Famine - NYTimes.com
29000 Somali children under 5 dead in famine - World news - Africa ...
It is exactly the unmitigated hubris of the carbon gobbling societies in trying to "instigate and sustain positive social change" that has led to the chronic and horrible situations we see today.
Before the popularization of the "white man's burden" (Kipling), for thousand and thousands of years cultures in arid regions survived, and had their version of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", without mass famines and huge epidemics.
See: The movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy". Available on Amazon. This movie shows how it is possible to have a really satisfying existence without the internet, and even without agriculture.
Or www.time.com/tim/article/0,9171,901135,00.
Time magazine article can be found by searching google for "orginal affluent society".
Both the movie and the Time article addresss the lives of modern people living in arid regions, without agriculture.
The destruction of environments, and the introduction of death contriol, i.e., vaccinations, and the work of the Gates Foundation, without the introduction of birth control are a crime against humanity.
The Time magazine link has been removed. Just search "first affluent society". It will come up.
The vast majority of the western world doesn't appreciate their own accident of birth.
"The Gods Must Be Crazy". It is worth a semester of anthropology at a major university.
It is available on ebay.
I have no interest in ebay, lr the movie, but I did teach anthropology.
Teach them English? Build larger refugee camps? Bring in more missionaries and assorted helpers?
Introducing death control without introducing birth control is a crime against humanity.
Birth control is the number one issue that needs to be addressed before humanitarian aid is even considered. Unfortunately, foresight is often lost when only immediate suffering is addressed.
I absloutely agree with you that humanitarian aid is what calls immediately to every human being. It must be addressed.
BUT, it is not lack of foresight that is the problem. It is a possitive unwillingness to face the reality of the situation. And false, evil, moral standards.
There is no need that it be mandatory, it need only be available, and encouraged.
These people like all human beings very much enjoy sex. Like Americans, and especially American politicians they will do it whenever and wherever they have the opportunity, despite the dire consequences.
However, introducing birth control would is completely and absolutely forbidden.
BECAUSE:
1. It would recognize the existence of sex.
2. It is not something that "uncivilized" people should be doing anyway.
3. It will put huge numbers of goverment do-gooders, developers, planners, and aid workers out of business.
4. It would would result in a decline in human suffering, which would reduce income to the missionaries.