A year after the worst drought in 60 years sent 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa into crisis, we are now facing a rising threat of crisis in the Sahel -- an arid belt that stretches from Senegal through Niger and Burkina Faso to Chad.

Food crises are more and more affecting not only the rural poor, but the one-time farmers and laborers who have migrated from the countryside to urban areas seeking a better life.

Similar to the 1930s across the American Great Plain states, prolonged drought in southern Somalia has turned the region into a dust-bowl, causing widespread famine and a mass exodus into neighboring countries in search of for food, water, shelter and hope.

The profound and sobering truth is that our perceptions are an inextricable blend of reason and subjective emotion. One death will always move us more than one million.