Few African leaders show up for famine summit

[High_Gravity]

The truth is we are more concerned about the Somalis than their fellow Africans are, and you can forget about the Muslims in the Middle east, they wouldn't piss on the Somalis if they were on fire.

Bingo!

The US are the suckers of the world.

Simply and sadly following in the footsteps of its parent Great Britain. Amazing how even an abused fruit rarely falls far from its parent.

Go fuck yourself you ungrateful piece of dog shit.

 

[High_Gravity]

What do you suggest be done? For as long as I can remember, I have seen the pics of starving babies in Africa. First one place then another. It never ends. We send people to help, and they kill a lot of those we send. So, clearly, there are some things they do not want from us. But if we don't send aid, we will be condemned the world over. Oh, wait! We send aid and we are condemned the world over anyway.

I really don't have the answers, when people see pictures of people starving and suffering it is a natural inclination for most to want to help. I do know one thing for sure we just can't throw money at the problem, we were going through the exact same thing in Somalia 20 years ago and here we are again, tossing billions of dollars at countries with corrupt governance or no real government to speak of is basically flushing that cash down the toilet and in the long run at the very best it is only a short term solution to a long term problem.

I agree. I don't know what a solution is either. We won't make any headway with Somalia. They will just kill our aid workers there. Wait and seen. I mean, we dump our medical waste off their shores and poach their fish so what else can we expect.

There seems to be famine, disease, killing, and rape, at a critical mass somewhere in Africa all the time. Not a time in my life has there not been some or all of those things.

I have worked with many people from Africa. Most of them have a brother in law who is some kind of king. Whoop ti do. But you would be surprised how many people are impressed by that here. It's unbelievable. After all, that IS the problem IMNSHO.

Africa is a big continent. Still, I think there are a lot of people of the world who do not want to see any infrastructure there. We have this notion of Africa, with the wildlife being how 'God intended it to be.' Infrastructure would destroy that and many people, particularly those who go to 'hunt the big cat', want to preserve it the way it is even if people starve.

I don't know the answer to their problems. One thing's for sure. That answer is NOT the US.

I can definently see your point in that regard with some parts of Africa but not all of Africa has the same wild life, some parts of the continent are barren waste lands that can't support all the life of the people living there, case in point Somalia. I read somewhere that Somalia really can only support some tens of thousands of nomads but now there are millions of people living there because Somalis typically have very large families, I am thinking the biggest problem is these lands really cannot support the huge number of people that currently reside there, not the whole continent but definently barren places like Somalia.

 

[Sunshine]

I really don't have the answers, when people see pictures of people starving and suffering it is a natural inclination for most to want to help. I do know one thing for sure we just can't throw money at the problem, we were going through the exact same thing in Somalia 20 years ago and here we are again, tossing billions of dollars at countries with corrupt governance or no real government to speak of is basically flushing that cash down the toilet and in the long run at the very best it is only a short term solution to a long term problem.

I agree. I don't know what a solution is either. We won't make any headway with Somalia. They will just kill our aid workers there. Wait and seen. I mean, we dump our medical waste off their shores and poach their fish so what else can we expect.

There seems to be famine, disease, killing, and rape, at a critical mass somewhere in Africa all the time. Not a time in my life has there not been some or all of those things.

I have worked with many people from Africa. Most of them have a brother in law who is some kind of king. Whoop ti do. But you would be surprised how many people are impressed by that here. It's unbelievable. After all, that IS the problem IMNSHO.

Africa is a big continent. Still, I think there are a lot of people of the world who do not want to see any infrastructure there. We have this notion of Africa, with the wildlife being how 'God intended it to be.' Infrastructure would destroy that and many people, particularly those who go to 'hunt the big cat', want to preserve it the way it is even if people starve.

I don't know the answer to their problems. One thing's for sure. That answer is NOT the US.

I can definently see your point in that regard with some parts of Africa but not all of Africa has the same wild life, some parts of the continent are barren waste lands that can't support all the life of the people living there, case in point Somalia. I read somewhere that Somalia really can only support some tens of thousands of nomads but now there are millions of people living there because Somalis typically have very large families, I am thinking the biggest problem is these lands really cannot support the huge number of people that currently reside there, not the whole continent but definently barren places like Somalia.

Yes, this is true.

Did you ever go to Show Biz Pizza? They had a game there my kids used to play. It had a flat surface with a bunch of holes from which little ground hogs would jump up. When one jumped up you took a mallet and bopped him back into his hole. Soon, there would be so many jumping up at once, you couldn't keep up and the game would shut off.

That is what Africa makes me think of. One place after another is starving and when that one calms down then another crops up. I don't think anyone can teach Africans to rescue themselves any more than you can teach a drowning man to swim. But just doing 'famine relief' isn't the answer either.

 

[kola_yusuf]

Misplaced priorities

 

[waltky]

Famine may go on through 2012...

Famine alert: West Africa still has time to avoid 2012 food crisis
December 12, 2011 : A Famine Early Warning System – which accurately predicted the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa – warns that millions of West Africans may face a food crisis in 2012.

Africa looks like it might be hit once more by a food crisis, this time in the arid Sahel region of Western Africa. But the good news is that the world’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) is giving West African countries and donor nations a period of time to prepare, says the aid group Oxfam. Early reports suggest that as many as 6 million people in Niger and 2.9 million people in Mali live in vulnerable areas, where low rainfall, falling groundwater levels, poor harvests, lack of pastureland, rising food prices, and a drop in remittances from family members living abroad are starting to take their toll.

Changing weather patterns have hit the Sahel region as recently as 2010, and many people who are most vulnerable in the looming food crisis are those who had sold off their livestock and seed crops in order to survive the 2010 drought, and now have fewer assets to draw on in the future. “The parallels between the Horn of Africa famine and the early warnings in West Africa are striking,” says Stephen Cockburn, regional campaign and policy manager for Oxfam’s Dakar office. “The good news is that the early warning systems in place are working this year far better than before, and that gives us an opportunity to act earlier,” Mr. Cockburn says. “No one can say in a few months' time that they didn’t know this was coming.”

What gives aid groups like Oxfam the ability to plan ahead is a complex system of information that relies on everything from satellite imagery and ground censors to the assessments of agronomists and food-relief workers on the ground. On the tech side, there is the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), funded and run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the US Geological Survey and a number of UN relief agencies. And on the UN ground assessment side, there is the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Taken together, these two systems are getting better and better at predicting food crises, and giving aid groups the time to respond.

MORE

 

[waltky]

For what they're gettin' for the price of oil, they should be able to solve their food and poverty problems...

Arab World Faces Serious Poverty, Food Security Challenges
February 06, 2012 - A new report says Arab countries face a serious food security challenge and that poverty rates are much higher than official numbers suggest. It blames the situation on vulnerability to volatile food prices, natural disasters and water scarcity.

The International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, says its report shows a more realistic picture of the Arab world. “In general, we know way too little about the food security and poverty in the Arab world and that has several reasons. And one of the major reasons is that the access and availability to data is really limited,” said Clemens Breisinger, an IFPRI research fellow and lead author of the report. IFPRI said its report – Beyond the Arab Awakening – uses “innovative research methods and diverse sources of information.” “The first message of that report is essentially the poverty and food security situation may be much worse than suggested by official numbers. And the kind of policy implication out of this is [that] in the wake of the Arab awakening and the whole drive for more transparency, a major issue to tackle is also data availability and access in order to improve decision making and information of the people,” he said.

Breisinger said the Arab world has a number of factors that make it distinct from other regions. “Number one, it’s the most food import dependent region in the world. It imports more than 50 percent of its food consumption and is by far the highest [such rate] in the world. At the same time, agriculture potential is somewhat limited. That is severely constrained mainly by water and exacerbated by climate change,” said Breisinger. Adding to that is a high population growth rate, second only to sub-Saharan Africa. So consumer demand puts a strain on food supplies. “Given the supply constraints – more demand no matter what – they will further drift apart. So the food gap will increase, which obviously increases the vulnerability of that region to global food price shocks – the ones that we saw in 2008 and to some extent in 2010,” he said.

The IFPRI report also raised concerns about high child “under nutrition” rates. Breisinger described children as the most vulnerable segment in society, while at the same time being society’s greatest asset. “If children are malnourished at any time between zero and 5 years, that actually has long-term implications. Reduces their IQ, their productivity and thus overall the prospects for the country,” he said. The report said Egypt has seen an increase in child “under nourishment” over the past 8 years.” A very high prevalence of child “under nutrition” rates is reported in such countries as Sudan, Somalia, Comoros and Yemen. It says, often, not enough of the household income is spent on food, saying in Yemen, for example, 25 percent is spent on Khat. U.S. narcotic experts say chewing Khat leaves “can induce a state of euphoria and elation, as well as increase alertness and arousal.”

The International Food Policy Research Institute recommended that Arab countries collect better data on their populations regarding poverty and food security. It also says greater emphasis should be placed on creating jobs by increasing exports other than oil. Finally, it says government spending on agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and social protection is “most critical.” The IFPRI report was released in Beirut at the Food Secure Arab World conference (2/6-7) sponsored by IFPRI, the U.N. and the Social Commission for Western Asia.

Source

 

[Sunshine]

Thats right, let the West pay for it.

Few African leaders show up for famine summit

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa— Most of Africa's heads of state failed to turn up Thursday for the first African Union donor conference in Ethiopia to raise money for the Horn of Africa famine, leaving activists disappointed with the pledges.

Of the African Union's 54 member nations, only the heads of Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Djibouti participated in the conference in Addis Ababa, along with the head of the transitional government in Somalia, the country hit hardest by the famine. Critics accused African leaders of failing to make good on their rhetoric about finding African solutions for African problems.

Activists said leaders had pledged about $50 million, but much of it was "in kind" assistance, with few details given on the services being offered.

The African Development Bank, meanwhile, said it would donate $300 million for long-term development in the Horn of Africa.

The African Union had come under fire for delaying the conference for several weeks because some leaders had conflicts in their schedules.

Nicanor Sabula, spokesman for Africans Act 4 Africa, a coalition of civil organizations, said the failure of leaders to appear at the conference as the Horn of Africa faced its greatest crisis in two decades was "disappointing and embarrassing."

With 12 million people in crisis, and famine declared in many parts of southern Somalia, the United Nations has appealed for $2.4 billion. Despite pledges of more than $500 million from the United States, $228 million from the European Union and $630 million from individual European countries, the target has not been met.

It is reportedly the region's worst drought in more than 50 years. Tens of thousands of people have died and 1.5 million have left their homes in Somalia in search of food. Five regions of Somalia have been declared famine-hit and two others are expected to be added to the list.

At the conference, Andrew Andasi, an 11-year-old Ghanaian who saw images of the famine on television and launched a radio campaign for donations, said he had raised $4,000. Andrew called on African leaders to help those in need, especially women and children.

Activists said some countries that could afford to do more have not.

"We were expecting that the heads of states from Africa would come up and show solidarity with the people of the Horn of Africa," Sabula said. "It starts to reinforce the perception of the AU as a club of presidents.... It doesn't send a very good message to the people of Africa. I know people will be very disappointed."

Africa famine conference draws few African leaders - latimes.com

They should have served cake and punch!~ People always go to meetings for the refreshments!

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Few African leaders show up for famine summit

That's because they're mostly dictators who don't give a shit. That's why we need to cut them off.