General Chat

old weighing less than a new born...one of so many. heart breaking.

Yes RamblingRose, if its about the children in Africa it is terrible, so much suffering.

It also makes me so mad to think of all the billions and billions given to these countries, nothing ever seems to change, apart from the government of these countries living the good life and getting armed to the teeth while their people starve.

George

It's such a shame to see those little ones suffer. I cant help think if they had smaller families it wouln't be so bad.

Marion

How much of this disaster, I wonder, is actually down to corruption.

I don;t really know why it has happened but I do have friends in Namibia which has two deserts and is has one of the driest climates in Africa. It is in a state of almost perpetual drought but does not seem to have any of these problems.

Maybe it is because drought is their norm so they live with it. I just don't know.

There was an article in one of the Sunday supplements about Somaliland which, because it not a country but has declared itself unilateraly to be independant of Somalia, has no entitlement to aid. It has had to establish itself with no aid and has become a strong, democratic enclave with a stable and growing economy.

"Why has famine struck Somalia?

The FAO says it is due to a combination of conflict and insecurity, limited access for humanitarian organisations, successive harvest failures because of drought and a lack of food assistance. The country has suffered war on and off since 1991, which has destroyed much of its infrastructure. In some areas, people's ability to cope with drought has also been undermined by land policies that restrict access to grazing areas."



"Once there was food and water here for thousands of cattle - but now all there is to be seen are the carcasses of dead animals - their bare bones revealing evidence of the plastic bags they'd eaten in the last stages of starvation.

One villager - Halimo Abdi - tells Osman: "Last year I had 500 goats, 60 cows and 50 camels. Now they are all gone. I have nothing."

http://www.channel4.com/news/the-long-walk-to-dadaab-for-somalias-refugees

Money should not be given to these governments, but to genuine aid agencies who know how to tackle these disasters. It is well known that money given to ruling parties ends up being appropriated fo keeping the rich welll supplied.
I often wonder about the Indian continent, where there are untold riches, but none reaching the poor. How do they gey away with it?