Famine // Current TV

Ethiopian and Somali refugees perish escaping to Yemen

Could any of us begin to understand the desperation of those who risk their lives to... more

JanforGore
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Somalia nearing a 'total famine'

Somalia is in danger of descending into famine while the world's attention is... more

ras_menelik
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'Gorilla catastrophe' grips Congo

'Human catastrophe' grips Congo? Yes the things happening in the Congo... more

dharmadogpictures
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Words Of Wisdom “RESOURCES”

“Our Mother Earth Is A Living Being”... more

dharmadogpictures
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HEAT - PBS must see TV

FrontLine produces some of the best documentary shows on Television as well as the... more

dharmadogpictures
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3 years ago
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Dear Mr. Next President -- Food, Food, Food

We are faced with a future food crisis. With Farmers in the U.S. growing food as a... more

dharmadogpictures
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3 years ago
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With Spotlight on Pirates, Somalis on Land Waste Away in the Shadows

Just step into a feeding center here, and the sense of hopelessness is overwhelming.... more

TravG73
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3 years ago
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zeitgeist movie, part II - addendum

posted online today october 3rd... more

lfm
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3 years ago
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CARE rejects $46 million from the US, says American food aid hurts the poor

"An international aid group has turned away US$46 million (€34.32 million)... more

BuddyP
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3 years ago
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Doctors Without Borders: Ongoing needs in hurricane-damaged Haiti

Fourteen days after Tropical Storm Gustav made landfall, followed by Tropical Storm Hanna and then Hurricane Ike last week, many areas are still inaccessible in devastated Haiti.

Since arriving in the northern Haitian city of Gonaïves on September 4, one of the worst affected areas in the country, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have carried out 641 medical consultations and performed 25 surgical procedures. Half of the people screened so far by MSF have suffered at least minor injuries. The remaining patients are suffering from diarrhea (and related dehydration), respiratory diseases, infections, and skin problems linked to polluted water, with such cases on the increase. While most of the patients are adults, an increasing number are children.

With floodwaters now receding slightly, people are beginning to return to Gonaïves, adding additional stress on already strained health and sanitation facilities. Temporary health clinics in some schools are lacking basic materials and equipment. MSF teams have donated medical materials and plans are underway to open a field hospital in Gonaïves.

Currently, MSF has five medical personnel (two doctors and three nurses) and six logistical staff (three general logisticians and three water and sanitation specialists) in Gonaïves.

Clean Water a Priority
At the Rabouteau Health Center in Gonaïves, MSF has carried out over 150 consultations as of yesterday. One-third of the people examined were children under five years of age. Two water bladders were also set up at the center in order to provide clean drinking water, which is in very short supply in the city.

Limited Access to Other Devastated Areas
Access to other hurricane-affected areas outside of Gonaïves is extremely difficult; many roads and airstrips are flooded, bridges are destroyed, and there is a general lack of fuel, which is reducing, if not preventing, relief assistance—including clean water, food, or basic medical needs—from reaching many parts of the country. MSF is doing its best to access these areas to provide adequate care to affected populations and to monitor the health situation.

On Monday night, MSF sent an additional five vehicles and one truck to Gonaïves by boat. In the coming days, a team of four medical personnel and two logisticians will attempt to start mobile clinics and surveillance activities in the northwest area between Gonaïves and Port de Paix (including Terre Neuve, Anse Rouge, and Gros Morne) which has an overall estimated population of close to one million people. An additional 13.2 tons of medical and logistical materials (medical kits, pumps, tents, mosquito nets, water treatment kits, water tanks, generators, and blankets) are on the way from Europe and from Panama.

Existing MSF activities in Port-au-Prince are continuing. MSF provides medical and surgical care at La Trinité Trauma Center, emergency obstetrical care in Jude Anne Hospital, and emergency health-care services and essential health services through mobile clinics in the Martissant slum.
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To help the people of Haiti you can also do so through Doctors Without Borders

http://doctorswithoutborders.org
Fourteen days after Tropical Storm Gustav made landfall, followed by Tropical Storm... more

JanforGore
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In Haiti, `famine is just around the corner'

The images coming out of Haiti are as staggering as the statistics: four hurricanes in less than one month; hundreds dead, tens of thousands homeless, nearly a million people displaced. Eight of the country's 10 geographic departments are submerged in a blanket of brackish water, including Haiti's one remaining breadbasket, the Artibonite. Major arteries and bridges to the hardest hit areas have been wiped out.

Haiti is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There will be no tomorrow for many of its eight million unless food, water and medical supplies are made available immediately, then dispersed in a coordinated, efficient and expedient manner.

There is no way to head off natural disasters, but something could have been done to save lives. Haiti is the only country in the Caribbean and Central America where the United States hasn't built an Emergency Relief Center (ERC) or a Disaster Relief Warehouse (DRW). Every other country in the region has at least one, according to the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for security operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Two years ago $635,000 was approved for an ERC in Port-au-Prince. Last year $271,000 was approved for a DRW. But because the Haitian government has not granted land titles, the projects are on hold. The metal sheets needed to construct the buildings remain stacked up in a warehouse. Instead of pulling blankets, food, water and medical supplies from a DRW in-country, hurricane victims have had to wait for helicopter drops and supplies from the U.S.S. Kearsarge.

''Based on things we've seen in other countries, we can assume that having them would have made things easier,'' said Steve Carro, humanitarian assistance program manager for Southcom. Jamaica, for example, has two DRWs and one EOC. When Gustav made landfall last month rescue teams were able to pull supplies from a nearby source, shortening the response time and reducing dependence on outside assistance.

Say what you will about the Cuban government, only five people lost their lives when two hurricanes made direct hits in less than eight days. ''There was an evacuation plan,'' said Gladys Rodes in a telephone interview from Havana. ``The government has centers where we can go for food, medicine, everything we need. It's very well organized. No one is left on their own.''

Haitian residents have always been on their own. Four years ago, when Tropical Storm Jeanne flooded Gonaives -- Haiti's second-largest city -- residents had no warning. Several thousand people lost their lives. The government was forced to rely on international aid; there was neither a national plan nor supplies for disaster relief.

Gonaives is flooded again, perhaps unnecessarily. In 2005, the World Bank launched the $12 million Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Project to provide for, among other things, the construction of levees, terracing and drainage works. The other components of the project, including the construction of an office in the Ministry of Interior, ate up 90 percent of the budget. To date no real flood works projects have been built.

The relief effort must become the No. 1 priority for the country's newly installed government of Michéle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. She replaced Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, who was ousted in April after riots sparked by rising food and fuel prices. According to the Family Early Warning Systems Network (composed of USAID, The European Union, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program), 2.3 million Haitians were al ready in a precarious food security situation in July. The Family Early Warning Systems Network predicted that this number would double by December. This was before Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike pummeled Haiti.
*********CONTINUESThe images coming out of Haiti are as staggering as the statistics: four hurricanes in... more

goldenways
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3 years ago
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U.N. says North Korea needs $503 million in food aid

North Korea needs $503 million in food aid between now and November 2009 to avoid... more

TravG73
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3 years ago
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Ethiopia's new famine: 'A ticking time bomb'

By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY KONSO, Ethiopia - Once, the farmers walked for hours to... more

agitator
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3 years ago
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Green famine in Ethiopia

Guardian: The rains have come, the land is lush but Ethiopians still go hungry.

Vierotchka
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Green famine in Ethiopia

The rains have come, the land is lush but Ethiopians still go hungry.

merasyad
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The politics of rice

Inside USA travels to Haiti to look at how the stories of politics, rice and the US... more

Vierotchka
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Crisis Looms as Corporations Seize Control of Commodities

The global food crisis won't go away any time soon. Capitalism has the average consumer by the belly. Amid growing signs of famine and outrage, the entire chain of commodities and resources of the world are now being cornered by giant corporations. Farmland, water, fertilizer, seed, energy, and most of the basic necessities of life are falling under corporate control, providing increased wealth and power to the ruling elite while the rest of humanity struggles.

Commodity scarcity in India was recently reflected in the need to distribute fertilizer from the police station in Hingoli. Now police have to control the lines that form outside of dealer outlets, because the dealers won't open for business otherwise. Without this intervention there would be no fertilizer for the planting that must take place before the rain comes. In Akola and Nanded, police involvement is also needed. Agriculture officers have fled their work places to escape angry farmers. In Karnataka, a farmer was shot dead during protests, while farmers stormed meetings and set up road blocks in other districts.

Despite the success of the genetically engineered Bt cotton crops, the trend in India is now back to soybeans because they cost less to grow and need less fertilizer than cotton.

And it's not just fertilizer that is scarce. Seeds are also in short supply which is being blamed on agitation that has interfered with freight train traffic. However, the shortfall in seeds is 60 percent, a level more indicative of corporate intervention to drive up prices than the actions of powerless farmers.

As farmers fume, the Wall Street Journal heralds the whopping 42 percent jump in the fiscal third quarter profits of huge agriculture giant Archer-Daniels Midland. This increase includes a sevenfold rise in new income in units that store, transport and grade grains such as wheat, corn and soybeans.

The soaring profits of fertilizer maker Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan are reflected in the parabolic movement of its stock price from a yearly low of $70.35 to its current price of $238.22 per share. Shares of fertilizer and animal feed producer Mosaic Corp. have risen from a yearly low of $32.50 to a current price of $159.38.

Similar windfall profits are reported by GMO seed and herbicide king Monsanto whose last quarterly earnings surged by 45%.

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Click on the link for the full article and to access the in-text links.The global food crisis won't go away any time soon. Capitalism has the average... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Ethiopians still going hungry in 'green famine' despite rains and lush growth

Land in south-west Ethiopia is green, fertile and lush but this area is in the grip of... more

LindseyIndigo
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3 years ago
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Emperor - Chapter 8

Cannabis Hempseed as a Basic World Food In 1937, Ralph Loziers, general counsel of... more

JackHerer
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3 years ago
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Africa: link between crop failure and climate change often missed

Climate change has a profound effect on food security in Africa, as increasing temperatures and shifting rain patterns reduce access to food across the continent.

This transpired at a conference on global warming and climate change that started in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 21 and ends today.

The discussion was organised by South Africa’s Fynbos Foundation, which aims to realise investment in the media, publishing, arts and culture sectors, and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in the United States.

The relationship between climate change and food security is complex. Many factors influence food security, which means that often ‘‘the link is not even made between failed crops and changing weather patterns,’’ Dr Gina Ziervogel, senior researcher at the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town, told the conference.

Over the past decade Ziervogel has conducted extensive research on people and the environment in southern Africa.

Climate change affects African food systems in the broadest sense of the word: ‘‘It affects the availability of, access to and utilisation of food,’’ she explained.

‘‘Changing weather patterns or extreme weather events, such as floods or droughts, can have negative consequences for agricultural production. As a result people have less access to food, which forces them to buy food products. This affects their financial situation.

‘‘It also influences their health as people often buy cheaper food which is frequently less nutritious. Especially for those who need a nutritious diet -- the chronically ill, for instance -- this poses a problem,’’ Ziervogel indicated.

Increasing temperatures and the change in precipitation and frequency of extreme weather spells also threaten African food systems, Ziervogel continued.

Changes in precipitation ‘‘are not merely about increasing or decreasing rainfall. Rainy seasons that begin later or earlier than normal or sudden rain spells hitting a region when it is supposed to be dry, have a greater impact on crops failing than a wetter rainy season that starts on time’’.

Another scenario where the effects of climate change on the vulnerability of food systems become visible is where arable land is lost. This happens as a result of declining ground water levels and rising sea levels. It can lead to aridity of the soil or increasing levels of saline.
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So instead of governments dealing with climate change, they would rather give multi nationals free reign over the food supplies of their country to peddle GM foods as if that is the answer. GM foods is then not the answer to the food crisis in Africa. Dealing with and adapting to climate change is. Conservation of water is. More efficient agricultural methods is. Dealing with lack of access to food by dealing with corrupt governments is. Educating and empowering people is.Climate change has a profound effect on food security in Africa, as increasing... more

JanforGore
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3 years ago
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