There is a problem as I understand it that provides an incentive for the UN to over-dramatise these situations. The problem is that they don’t have a standing reserve capacity to deal with these situations. Everyone could see this one coming a mile off, but until they can get pics of starving kids etc on the box they can’t get donors interested in coughing up.

I don’t know what game President Tanja is playing, but the UN are sticking to their estimate of 32,000 children at risk of dying. According to the CIA Factbook the joint has only about 800 km of paved road and 22,000 fixed-line telephones. So infrastructure is practically non-existent for a country with 11.6 million people in an area about a sixth the size of Australia. To fix this they need aid pure and simple.

Still, I’m fascinated by the proposition that I’m under the control of an evil Alien mafia.

“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.”
Favor.
And disfavor.

They point out Africans‚Äô attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.

The roots of racism are not of this earth.

Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals, so this nulified diversity of life claims on sub-continental Africa, zebras being a fine example.

god is a computer
And we’re all on auto-pilot.

Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:

1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management —
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere (”On planets where they approved evil.”)

Then we come to terrestrial management:

4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.

http://www.rednova.com/news/science/192903/imf_and_eu_are_blamed_for_starvation_in_niger/

you might conclude it’s Free Trade that pushed Niger into the mess it’s currently in.

I also think it’s commendable to give money to charity to help the starving peoples of the world, but perhaps each of us can help more by being aware of the damage caused to poor nations by our governments and world institutions, then asking them why?

As you say, the crisis has been in the making for a while. There was an informative item on The World Today on Friday. The country seems to be mostly desert, but there is a band along the south that gets a moderate amount of rain, but concentrated mostly in the space of about three months. Last year the rains finished early, this year they came late, but locusts came both times.

It sounds like mostly subsistence farming/grazing in marginal country, always susceptible to disaster.

What do you feel guilty about Brownie?

Additionally, I feel that we should give to charities that focus on local, community aid. I know for a fact that much community aid does, actually, get to the people who it sets out to help. My father has done aid work abroad and has seen the successes it can have.

Of course corruption is endemic in these countries. I wouldn’t argue otherwise. As I said, I give to charities which focus on helping individual communities and I’m sure that at least some money actually gets to the communities.

Also, I don’t think SBS was guilt-tripping you. Are we to bury our heads in the sand and ignore that these things happen because we don’t have Paris Hilton’s frock budget? Of course not. I added the bit about the chariries to assuage my own sense of helplessness, not to exhort anyone else to give money.

There were so many ppl, CL. They came out en masse during Live 8, but if you really want me to name names:

Graham Hancock - “Development aid is bad through and through, and it is impossible to reform it.”

The guy who said Live Aid caused a genocide in Ethiopia - forget his name

Those twits at the WA university.

etc - I can’t be bothered - but there are heaps

It offends their fundamentalist faith in the market, on the right. And on the left, it offends their sense of power relations - really mad pomo out there types who think that everything is a Euro-USA white construct - even dying kids on TV screens.

Try Madelaine Bunting

I’ve been rummaging around the CIA world factbook. Niger has a per capita GDP of $900 which is poorer than the countries you mention, Kate, except Afghanistan on $800. Haiti has $1500.

Possibly two of the most useful indices are life expectancy and infant mortality. Life expectancy in Niger is 43.5 (Haiti 53 and Afghanistan 42.9)

Infant mortality is about 120 per 1,000 live births in Niger, 73 in Haiti and 163 in Afghanistan.

Niger has 11.6 million people and their GDP is less than the market capitalisation of Woolworths. Their budget is about US$320 million. They don’t seem to produce anything the world wants (cowpeas and onions!?). Uranium is their main hope.

Drought would be a common feature, but like a lot of places they are probably finding that 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 year events are coming rather frequently these days.

A land-locked country with minimal infrastructure, they are going to need some help, CL, or do you think we should just leave them to their own devices?

I reckon.

Also, I don’t really like playing moral equivalances with people dying. The situation in Niger is horrific. I’m sure the situation in Haiti is also horrific, as is the situation in Sudan, Chad, Afghanistan, Guatemala, many parts of India, and so forth.

Why did I write a post on Niger and not Haiti or Chad or India? Because I saw little kids dying on the TV and it made me cry. Simple as that.

I’m sorry I was a bit sensitive yesterday. One of those days, eh?

but why the fuck is it all the way up there on the desk?

Can somebody run Brownie’s comment past me one more time?

Brian, I’m always amazed that this issue gets zero attention. Like what else really matters. A small bombing atrocity in London is worthy of comment. But when we watch kids expiring on screen. We shut it out, is what we do. Too horrific.

(My previous was not exasperation with the subject. It’s just a lyrical sequitor to one of Nab’s a ways back, which by the way I duly note he has not had the good grace or breeding to acknowledge. But then it might be hard to reach the keyboard, being after a certain hour now.)