Severe famine in Niger

[Kilik]

Some of it is caused by locust swarms. Seems like it's looking pretty bad.

July 21
http://www.eians.com/stories/2005/07/21/21dom.shtml

July 23
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=246139&area=/insight/monitor/

July 25
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1707302,00.html

[Magyar]

God is just punishing them for trying to sell all that yellow cake
to Saddam:p

[demon]

Kilik:
"Some of it is caused by locust swarms. Seems like it's looking pretty bad."


Yes, and some of the locusts have two legs.
Three months ago there were protests in Niger against a tax increase of 19% on staples like milk and flour. The food that is available now is too costly for the people to buy.

Medicin Sans Frontieres puts it this way:
"Johanne Sekkenes, the mission head of MSF which is mounting the biggest emergency exercise in its history in Niger, says the current emergency could have been avoided. 'This is not a famine, in the Somalian way,' she said. 'The harvest was bad in 2004 and the millet granaries are empty. Yet there is food on the markets. The trouble is that the price of the food is beyond anyone's reach.

'Given this situation, it was criminal of the UN this year to tackle the emergency in a gingerly way, putting 'moderately priced' cereals on the market. The UN should have immediately organised free food distribution.'

Ms Sekkenes said the International Monetary Fund and the European Union had pressed Niger too hard to implement a structural adjustment programme. 'No sooner had the government been re-elected [this year] than it was obliged to introduce 19 per cent VAT on basic foodstuffs. At the same time, as part of the policy, emergency grain reserves were abolished.'

................

Some aid specialists blamed the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Their economic programmes have contributed to sharp rises in the prices of staples such as sorghum and millet. Others said the Niamey government had downplayed the emergency to protect local food traders who are resistant to free aid because it undermines markets.
http://www.rednova.com/news/science/192903/imf_and_eu_are_blamed_for_starvation_in_niger/

The Guardian also carried this story about the famine:

"Plenty of food, yet the poor are starving":

The starvation in Niger is not the inevitable consequence of poverty, or simply the fault of locusts or drought. It is also the result of a belief that the free market can solve the problems of one of the world's poorest countries.

The price of grain has skyrocketed; a 100kg bag of millet, the staple grain, costs around 8,000 to 12,000 West African francs (around ?13) last year but now costs more than 22,000 francs (?25). According to Washington-based analysts the Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet), drought and pests have only had a "modest impact" on grain production in Niger.
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=713F2725-E018-0C72-09A8820B841B1066&component=toolkit.article&method=full_html


So the main causes of this famine are not so natural afterall but the product of man made policies. The tax rises helped meet the conditions of an IMF-imposed "reform" programme.
Similarly, the G8 'debt relief' programme for Highly Indebted Poor Countries also stipulates that recipients must remove subsidies for food, reduce subsidies for food production and increase the intake of tax, all as part of a programme for "free market reform".
I'm not blaming Niger's government here though as it is an extremely weak state, bloody easy to crush, and I'd bet it's in debt up to its eyeballs. A poor candidate for boldly standing up to the IMF etc.
Of course, Niger's government fulfilling IMF and G8 stipulations and the connection with the famine have been neglected somewhat in mainstream reporting and yet again western aid is being used as a plug for a gap which it has helped create...another "western"-consensus-created ****-up, not something that has just dropped out of the sky.

I haven`t heard too much about other countries in the region which is a bit odd considering locusts and droughts don't present passports at the border.

[Luke T.]

Originally posted by demon
Yes, and some of the locusts have two legs.

Shades of Ethiopia.

[demon]

Luke T:
"Shades of Ethiopia."

True.

[Stupid]

Reviving an old post.

Because I see that Niger's people are still hungry, and 60 Minutes has highlighted a cure......yes, feed them outsourced emergency food, and it will become better.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtml

....r i g h t....

So 3 years later since this original forum post about starvation in Niger......and it's strange how we see many dying children UNDER 3 years old.
I guess I don't get it....the women keep having kids....and those kids keep starving.
I want to blame the parents. Am I wrong?

The "Doctors Without Borders" website is...

....plastered with photo''s those poor innocent starving children......you know, the kind of pictures that twist and squeeze your heart until the money drips out ??
Then we can feel less guilty for throwing out all those left-overs from last night''s supper.

Instead of pictures of sad unwanted children, I wonder how much money would be forked-over if their website had photos of the mothers having unprotected *** whilst their malnourished children wait outside ?

Many people see a cute under-fed baby, whereas I see irresponsible and cruel parenting.


=S=

[soylent]

That the number of child births per mother has a very strong correlation with poverty should not surprise anyone.

The easiest cure is economic development so that education, birth pills and condoms become affordable; so it becomes possible to get by in old age without having a litter of kids to support you.

[shemp]

Why should we send them food? We need it to produce ethanol so we can drive our SUVs!

[Darth Rotor]

Why should we send them food? We need it to produce ethanol so we can drive our SUVs!
Have yet to see an SUV run on baloney. :p

[I Ratant]

The Feb. 2007 "National Geographic examination of the economy of Nigeria says there's billions of dollars going in.. from the oil companies, with most of it staying at the top, little even trickling down thru the population.
Shell Nigeria is the main producer of oil there. 70% of the oil income goes to corruption between the oil companies and the politicians.
Nigeria exports twice as much oil as Libya, but the GDP of Nigeria is 1/10th Libya's.

[Texas]

The Feb. 2007 "National Geographic examination of the economy of Nigeria says there's billions of dollars going in.. from the oil companies, with most of it staying at the top, little even trickling down thru the population.
Shell Nigeria is the main producer of oil there. 70% of the oil income goes to corruption between the oil companies and the politicians.
Nigeria exports twice as much oil as Libya, but the GDP of Nigeria is 1/10th Libya's. That's nice but what does that have to do with Niger?

[Darth Rotor]

That's nice but what does that have to do with Niger?
They are both watered by the river Niger? I guess a map is in order for our friend here:
11252
There once was a lady from Niger
Who smiled and rode off on a tiger
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside
And a smile on the face of the Tiger.

(I had always thought that Niger was pronounced a Nai_ jur, but the above limerick suggests it can be otherwise pronounced. )

The River Niger is common to both lands. I Ratant is invited to google the fascinating history of Africa along the banks of that river. :cool:

DR

[I Ratant]

Considering the extreme corruption/poverty that describes almost every African country, any name at all would be good.
The rich are way rich, the people are way poor.
It's an "internal" problem endemic to most sub-Sahara locations.
With "internal" including the interferences of the western industrialists who support the corruption.

[Darth Rotor]

Considering the extreme corruption/poverty that describes almost every African country, any name at all would be good.
Uh, not a good recovery, sport.
The rich are way rich, the people are way poor.
Is this unique to Africa? :rolleyes:
It's an "internal" problem endemic to most sub-Sahara locations. With "internal" including the interferences of the western industrialists who support the corruption.
That's not internal, try learning the words you try to use.

Are you sure you won't just go "Doh, sorry, missed the name in my haste to post" and get it done with?

We all do it now and again. It's a human thing.

DR

[I Ratant]

Since the late '50s, when someone he disagreed with ate Patrice Luumumba, the extreme cruelty Africans practice on their fellow Africans has appalled me.
Abandoning the Congo as the Belgians did was a world class crime, and the continent has hardly gotten any better.

[Darth Rotor]

Since the late '50s, when someone he disagreed with ate Patrice Luumumba, the extreme cruelty Africans practice on their fellow Africans has appalled me.
Abandoning the Congo as the Belgians did was a world class crime, and the continent has hardly gotten any better.
Belgians were useless before they buggered it up in the Congo, and remain so.

What does that have to do with your mistaking Nigeria for Niger, and not simply going "doh!" as many of us do when we make make a boo boo?

DR