For Aid's Sake
Which is it then? Two sources, each of which has at least the equal of the other's believability quotient. In this particular instance no one really has the monopoly on truth. The United Nations has a mandate to fulfill and pleads with its members to give it the additional financial support it must have to succeed in delivering humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of Somalians and other African nations whose people are suffering food shortages due to dreadful drought conditions.And Somalia's Prime Minister Abdiwell Mohammed Ali, on the other hand, disputes vehemently the claims by the United Nations that famine has been stalking his country. That claim, he contends heatedly, is "absolutely false". Might he not know, since he is the acknowledged and recognized leader of his country?
"I don't believe there's a famine in Mogadishu. Absolutely no. You know the aid agencies became an entrenched interest group and they say all kind of things that they want to say."Score a point for Abdiwell Mohammed Ali. And consider this: he is an Harvard-educated economist. And it is his belief that the United Nations deliberately exaggerates the scale of suffering they insist they must contend with as the world's number one humanitarian aid agency - for the singular purpose of guilting the developed world into increasing its donations, enabling the UN to get on with its mandate.
The United Nations, for its part, lays claim to 250,000 Somalians suffering from famine in three regions of the country, including Mogadishu, the capital, where Prime Minister Ali is located. This is a country, moreover, that has been horribly lashed by ongoing civil strife, with al Shabaab challenging the government to its rule, wreaking bloody havoc in the process.
"I have no idea how this international community makes the grading. You ask them and tell me how they did it. They don't know what they're talking about. But what I can say is enough relief came to Somalia and we provided enough relief to those affected by the famine." And he cited a critique of aid workers mounted by author Graham Hancock in his book Lords of Poverty.
"I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but I believe a lot of what has been said in the Lords of Poverty book." Are we to be entirely dismissive of a man who has ascended to the Prime Ministership of his country, even if his authority appears to extend only within the capital? Are we to dismiss his contention that all is well, and sufficient aid has been received and distributed?
Somalia, after all, depends almost entirely on international monetary assistance. The country has no tax system in place and its sole source of any significant revenue is the port located in the capital, which can be depended on for a pitiful $12-million annually. Not much revenue is it, to run a country? Somalia's administrative budget stands at $100-million, modest enough. But it is sourced outside the country.
Still, that hasn't stopped the pot from blackening the kettle even more. Aid workers, as far as this distinguished, educated man is concerned "became themselves lords of poverty. They say what they want to say. I don't want to accuse them, but the statistics that they use sometimes doesn't make sense to me." He is, as an economist, after all, well schooled in statistics.
Yet there is no denying that long-term drought conditions have created agricultural catastrophe in the Horn of Africa. Not only is Somalia massively hit by crop devastation, resulting in widespread food shortages causing people to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere where humanitarian aid can reach them, unimpeded by the glowering denials of al-Shebaab, but Kenya, where refugee camps have been assembled, is itself affected by the drought and resulting famine.
Kenya, and people in Sudan as well, particularly South Sudan. All things being equal, it appears that attention given to food aid by humanitarian groups who do without doubt have an investment in maintaining their self-interested longevity, are also providing needed humanitarian intervention in parts of the Globe that are suffering horribly.
Labels: Africa, Agriculture, Conflict, Environment, United Nations
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, December 17, 2011
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