The Hazards Of Doing Good -- Wall Street JournalFrom Live Aid in the mid-1980s to today, Western attempts to help famine-plagued Ethiopia have had little effect. Peter Gill explains why in "Famine and Foreigners." William Easterly reviews.
If it were possible to sum up in one sentence Ethiopia's struggles with famine over the past quarter-century, I'd suggest this: It's not the rains, it's the rulers. As Peter Gill makes clear in "Famines and Foreigners," his well-turned account of the country's miseries since the 1984-85 famine and the Live Aid concert meant to relieve it, drought has not been as devastating to Ethiopians as their own autocratic governments.
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My Comment: I completely agree with Peter Gill's conclusions. The denial of food has always been used as a weapon by African tribes and governments for years. Unfortunately, many NGOs and western media news services look at famine as an unfortunate act of nature rather than a deliberate act of war .... that is why their interventions have so far been ineffective.
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