ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The worst drought in three decades has left almost 20 million Ethiopians — one-fifth of the population — desperately short of food. And yet the country’s mortality rate isn’t expected to increase: In other words, Ethiopians aren’t starving to death.
I’ve studied famine and humanitarian relief for more than 30 years, and I wasn’t prepared for what I saw during a visit to Ethiopia last month. As I traveled through northern and central provinces, I saw imported wheat being brought to the smallest and most remote villages, thanks to a new Chinese-built railroad and a fleet of newly imported trucks. Water was delivered to places where wells had run dry. Malnourished children were being treated in properly staffed clinics.
Compare that to the aftermath of the 1984 drought, which killed at least 600,000 people, caused the economy to shrink by nearly 14 percent and turned the name “Ethiopia” into a synonym for shriveled, glazed-eyed children on saline drips.
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WNU Editor: Alex de Waals analysis on how politics and war can produce a famine is spot on.
4 comments:
campaign 2016 is getting really dirty:
http://www.snopes.com/bernie-sanders-glow-sticks/
Famine, nope not post-Borlaug
Post famine world! We ain't seen nothing yet.
Drought is natural.
Famine is man-made.
The Bitch Farah Aidid was a good famine maker.
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