African_Famine

The African famine is a world event that has been reoccurring throughout the history of Africa. The famine is caused by things such as war, drought, global warming and corrupt leaders. Recently the causes of famine have shifted with the outbreak HIV virus. With HIV killing thousands of famers each year it is affecting the output of valuable food making famine get worse. Corrupt government is the main cause of the famine in Africa because of their poor spending of the relief money, lack of support for healthcare and education has only contributed to the spread of disease and hunger. With of the help of the entire international system there is still hope Africa can become a healthy and self sustainable country. “The main practical difference between a food crisis and a famine is whether enough aid arrives to keep the starving alive.”(Smith) Six point two million people in Africa are suffering from hunger this year. Africa is not the only country to experience famines. Ireland had a very deadly famine in September of 1845 due to an airborne fungus that destroyed all of the potato crops. Another famous famine was the Bengal famine of the 1700’s, when the East India Trading company banned people from stockpiling food in order to have food to trade to make profits. When the winter came and the people had no food it caused over 30 million people died reducing the world population to one third of its size. The famine is not a new or recent event for Africa; they have been experiencing famines for over a quarter of a century. The African famine is caused by poor education, lack of healthcare and selfish leaders. The issue that is new to Africans is the severity of the famine in addition to the HIV/AIDS virus. The devastating food crisis in Africa is the product of drought, disease and corrupt governments. With global warming affecting the rainfall crops are not growing. These are the crops that normally keep Africa in a food crisis and not a famine, but not this year. The farm workers do not have the education needed to maintain crops in the new dryer weather. Even with the aid from American workers teaching the natives how to farm through a drought more help is desperately needed. The farm workers do not have the education needed to maintain crops in nontraditional weather. The drought has hit Somalia the hardest causing people to become so desperate they will do anything for survival. ” In Somalia some 1.7 million people are in need of food aid. Some people are dying and children are drinking their own urine because there is simply no water for them to drink. Families were surviving on one twentieth of the daily water supply recommended by minimum humanitarian standards, equivalent to 830 ml, or three glasses, of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and washing,”(Smith) Africa houses about 70 percent of all people infected with AIDS. This could quite possibly be the single most devastating cause of the famine in Africa. “Within the United Nations that new definition is known as ‘new variant famine.’ It means that despite the best efforts of aid groups and donors, population losses to AIDS are wrecking agriculture, economies and health systems.” (Chan) With the adults being the head of the house hold falling sick and becoming unable to work, the family goes hungry. This does not only affect the family but rather the whole economy without men and women tending to the crops they wither and die thus causing more problems. With most of these families living on less than a dollar a day missing work can devastate a family already in poverty with just one day of missed work. Poverty by definition is the lack of money for material things; extreme poverty is the lack of money to afford necessary things such as food. Individual: Looking at Ethiopia’s past government many would point fingers at Mengistu Haile Mariam for the majority of the problems in Ethiopia that have contributed to the Famine. Mariam was Ethiopia’s Hitler by ruling with a totalitarian style of leadership. Under a totalitarian rule one organization or person has sole power of every aspect of the country with no checks and balances which is seen in a democracy. Under his rule thousands of Ethiopian’s suddenly disappeared and were never seen again or killed. Mengistu spend his time as head of the state building up Ethiopia’s military and forming the Derg. The Derg is a Marxism style terror group responsible for the “red terror” and the deaths of over 10,000 people. (Trial Watch) Since the Derg represented all forms of military and police they could mobilize units without consent from any government official giving them total power. South Africa president Thabo Mbeki is another political leader to look at. South Africa is home to one of the highest HIV populated countries. In 2008 alone it was estimated that 5.2 million people living in South Africa were infected with AIDS. (“Hiv and Aids” )With the president Thabo Mbeki refusing to admit that HIV was directly related to AIDS. He claimed the drug used to help treat people with AIDS actually was the cause of AIDS and that the drug ATZ actually shortened the lives of everyone that took the drug. Thabo Mbeki refused to accept or acknowledge that AIDS and HIV were related until his reelection campaign in 2004. His refusal to accept and understand AIDS not only hurt his country but helped the spread of the disease. ("Hiv and aids,") is recommended for all pregnant women to prevent the transmission of the disease from mother to child. “An unacceptably high number of babies, around 70,000, are born with HIV every year, reflecting poor prevention of mother-to-child transmission. HIV and AIDS is one of the main contributors to South Africa’s infant mortality rate,” (“Hiv and Aids”). Because of the extremely high numbers of infected people in South Africa the country suffers severe economic loss from missed work and orphaned children State: ” Africa is the poorest continent, the only one to have declined since 1960. Bad governance and widespread corruption have contributed to the fall and to the lasting hunger crisis.” (Chan) Government corruption is main source for the famine. The governments in the Sub-Saharan countries of Africa are corrupt and hinder any attempts to help the countries in need by foreign countries and foreign aid groups. Many people believe the government did nothing to stop the famine but actually tried to prolong the famine. With the country so desperate for food the government had the all the power and ultimate control over the people. This desire for control is a contributing factor to the rise of the Derg, which means council in Arabic. The Derg was a group of Ethiopian military that branched off and made their own army so they could make up their own rules of governing and eventually over throw the Emperor Haile Selassieand imprison him for crimes he did not commit. Whenever aid is sent to the starving people in Africa only half the food makes it to the people in need. The rest is taken by the government and held hostage or sold on the black market. When 200,000 metric tons of food went missing in February the aid workers blamed the government and claim that the food went to the black market where a sack of corn can be sold for 10 times what it is worth (African Famine to Last for Decades). When the Government takes the food and aid sent to help the starving and keeps it for themselves and their family it creates distrust with the people. There have even been reports of presidents buying custom Mercedes with aid money. The worst part is they don’t by one Mercedes they have dozens of them proving that they have no respect for the people of their country who are starving to death while they buy luxury goods. The government then leaves the rest of the country to fend for themselves with bare fields and no education to change the endless cycle of despair. This distrust for the government affects everyone when it comes time for the citizens to pay taxes. They find any and every way possible to avoid paying because they do not feel obligated to pay taxes when the government does not help them. The lack of tax money is a big reason for the poor standards in the education and many subsidy resources, such as clean drinking water, health care and roads. Without a steady tax income the only other source of income is from exports. The exports Africa has are not desirable or they are illegal because they come from conflict areas. The most common illegal export from Africa is conflict diamonds. Conflict diamonds are diamonds that come from countries at war, with the money from its sales going to fund the insurgents fighting in the wars. With Africa not having many exports that are desirable to the rest of the world, Africa does not have a gross domestic product level high enough to support its country. (Parker) With these factors hindering the development of Africa the famine will continue until the state finds a way to support the people living inside its borders. International: The whole world is to blame for the lack of support to the African people. “"No one organization is ever going to dent such a huge crisis," Nancholas said.”It is really getting out of control.” (“Chan”). No one country can change the fate of an entire content; this is an international job for all countries to come together and help save Africa. When the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010 they received the support of dozens of countries and over 300 millions of dollars in aid to help them, and thousands of troops from around the country are helping reestablish the broken city. Without the help of the international system the entire country of Haiti would have fallen, but when the international system comes together impossible things become possible. Africa could become a stable developing country if the international system would make the world aware of the problems going on inside Africa. 8.5 million people live in Haiti and were given over 350 million dollars of aid because of the widespread news coverage. Take in to consideration that Africa has over 900 million people and half of those live off less than 2 dollars per day. More people need to become aware of the events going on in the world and help save the lives of many starving people. This is the kind of support needed to help save the many failing countries in Africa. Without international joint efforts Africa will never be a developed self supporting country. President Bush tripled the financial aid to Africa during his two terms as president. The US was giving about 9 billion dollars a year to Africa to help reestablish the countries in need. The United States has since promised to help fund the famine relief but has not lived up to the promise it made because of domestic financial problems and economical problems. The United States also has many other aid groups that help Africa such as the USAid. This provides help to 47 African countries which promotes diplomacy to try to help build solid governments. UNICEF is one of the most well known relief groups. “UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization and is not daunted by war or conflict, disaster or disease, geography or logistical complexity.” (“Unicef”) UNICEF has worked have over the 50 years since it was founded and has been able to cut the child mortality rate in half. UNICEF is fighting the world’s famine in all directions. They not only provide food and clean water for starving children, but they are fighting the battle of AID and HIV also. They provide treatment and prenatal care to women. When famine hit the horn of Africa with devastating force in the late 80’s the UK photographer Michael Buerk brought the situation home with his pictures. The UK knew they had to help. 40 UK world famous artist came together to record a single to raise money for Ethiopia. Their single raised over 8 million dollars. (“LiveAid”). One person’s idea raised over 8 million dollars. If that money went directly to the people and not through the hands of the government it would have been life changing for an entire country. If the African states would organize their government and spend more time on fixing problems rather than creating problems and supporting anarchy then the people would be suffering less and gaining more from the help of the international system. Conclusions: Looking at the history of the mismanaged and corrupt governments of Africa, the wide spread disease and the lack of education the present day famine was inevitable. The state is the main reason for the famine in Africa. With the states having corrupt governments with bad spending policy, the countries as a whole suffer. Without money or help from the government education is poor and health care is even worse. These are two of the main reason the famine is a reoccurring theme in Africa. The spread of AID and HIV in Africa is the most devastating contributing factor to the famine. Death of the farm workers causes families already in poverty to starve to death. Simple changes in the government could prevent and fix most these problems. Gaining the trust of it people by actually distributing all of the food aid and using the money to establish health care for the millions suffering with AIDS is the most important change. This change would provide treatment for the people with AIDS and HIV and help educate them about the disease and reduce the spread of disease. The government must start the uphill battle of fixing Africa. With the help of many relief groups and the international system this is a possible goal. The first step is to feed the starving and get treatment for the people infected with HIV and AIDS. The government needs to take responsibility and provide treatment and education about this disease. It is because of their neglect to the situation that the situation has gotten s out of control. With a healthier population more productive work could be accomplished and Africa would no longer be a declining state but actually could be a developing state moving towards a more productive future for its people. Bush quietly tripled aid to africa. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/ Chan, S. (n.d.). African famine to last for decades. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/05/health/main547896 Fletcher, M. (n.d.). Bush has quietly tripled aid to africa. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/30/AR2006123000941.html Hiv and aids in south africa. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm Live aid. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.herald.co.uk/local_info/live_aid.html#why Mason, B. (n.d.). Millions face famine and drought throughout africa. Retrieved from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/afri-f23.shtml>. Parker, W. (n.d.). Corrupt governments slowing the development of many struggling african countries. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/196431/corrupt_governments_slowing_the_development.html'cat=37 Smith, A. (n.d.). Millions face famine as rains fail. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/millions-facing-famine-in-ethiopia-as-rains-fail-1779376.html Trial watch. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profil/db/facts/mengistu_haile-mariam_262.html Unicef. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicefusa.org/work/