CNN/Reuters: Oxfam: Africa famine response 'too little, too late'

[DeepModem Mom]

Famine response 'too little, too late'
Sunday, July 23, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Food emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be "too little, too late," the international aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.

Conflict, AIDS and climate change are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750 million people, with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break the cycle, the British-based group added in a new report.

"It will cost the world far less to make a major investment now in tackling root causes of hunger than continuing the current cycle of too little, too late that has been the reality of famine relief in Africa for nearly half a century," Oxfam Britain's director Barbara Stocking said.

Billions of dollars of aid have been pumped into sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades, and its problems have received unprecedented international attention of late from grassroots campaigners and world leaders like Britain's Tony Blair.

But despite that, a "myopic, short-term" focus has prevailed, with emergency food aid still dominating international action on Africa, rather than long-term support of agriculture, infrastructure and social safety nets, Oxfam said....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/07/23/africa.hunger.reut/index.html

[sam sarrha]

1. as Global Warming ramps up.. get used to it, people even here will starve.

unlike the dust bowl, there wont be anywhere to go.. that is why Walmart Supper Store are everywhere, they will become warehouses for emergency rations.. lines 4 people wide will file in one door and out the other with their monthly rations in one of those little plastic bags with the big yellow smiley face on it.....

then you will have to try to make it home without the War Lords or roving gangs of illegal migrants who dont have a microchip implanted in them so they can go to Walmart.

when the Famine hits mexico and central america we could see a population spike of 100 million, are we going to machine gun them down if they make it through the mine fields.?? we wont be able to feed our own.. and if the class 5 Hurricanes start coming in on strings every 1 or 2 weeks all season, the southern coast will become uninhabitable.. where are they going..

[pooja]

2. I hate to say this because humanity is at stake...

But sometimes the world rights itself... Mass extinction is associated with dramatic climate changes, unfortunately that will include parts of the human population.

We have allowed ourselves to become complacent and happy with want. That want is destroying us all in the name of money, power, and greed.

Please, switch your stocks to "green" companies, this way the money flows to helping the environment, instead of impacting. When major companies lose money, they will follow. Its risky, but worth it if everyone does it... now convincing the have-its to do this for all of the have-nots will be the challenge.

[Mnemosyne]

3. kick so everyone sees this n/t