MOON Ki,
Sudanese have Gezira irrigation scheme that they invested in way back. I have never heard of famine in those parts, except during the war, which is easy to explain. Would Ethiopians benefit from something like that?
Foreigners are doing it on their (Ethiopians') land, so I don't see why not. Saudis have leased a huge chunk of land to grow rice. That requires quite a bit of water, for which there are local rivers. My guess is that Ethiopians need irrigation, stockpiling, ... , and changes in many attitudes and policies.
On attitudes: One of the things I have in mind the view that "famine is a process, not an event"; it just doesn't happen because rains have failed or whatever. The other part is about paying attention to warnings and acting:
There have been warnings, of one sort or another, about the current "big one" since last year, with numbers of the starving steadily growing from 2 million to today's 10 million; and the latest numbers I have seen forecast around 15-16 million next year, unless there is a huge intervention. The general policy of the Ethiopian government has always been "denial before alacrity". Here is an Ethiopian writing, in the "
World Hunger" pages, about the "small one" of 2009:
(November 25, 2009) It is hard to talk about Ethiopia these days in non-apocalyptic terms. Millions of Ethiopians are facing their old enemy again for the third time in nearly forty years. The black horseman of famine is stalking that ancient land. A year ago, Meles Zenawi's regime denied there was any famine. Only 'minor problems' of spot shortages of food which will 'be soon brought under control', it said dismissively.
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/09/editorials/mariam.htmLike Pundit, Zenawi too was focused on the "great economic development":
Zenawi's regime has been downplaying and double-talking the famine situation. It is too embarrassed to admit the astronomical number of people facing starvation in a country which, by the regime's own accounts, is bursting at the seams from runaway economic development.
Other interesting comments from the article:
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's international director, observed after her recent visit to Ethiopia: 'Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution. If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can survive despite what the elements throw at them.' ... Why has the regime not been able to build an adequate system of irrigation for crops, grain storages and wells to harvest rains?
And the current (2015) one?
After denying the problem for weeks; the government finally admitted to it but only to claim that it has enough food stock to tackle the problem. However, journalists on the ground has reported the government's grain reserve has run out long ago. According to Barrie Came, WFP representative, the food supply by the UN is also not enough to curb the problem.
http://www.madote.com/2015/08/the-cause-of-ethiopias-recurrent-famine.html(The Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister's first choice was a
Nyayo approach: those talking about a possible famine are foreigners, with an "agenda", and their local lackeys.)
On policies: Among others, I have pointed out things that some have already noted as downright bizarre:
Africa is up for sale by the acre to the highest bidder. But how can rice exports from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia be justified?
...
In 2009 Saudi Arabia received its first shipment of rice produced on land it had acquired in Ethiopia while at the same time the World Food Programme was feeding 5 million Ethiopians.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/africa-is-up-for-sale-by-the-acre-to-the-highest-bidder/5381630You write that: Another problem I think affects more than just Ethiopia is the disconnected nature of African entities. Both internally and externally with neighboring countries. Food can be plenty in one country while the neighbors are starving.
This is an interesting point. I don't know if you have been following the WTO Talkfest in Nairobi. There are still quite a few African countries---Kenya now leading them---still indulging in foolish hopes and arguing for the USA, EU, etc. to reduce their farm subsidies so that Africans can export more to them. That, of course, is never going to happen.
But I have been intrigued with this idea of Africans fighting to export (to rich countries) their food when Africans themselves are badly in need of food. But there's more that that. It appears that:
- In the 1960s Africa was a net exporter of food; by the 2000s, it had become a net importer.
- For every $1 Africa gets from food exports, it spends $2 on food imports.
- The 2015 Global Food Security Index is now out. I think you can guess who makes up the bottom pile.
If I were a policy maker in an African government, I know what all that would tell me. And what is being imported is even more telling: "basic foodstuffs such as dairy products, edible oils and fats, meat and meat products, sugar and especially cereals".
I have also (now and then) paid attention to the Climate Change conference? "Climate change" might be real or a fantasy, but, if real, who's going to be hit the hardest?
Topic: 10 million starve in Ethiopia, but not Eritrea (Read 9373 times)