The famine in Somalia may have caught your attention in the news in passing, but in comparison to other world crisis, such as the earthquake in Haiti or even the earthquake in Japan, it seems to have quickly faded. But the deaths of tens of thousands of Somalis have passed, and ahead looms the possibility of 750 000 more Somalis dying of starvation. Being dubbed as the worst humanitarian crisis in the past two decades, how is it going unnoticed?
The famine in Somalia has been caused by more than just the drought. The country has warred against militant groups for the past years, heightening the difficulty of getting food to those who need it. The militant group Al Shabab was blocked Western aid from entering the famine zones. Their grasp on the Somali people has not only restricted aid, but also depleted the aid that has been given. In addition, the danger of sending aid workers and our images of agencies rushing in to fix a crisis is hard to find. However, organizations have not faltered in their efforts to help the people of Somalia. UNICEF, for example, has been allowed in, although it is only their Somali staff that is allowed to give aid to Somalia. Western agencies that have not been allowed in have used the power of technology to find loopholes in their barriers, such as using cell phones to send “electronic money” which can be used in the local markets in the famine zones. Help in the camps is still needed though, especially as the camps also lack clean water, and when the rain comes in this November and December, the death toll could increase through the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera.
However, the famine’s story on newspapers and television screens has died down, as a result of an ever-changing world. But just because the spotlight is not on the situation, it does not mean the crisis has not left center stage. To put things into perspective, the money donated to the charity Save The Children for the crisis in Japan was $22.8 million. The amount of money that has been donated to the same charity for the drought in East Africa is $5 million. Consider that Somalia is the 6th poorest country in the world, while Japan is the 3rd richest. There is no denying that in times of need, every country requires aid, but this shows that our response to a crisis depends upon interpretation. Our society can easily become numb to numbers, death counts and horrifying images all blur together into the mass confusion of everyday life. If this crisis is to be fixed, the solution is more than the band aid of a twenty dollar bill; it is the change of people and politics.
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