G8 does nothing as Malawi famine unfolds
By Mzimasi Makiniki, Malawian activist
"Before the recent famine in Niger there was a long period when there were increasingly strong appeals for aid, but nothing happened. We have now reached that time in Malawi — and people have already begun to die.
"Perhaps four million people are facing starvation in Malawi, and there are millions of others at risk in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Namibia.
"G8 cannot give a day’s military spending to save
12 million people on the edge of starvation"
"Remember all the hype around the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, where it was said that the world leaders would “make poverty history”?"Now these great powers cannot give a day’s military spending to save 12 million people on the edge of starvation in southern Africa.
"At the beginning of this week the United Nations World Food Programme said it remained £100 million short of the £225 million it estimates it needs to feed those affected.
"Some children have already died from eating poisonous roots, which they had been forced to scavenge after food ran out ..."
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Tagged: malawi, famine, hunger, g8, southern+africa
Pip Wilson posted item above at 1:17 PM | Permalink
1 Comments:
ive spent the last 2 months traveling in malawi and, whilst in some places there is a food shortage i and no body ive met has come accross dying people. aid here is a complete failure and is not the answer. heres how it works according to leading figure working within the eu aid programme.... we give money for food aid, the charitys bring in food of which a small amount is distributed free to some villages that have been identified as likely to have severe famine. the rest is given to the government who distribute through grain stores around the country, the price per sack is fixed by the government. poor people here have very little cash and no transport so they cant afford to buy, richer people stock up on large amounts to re-sell in small ammounts when the problem is acute at vastly inflated prices so, what happens is the rich get richer and the very poor starve and die.
the ex president has over $11 million of aid money in his acccount, the governmet has recently admitted that it has been opperating single signature accounts for both aid and other budgets, these accounts are empty.
malawi has one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world and no local people, aid agency or ngo seems to have the intelligence to irrigate tha land using lake water. some aid workers claim the mineral content is too high for irrigation however some "muzungu" lodge owners are able to grow tasty veg using the same water
malawi grows some of the best cannabis in the world, its seeds are second to soya for nutrition, the soil here lacks nitrogen and cannabis growing adds nitrogen and enriches soil, it is illegal
people will die here not because of a food shrtage in the country but through lack of money to buy food
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