The TV is quite clear. There is a full blown famine decimating Sudan and neighbouring Ethiopia. The local population are dying of hunger, thirst and disease. As fast as aid can be flown in, it is being distributed to aid camps. At the gates of these camps emaciated carcass' queue, hugging new borns to their bosoms, waiting patiently with the swarming flies around their eye to be admitted. Could the picture of human suffering be any clearer? Could human suffering be any more crystallized into a single event?
Yes. There could be twice as many people in the queue and half as much food to go round.
Picture that. A queue as far as the eye can see snaking into the scorching desert. But that couldn't happen, could it? The aid agency's would see to that, no?
Sadly the opposite. It is the aid agencies that are currently engaged in killing millions of, as yet unborn, babies. They bring 'em in, patch 'em up, send 'em out and give their blessing to the next generation of starving locals. Don't believe me? The current disaster is apparently the worst for twenty (or thirty depending on who you listen to) years. Amazingly, given the scale of this clearly desperate situation (two major humanitarian disasters, not counting the constant background wars and tribal tit-for-tats) the population of Sudan has grown from 11 million in 1960 to 45 million today. But that's at the cost of Ethiopia in the form of refugees, right?
Nope. The population of Ethiopia has grown from 22 million to 86 million in the same period. In the last thirty years the population has doubled. That's despite natures best efforts to keep the population of both nations in line with the amount of natural resources available.
As quick as nature takes food away, we fly it back in (I know, from an engorged west). As quickly as we clear paths to the smaller villages and settlements, they replace the land mines that mame and kill not just those that live there, but also those who come to help. As fast as we educate that HIV can be stopped by condoms, the witchdoctors advocate sex with virgins (Again, I know, the Vatican doesn't help, and the witchdoctors are dying out).
All in, their fucked. The more we try to help them the worse it will get. We're just propping up an already untenable situation. Fast forward twenty years to when the US and China are fighting over oil and Europe is tearing itself apart over immigration and the aid dries up totally.
Now that would be a true Humanatarian Crisis. Hell, the population might even level out.
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