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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Aug 01 2011 - 17:06:13 EDT
Famine in Somalia: The story you are not likely to hear any time soon
By RASNA WARAH
Posted Sunday, July 31 2011 at 18:26
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I knew the real story about the famine in northern Kenya and Somalia would
probably never be told when I watched a young foreign aid worker "reporting"
the famine for CNN in Dadaab camp.
The young white woman, clearly coached to use the opportunity of her CNN
appearance to publicise her organisation, wore a T-shirt that had the word
OXFAM emblazoned on it.
The look of self-righteous, politically-correct compassion was evident on
her face as she talked of starving children and emaciated mothers walking
for miles in search of food.
Predictably, CNN viewers saw images of skeletal children and exhausted women
with shrivelled breasts, images that have launched a multi-million dollar
fund-raising campaign by the UN and donor agencies.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has asked donors to raise $1.6 billion to
assist Somalia alone.
Meanwhile, dozens of humanitarian agencies are clamouring to make an
appearance in Dadaab in order to raise funds for their own organisations.
Dutch journalist Linda Polman calls it "The Crisis Caravan".
In her book by the same name, Polman says that an entire industry has grown
around humanitarian aid, "with cavalcades of organisations following the
flow of money and competing with each other in one humanitarian territory
after another for the biggest achievable share of billions."
According to Polman, disasters like the one in Somalia attract an average
1,000 national and international aid organisations. This doesn't include
"briefcase" charities that collect funds through churches, clubs and
bake-sales.
Much of the money raised goes to administrative and logistical costs of aid
agencies, including the salaries of bright-eyed aid workers, such as the one
described above, who drive big cars and live in nice houses, but tell people
back home they live in hardship areas where they help starving Africans.
Are people starving? Yes. Should they be helped? Of course. But how much of
the food that is supposed to be distributed will most likely be stolen by
militia or find its way to shops where it will be sold?
Also obscured in the media hype is the real cause of famine in places such
as Somalia. In a recent article, Michel Chossudovsky, professor of Economics
at the University of Ottawa and founder of the Centre for Research on
Globalisation, argues that in the 1980s, agriculture in Somalia was severely
affected by economic reforms imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. Somalia
remained self-sufficient in food until the late 1970s despite recurrent
droughts, he writes.
The economic reforms, which included austerity measures and privatisation of
essential services, destabilised the economy and destroyed agriculture.
Wages in the public sector were drastically reduced, urban purchasing power
declined dramatically and the cost of fuel, fertiliser and farm inputs shot
up. This set the stage for the civil war in 1991, from which Somalia has yet
to recover.
Famine and food aid became the norm, as hundreds of aid agencies set up shop
to handle a crisis that was of their own making.
In short, Somalia became a "business opportunity" that provided jobs to
hundreds, if not thousands of (mostly Western) aid agency employees.
Nicholas Stockton, a former Oxfam executive director, once called this
phenomenon "the moral economy".
Michael Maren, whose book, The Road to Hell, should be required reading for
those who want to understand the politics and economy of food aid, shows how
this aid suppressed local food production in Somalia, fuelled civil war and
created a permanent food crisis.
This crisis and the lack of a strong, well-functioning central government
have also resulted in a situation where aid agencies are zipping in and out
of Somalia without any vetting by the government.
In effect, Somalia is being managed and controlled by aid agencies - the
government is there in name only.
Unfortunately, this story is unlikely to be told on CNN, BBC, Sky TV or
other global news networks that dominate the international news agenda.
And it will certainly not be told by the aid workers whose livelihoods
depend on donor money that will soon flow into Somalia via Kenya.
Nor will the Somali people be given an opportunity to explain to viewers
what impact food aid and foreign intervention have had on their lives.
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