What Did You Do During the African Holocaust?... eye popping statistics...!!

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/27/nyt.kristol/index.html What Did You Do During the African Holocaust?
By Nicholas D. Kristof
Op-ed columnist, New York Times
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 Posted: 10:32 AM EDT (1432 GMT)


ASMARA, Eritrea -- This charming nation was hailed in the 1990's as one of Africa's brightest hopes, a symbol of an African renaissance. Its economy boomed, and Hillary Clinton dropped by.

It was an apt symbol of that evanescent renaissance, for Eritrea is now turning into a thuggish little dictatorship. It is imprisoning evangelical Christians, it jails more journalists than any other country on the continent, and the regime that once empowered women now rapes them.

The private sector has been regulated mostly out of existence, and aid groups are given a cold shoulder. The leader who liberated his people a decade ago is now starving them.

And in the same way, much of Africa has been caught in a tailspin. While our attention is diverted by Iraq, famine is looming over 40 million people on the continent, West Africa seems caught in an expanding series of civil wars, and much of Central Africa has been a catastrophe for up to a decade.

In Congo, in which I've had a special interest ever since Tutsi rebels chased me through the jungle there for several days in 1997, 3.3 million people have died because of warfare there in the last five years, according to a study by the International Rescue Committee. That's half a Holocaust in a single country.

Our children and grandchildren may fairly ask, "So, what did you do during the African holocaust?"

Some African nations, like Uganda, Mauritius, Ghana and Mozambique, are booming; they show that African countries can thrive. But the failures outnumber the successes: child mortality rose in the 1990's in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia; primary school enrollments dropped in Cameroon, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania; the number of malnourished children is growing across the continent.

"We are losing the battle against hunger," warns James Morris, the head of the World Food Program.

So it's time to rethink this continent. Africa itself has largely failed, and Western policies toward it have mostly failed as well.

Eritrea is a window into what went wrong. To be sure, even now it is an alluring country with a gentle people. President Isaias Afwerki avoids a personality cult; instead of a statue of him, the central square has a gargantuan pair of sandals, which symbolize the liberation struggle.

But Mr. Afwerki fought a senseless border war with Ethiopia beginning in 1998, and now an estimated half the budget goes to the military. The port is quiet because there is no trade with Ethiopia; most of the working-age population has been drafted into National Service, so families have no one to till the ground or earn a salary. A million Eritreans are at risk of famine.

There are no simple solutions to Africa's problems, but there are some good ideas around:

Western powers could guarantee the security of African governments that commit themselves to democracy. This idea, which would attract more investment for democracies, is detailed in a fine new book, "Africa's Stalled Development."

Liberals and conservatives feud over plenty, but they generally agree on the need for widespread debt forgiveness. Africa is asphyxiated by its $217 billion foreign debt.

Think trade, more than aid. Incentives to build cheap factories in Senegal or Ethiopia could perhaps replicate Bangladesh's success with clothing exports.

We should phase out socialist agricultural policies in Europe and America. Western farm subsidies cost poor countries some $50 billion in lost agricultural exports. The best way for the U.S. to help a struggling democratic country like Mali would be to stop lavishing $2 billion a year in tax dollars on U.S. cotton farmers (whose average net worth is $800,000) so Malian peasants can produce for the world's markets.

Would any of this work? I don't know. But Africa is broken, and it needs high-level attention to help it fix itself. President Bush's $15 billion AIDS initiative was an important step, and it proved surprisingly popular around the United States.

So perhaps there is even a political payoff in compassion for Africa, and this is also an area where we can work with Europe and rebuild trust, beginning at next week's G-8 summit. Mr. Bush's planned trip to Africa this year would be the perfect start for a major U.S.-led effort to help Africa find its footing ? and nothing we could do in coming years would save so many millions of lives.

Nicholas D. Kristof is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times.

[Keith_Hixson]

Much of the rest of the World centers its governments on tribalism. The Balkans (Serbs, Croatians, Albanians, Bosnia, etc.) is also fighting over control based on tribal loyality. Even in Iraq we have Kurds, Shites, Baaths, etc which are the major tribes in Iraq. Africa is the most tribal place on the face of the earth. Whoever is in control, must by traditions lord it over the tribes that aren't in control. We in America really don't comprehend tribalism and even our government doesn't understand tribalism, and that is why much of our foreign dealings in the third world fail!

So, if you get a radical Muslim in office he feels its his duty to reek havoc on whoever (especially Jews and Christians) is not in his tribal orientation. That is why Africa is such a backword Continent. They have never achieved true nationalism and learned to related as a nation withing and without. Even the nations that seem to be doing well in Africa are always under the threat that tribalism will raise its ugly head. Even in Ghana there has been a "tribal war" in progress. Tribalism is why the Europeans so easily conqueored the North American Continent.

Anyway, in Africa you have "nations" that are a nation in name only but in reality a collection of struggling tribes sharing a particular geographical area. Until Africa eliminates tribalism that great continent with its great people groups will continue to remain a place of regular chaos and full of human rights abuses.

I had two African roommates in college. I have visited some of my friends living in Africa. Africa is different place. The people as a hole are some of the most wonder people you will ever meet.

But this tribal mentality must go!, if Africa is to join the rest of the world. The reason so many famines take place in Africa is because those in control seek to destroy the other tribes through starvation. The military prevents those in rural areas from planting and cultivating crops. Most starvation is a result of politics and not a result of nature.

Also, so much of the Aid sent by our Government and the UN never gets to people is was meant to help. We need make sure the help gets to places its suppose to get. And much less starvation would take place in Africa.

Keith

[39mto39g]

Why we should give a shit about Africa? What good is the hole damm countenent?

Ron

[MORTARDUDE]

amounts involved ?? ..who do you think is going to "forgive" that debt and who is going to wind up paying it....you got it !!

Larry

[philly]

Time Magazine wrote a lengthy article in either 2001 or 2002 on the African AIDS epidemic. There is about 12+ million Africans with this disease. Their governments do not seem to be too concerned with controlling the spread of this disease. Western doctors have made attempts to educate the Africans in birth control and AIDS prevention, but their efforts were mostly in vain.

As for assisting the Africans with $, I don't believe we should assist a continent that is clearly opposed to Western ways/people. After what happened in Somalia, I would rather not see our country involve itself in any other African issues.

I don't like to see starving people, but I don't like see our people murdered either..

[Keith_Hixson]

Below the Sahara Line (10th Parallel and South or tropical Africa) South the infection rate for HIV/Aids runs from 30% to 60% depending on the country. Nearly half the continent will die from Aids by 2015. Sad, Sad, Sad. The problem is cultural. They are a very promiscuous society. Even with Christianity and Muslim influence they still struggle with promiscuous behavior. So . . HIV and eventually Aids is the major epidemic in Africa. Many fine Christian Groups are going into the rural villages where most of the Africans live and they are teaching the best they can about Aids and how it is transmitted. The rates of Aids is gradually slowing down. Interior Africa is so backward. You are stepping back 1500 years. Only about 15% can read and write. It really is a different world.

I guess my answer to the question why we should be concerned about Africa is: They are wonderful kind people and we are indeed our brothers keeper. We should be concerned about their pain and suffering because they are human beings. How far should we as a nation go? That's a good political debate for which I have no answer at the present time. But to turn our back on the needs of hurting people seems awful harsh to me.

Keith

[39mto39g]

I would liken this starving population story to a story of how to manage a deer ranch. You can't reason with deer, or give them advise, if they cant feed themselfs then you have to feed them. Here in lies the problem. If you have a piece of land that 100 deer can live on, ie. there is enough food naturally there, The population of the deer heard will huver around 100, Now if the deer population gets to 110 and you don't want to see the 10 deer die of starvation so you feed the deer. Now the deer population is 110 deer on a piece of land that can only sustain 100. The next year the 110 deer are now 130 deer and if you don't want to see the 30 deer die of starvation you now have to feed 30 deer, this will go on and upward until one of two things happens, 1-you stop feeding them, They die off to the point that the land can support them, or 2- you continue feeding them until there is no more room on the land for deer and they all die.
Mother nature is very crule in its dealings with animals, but her way works.
If you feed the people in africa, you will have to have a plan that feeds them forever and there growing population. I don't know which plan you like, but I would just as soon not be apart of eather plan. Also who would be responsible for the over population due to available food,, I'll tell you who, The people that brought the food would be.
If you feel like helping someone, start here in the US.
This is not directed at you Keith, its to the reading puplic in general.

Ron

[MORTARDUDE]

it is a gross failure of the United Nations...the President, Kofi Annan, is from there and watched as 3,000,000 Africans were slaughtered in Rwanda and the Congo...also the black leaders in this country have washed their hand of the whole continent even as they celebrate Black History Month and Kwanzaa..total hypocrisy...
I see no hope whatsover for that continent...as I have said I am a big fan of "Soldier Of Fortune" magazine..even a cursory reading of any issues from the last 30 years, and it quickly becomes apparent that it is much, much worse than we can imagine...

Larry

[the humper]

to Nelson Mandela????? From all the nedia coverage he was given, I (?) thought he was to be the savior of All of Africa. Possibly he was too busy making sure his wife didn't take too much out of the till!!!!
SF
NC

[Andy]

These numbers are several years old but I'd guess they would more or less still stand. My younger son has a friend who was from Lagos the capital of Nigeria, Africa's most populated country. During the mid-90s if one was interested in the services of a hooker it would cost $.50 American. If one wanted to buy a condom it was $2.00 American. Considering a lot of young men go to the big city (Lagos) to make some money before returning to their village and the fact that boys will be boys, the spread of aids isn't going to get any better anytime soon.

As far as the wars in Central Africa, I don't know how you would stop them without boots on the ground. The few times Americans or Europeans have tried to stop wars in coastal nations there was no popular support within the nation being helped. If they don't want us there and would be quite willing to shoot us, I'm not sure how you deal with that. Other than to prop up one African nation, make it the local military giant and let them oversee what happens. However that might cause a whole new set of problems. It is a mess.

stay healthy,
Andy