Charity president says aid groups are misleading the public on Somalia

guardian.co.uk ^ | Sept 3, 2011 | Tracy McVeigh

[bayouranger]

The head of an international medical charity has called on aid agencies to stop presenting a misleading picture of the famine in Somalia and admit that helping the worst-affected people is almost impossible.

The international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr Unni Karunakara, returned from Somalia last week and said that, even though there was chronic malnutrition and drought across east Africa, hardly any agencies were able to work inside war-torn Somalia, where the picture was "profoundly distressing". He condemned other organisations and the media for "glossing over" the reality in order to convince people that simply giving money for food was the answer.

According to Karunakara, agencies have been able to provide medical and nutritional care for tens of thousands in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, which have been receiving huge numbers of refugees from Somalia. But trying to access those in the "epicentre" of the disaster has been slow and difficult. "We may have to live with the reality that we may never be able to reach the communities most in need of help," he said.

[bayouranger]

"There is a con, there is an unrealistic expectation being peddled that you give your £50 and suddenly those people are going to have food to eat. Well, no. We need that £50, yes; we will spend it with integrity. But people need to understand the reality of the challenges in delivering that aid. We don't have the right to hide it from people; we have a responsibility to engage the public with the truth."

islam is responsible for this.

[hinckley buzzard]

The fact is, Somalians are doing this to themselves. There are no foreign colonial powers to blame, no oppressors from neighboring countries.

Aid organizations are finding that wading into chaos with good intentions is like trying to stop a river by holding out your arms. When the Somalians hit bottom, they will wise up and fix themselves. Or maybe they won't. Their call either way.

[cameraeye]

Let’s see. “Been there, done that. Fool me once....”
We can go on about giving money to Somalia for ever. Maybe a good morning to watch “Black Hawk Down”. Let the muslims send food. n/s

[trebb]

The fact is, Somalians are doing this to themselves. There are no foreign colonial powers to blame, no oppressors from neighboring countries.

A country/nation is only as good as those who govern it. At least the Somalis have the excuse that they have little control over the process. The People of the "Free World" are doing their best to elect officials who will make us a global Somalia.

[bayouranger]

Two of my favorite quotes from that movie

You shouldn’t have come here. This is a civil war. This is our war, not yours.

Do you think if you get General Aidid, we will simply put down our weapons and adopt American democracy? That the killing will stop? We know this. Without victory, there will be no peace. There will always be killing, see? This is how things are in our world.

[blueunicorn6]

You mean that just wishing for good things doesn’t make them happen? Well, there goes the Democrat party.

[Steely Tom]

Aid organizations are finding that wading into chaos with good intentions is like trying to stop a river by holding out your arms. When the Somalians hit bottom, they will wise up and fix themselves. Or maybe they won't. Their call either way.

Part of civilization has never left the cradle, which is now in need of a thorough cleaning.

[Gaffer]

Blackhawks. Mogadishu...screw Somalia!