Posted on 05/02/2002 9:59:10 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials are scrambling to cope with what could become the worst humanitarian crisis since President Bush took office: a potentially catastrophic famine in drought-stricken southern Africa that threatens 5 million people with starvation.''What's unfolding in southern Africa is very big,'' Roger Winter, the assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development's humanitarian assistance bureau, said in an interview Tuesday.
''Even though we don't have in hand all the information we need, we have in hand enough to know that we have to respond big-time,'' Winter said.
The looming disaster also could have political ramifications for Bush. For many foreign aid advocates, how aggressively his administration responds will provide the first practical test of whether Bush will keep his word to boost U.S. assistance for needy countries.
Bush's commitment this year to spend as much as $10 billion more on U.S. developmental aid by 2005 -- roughly double current spending -- was praised by aid advocates. But activists want to see how the administration reacts to a real crisis.
''People have been encouraged by a lot of the speeches and rhetoric that Bush and people around him have used to talk about poor and hungry people,'' said Tom Freedman, an adviser to President Clinton who now is a visiting fellow at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank.
''Now we have a concrete case. And there's a lot of folks who have their fingers crossed that the action will live up to the rhetoric,'' Freedman said.
Judith Lewis, regional director of the United Nations World Food Program, said in a telephone interview from Kampala, Uganda, that she had just returned from a tour of the afflicted region, where relief efforts are centering on food shortages caused by a severe drought in six countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The United Nations feeds 2.6 million of the 54 million people in those countries. Lewis said she believes the aid will have to at least double because of food shortages already being felt.
Lewis said the famine in the region is ''certainly the worst we've seen since 1992,'' when a drought left 18 million people without sufficient food. Lewis said she hopes the world will not lose sight of the crisis because of the war on terrorism. ''We just have to get people to turn back to Africa because there are a lot of competing crises,'' she said.
Experts say conditions are particularly bad in Malawi, with Zambia and Zimbabwe close behind. Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster Tuesday.
U.S. officials blame President Robert Mugabe as much as the drought for food shortages in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe recently won a questionable re-election that has plunged the country into chaos.
U.N. teams are still conducting a survey of the region, and Lewis said a plan of action won't be proposed until early June.
But U.S. officials said they already are responding, even in Zimbabwe, despite their unhappiness with Mugabe. Winter said the Pentagon, State Department, CIA and other agencies met April 11, and reports on the famine have gone to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bush.
Winter said Washington is providing food assistance -- a shipment of 35,000 metric tons is on the way and 40,000 metric tons are ready for shipment. That's enough to feed approximately 375,000 people for a year.
''President Bush has said there will be no famines on his watch,'' Winter said. ''We take that very seriously.''
Aid groups point out that the famine is a natural disaster, which Bush's pledge did not address. He promised new foreign aid for long-term poverty reductions in countries that show progress and spend the money responsibly.
But aid advocates say more money is needed to avert short-term crises, such as famines, if some struggling countries are ever able to achieve long-term gains.
''The U.S emergency response frequently is generous, and we hope it will be here because there can't be long-term development for people who are in the middle of a famine,'' said Bill O'Keefe, government relations director for Catholic Relief Services.
Bush's actions on the famine also will be seen as a pivotal factor in how high Africa ranks on his foreign policy agenda.
Though last year's terrorist attacks and the resulting war in Afghanistan have diverted attention from U.S. policy on Africa, activists say they are generally pleased with Bush's approach. Both Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill have visited the continent.
''I give them reasonable marks . . . on a scale of one to 10, maybe a six or seven,'' said Melvin Foote, president of the advocacy group Constituency for Africa.''
Foote said Jendayi Frazier, the Africa specialist on Bush's National Security Council, recently told the group that Bush plans to visit Africa next year.
I'm with you, give us back OUR MONEY
This makes me sick. It's our money -- it should go to our people, not some third world AIDS ridden, uncivilized, prejudiced country. Let 'em starve...maybe they will stop all of their BS and learn to get food on their own.
In Africa people are an expense, not an asset. One does not insure an expense.
It should be kept by those who earn it.
Maybe they can call it the "Free Sandwiches for Murderous Dictators" program.
I expected no less from Bush.
you'd be talking about your president......
Right. Our people who earned it, but also to help the needy here in our own country...I'm not talking about fedgov handouts here - but there is a place for helping the poor get on their feet, educating (not indoctrinating) people, providing services for the incapacitated and elderly....etc.
''Even though we don't have in hand all the information we need, we have in hand enough to know that we have to respond big-time,'' Winter said.
Ofcourse the Bush Administration is foolishly going to pour Billions of OUR tax dollars into the bottomless pit of Africa. Until Africa abandons its anti-white pro-communist policies the suffering will be never ending.
This crap just makes my head explode.
Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend all day at the lake drinking beer....
I watched a pig farmer down the road from me for a few years. When pigs make him money he treats them like gold. Best feed, best conditions, lots of investment in facility improvement, etc... When the input exceeded output(such as the past few years), he had his son shoot the sick ones because a vet visit was an economic drain. Instead of balanced feeds, rotten moldy feeds which were free for the hauling became the daily ration. USDA agents(an aide agency) came around gladly offering loan programs, grants, funding sources etc... Now the farmer has become aide dependant. The pigs live in the horrible conditions because they are still an expense. The farmer lives in great conditions because the bullet is still cheaper than the doctor, rotted feed is all that the pigs get, and filthy diseased conditions are what the pigs are quatered in.
I bet pig farming in Africa transcends species.
No, sending them food would be a major error. We have to allow them to suffer for their mistakes. Stupidity should be painful, that is how you learn. After about a hundred million Africans starve to death or get eaten by their neighbors perhaps then they will be ready to consider the idea that rule of law and property rights are important.
If one does not behave in a way that allows for the protection and creation of wealth, one loses the right to cry because one lacks the benefits of wealth.
"you'd be talking about your president......"
As opposed to your would-be president Mr. Gore?
I guess a lot of people forget that we want Africa to be on OUR side, instead of that of China or the terrrorists. Letting mass starvation occur will not help the USA, that's for sure. Plus, if we have the resources to help, it would be very wrong to let millions of innocent people suffer because of their corrupt and evil leaders.
I imagine you are correct, and we will see aid done in a far different manner than before. I guess a few people forgot about the Millenium Fund, and how the money does NOT go to governments which oppress their people, at President Bush's insistence. We will probably give aid in food and technical assistance (like well-drilling).
Nice try, no chance...
You couldn't pay me to vote for bush or gore
Again, if we send ONE PENNY of aid over there then we are saying that murdering farmers is just fine, stealing farms is dandy, mob rule is OK by us. Sorry, not going for it. If the pansy fairy left wingers wanna get upset with me, they can just have their little hissy fit and then go back to their kneepad duties. What are they going to do, cut my hair badly? Misarrange my furniture? Suggest a really bad wine with my dinner?
Exactly. It’s easy to get carried away and go down the “F’em , they caused this, let ‘em suffer” road, but in fact, the majority of people who are suffering in all these countries have little if any culpability in the situation.
Take Rhodesia for example, it’s completely obvious to anyone who followed the March election that the vast majority of Rhodesians support the MDC rather than the ruling ZANU PF. However, there really isn’t much they can do about it with Mad Bob aligned with the others in the African Dictators Union. They have no realistic chance of overthrowing their dictator.
As you said though, giving aid will only prop up the dictatorship and prolong the suffering. It’s a horrible situation and no rational person can be comfortable standing by idly while millions die an agonizing death, however, there simply isn’t anything that can be done to help them.
This blood is all on Mad Bob’s hands.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
I believe there are plenty of scriptures that could be quoted that point out self sufficiency as well.
You're right, we're not liberals. If we agree with everything the liberals say I'll bet they stop calling us names.
Robert Mugabe already has $2 billion in Swiss accounts, a little more won't hurt. We will send aid because of who and what we are but that won't change who and what they are. There comes a point where feeding the beast only strengthens the beast. Maybe we should keep our "pink noses" out of their affairs as Mugabe requested.
One word: Somalia.
First of all you insist we have to help the poor starving Africans or we are all troglodytes. Never mind that they a poor and starving because they kept stealing until nothing was left to steal.
Then you notice that you can't get food to the starving people because the powers that be 1) take it for themselves and 2) take and sell it.
So you insist we have to send in the marines or we are all heartless troglodytes. Never mind that you are asking men to die so you can look good politically. (Who is the heartless troglodyte?)
The marines show up, but they aren't allowed the means to defend themselves because they would basically have to shoot everyone. So after a few of them get killed you realize that this just isn't the political bonanza back home you thought it would be so we tuck tail and run away.
The Africans still go hungry, and all we get for our trouble is a few more widows and orphans and several billion dollars in tax money down a rathole.
But hey, as long as YOU get to feel self-righteous for a little while, that's ok.
The same countries that always fall all over themselves each time we have a natural disaster or civil unrest- No one.
That being said, I’m not sure what your question had to do with my post.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Two points: I KNOW that the liberals will never like us. But to allow the "let 'em all starve" comments flood this thread gives the liberals AMMUNITION in getting people to side with them. Why give them ammunition with which to shoot us?
Secondly, I think there is a way to help starving people without either getting militarily involved as in Somalia OR by letting the dictators and their thugs pocket the cash. If those were our only two options, I would probably not be very supportive.
However, this administration has consistently used innovative methods to accomplish their goals. I expect them to do the same in this situation.
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