Posted on 09/02/2011 5:56:50 PM PDT by Graybeard58
MOGADISHU, Somalia (BP)--"Me and my nation against the world, me and my clan against the nation, me and my family against the clan, me and my brother against the family, me against my brother."
This ancient Somali proverb sheds light into the mindset of a fiercely independent culture. However, Somalia's independent spirit has been shaken: Miniscule rainfall in two consecutive rainy seasons has triggered the worst drought the Horn of Africa has faced in 60 years.
More than half of Somalia's population -- roughly 3.7 million people, including 400,000 children -- is at risk as Somalia enters the fourth month of a devastating famine. The famine, coupled with military unrest and anarchy in parts of the country, has complicated the already volatile lives of Somalis.
"It's a sort of a disaster on a disaster," said Drew Carson*, a Christian leader among the peoples of North Africa and the Middle East. "[Military unrest] doesn't help mitigate the heartbreaking situation that millions of children are in."
Some militant groups -- like Al-Shabab -- are taking measures to block foreign aid from being distributed and are denying Somali people the right to leave the country.
Even so, humanitarian organizations such as Baptist Global Response, the Red Cross and UNICEF as well as many nations are providing funding to help with famine relief although access into the heart of the famine area is restricted by security concerns and remote, hard-to-reach locations.
Southern Baptists are supporting two feeding sites in the Horn of Africa and assessments are underway in one other location. Funding for the initiative comes through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.
"Humanitarian partners on the ground are saying the people are very responsive to the expressions of God's love they are seeing and hearing," said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response. "But the scope of this crisis is enormous and rooted in long-term environmental and social problems."
Famine in the Horn of Africa has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 12.4 million people are endangered by the crisis, which also has affected Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Djibouti.
The disaster forces the culturally self-sufficient Somalis to seek help from others -- whether by fleeing to refugee camps, such as Dadaab in Kenya, or through outside aid entering Somalia. The help is being met with mixed results -- some have eagerly embraced it while militant groups and rebels have sabotaged and stolen relief food and supplies.
The Southern Baptist feeding operations have not been directly affected by sabotage or stolen supplies, but the cultural dynamic of fear and mistrust complicates all the relief operations.
Carson said Somalis are "afraid of people in their own country -- of creating war with them -- and that creates a destabilization of that part of the world that makes it near impossible to mitigate many of the problems."
"It's a desperate part of the world -- there needs to be something done. There needs to be a systematic answer," Carson said. "In the meantime, there is a need that Christians can respond to."
In the midst of these hardships, Southern Baptists are sharing the love of Christ with the hurting Somali people. That love is currently manifesting itself in the form of funding for food relief and medical aid but it represents a deeper love -- and may be opening doors for the message of God's love to be widely proclaimed in this part of the world.
"Please keep praying that God would raise up a multitude of Christians to help these people in their time of need," Palmer said.
Baptist Ping.
These are Muslim Savages! Let nature take its course!
My compassion for these people went out with Black Hawk Down. Let them sit in the dust and starve.
Obama will be there shortly to save the day, fear not! He likes spending other people’s money.
Oh, well, to turn a phrase used in the Iraqi war, better to feed them over there than to feed them over here.
—P.J. O'Rourke, quoting a Marine.
For those of you who have short memories....we’ve already been there done that. We tried to go in and deliver aide to the starving people and what did we get. Blackhawk down, Somalies dragging our dead soldiers and marines through the streets. Just recently the NGO’s who are there trying to distribute food were shot at while the clan (gang) members stole all the food from the port and warehouses. The controlling clans do not let the food get to the people in the countryside. They steal it and then sell it in the street markets. Now that Al Qaeda has a controlling faction in the country it would be ill-advised for us to go back in with the military in a humanitarian role. We would get mired down again trying to fight the gangs while trying to distribute food and supplies.
Would someone please explain that ancient Somali proverb to me? I don’t get it.
I’m tired of those masochist saps who want other people to shell out money to make them look holy. When it comes to Somalia I believe Mark 6:11 to be most appropriate:
“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”
Africa does not want the white man’s input, only the white man’s money.....once they get that, they’ll get all self righteous and kick westerners out or kill them, whatever suits them.....
Agreed. This is the perfect example of letting darwinism show its stuff. Stay out of this. Let these animals to their own devices.
They don’t trust anyone but themselves.
Comes across to me as: We can’t ever live in peace. We will band together to fight outsiders. Once they are defeated we fight, squabble, take from each other, including brother to brother. It’s not a motto. It is self-depreciating, like asking what is wrong with us that we have to be like that.
Sounds like every Muslim country on the planet.
Ditto.
Let'em rot.
The refugees that came here from Somalia are now supplying our enemies with new recruits to fight against us.
Let them all die.
If someone can make a rational case why this is our fault, then I might be for aid. Give them aid, then more to feed and to be in need next drought. Sad.
I’m sorry, but I have no sympathy for them or most of the Arab or African countries. These are self-imposed disasters, similar to the one The Food Stamp President is imposing on us.
“Agreed. This is the perfect example of letting darwinism show its stuff. Stay out of this. Let these animals to their own devices.”
The Only way they will ever reach parity with the food supply.
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