Thirsty for attention
I was very surprised on Thursday evening last, 2nd March as I sat down to watch the RTE main evening news. The lead story was a brave report from the Eastern Kenyan town of Wajir by Aoife Kavanagh.
The report was quite unsettling and graphic. It showed the RTE crew driving through the void countryside and filming gaunt, angular caricatures of humans traipsing about in the wretched 40 degree heat with cups or basins hung on their fingers in the hope of finding a drink of water. They truly looked like zombies walking the earth. Later in the report they filmed a child in hospital in Wajir in a hideous condition due to the situation. The child died two hours after the filming. All about the town livestock which are the basis of the economy in the province lay rotting where they fell. For the livestock that were still alive, prices at the markets have collapsed.
Hunger and more pressingly thirst are biting hard in Eastern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia again it appears. This is due to progressively worsening, protracted droughts in recent years. I'm not sure was I more spun around by the images in Kavanagh's report or the realisation that things had gotten so bad over there and I hadn't heard an iota about it yet. Me! I'd like to think I'm relatively well abrest of current affairs around the world. In the days that have followed I've been looking at news coverage on the web of the unfolding tragedy over there. There seems to be very little of it, what there is has been patchy coverage. A selection:
BBC Hunger leads to deaths in Kenya 22nd December 2005
BBC Kenya drought response condemned 28th December 2005
The Independent Failure of Kenya's rains puts 2.5 million at risk of famine 13th January 2006
Times Online People die of famine in nation that exports food 18th January 2006
Al Jazeera Kenya's drought takes tragic toll 21st January 2006
As you can see from the dates above this is not something that has manifested itself acutely, rather warnings and calls for help have been going on since last year. Still, pledges of aid are unfulfilled in many cases.
Just today, The Guardian got on it. As a pathetic sideshow, people in Nairobi are protesting on the streets about the Government cracking down on the free press in Kenya.
Coverage of the drought/famine situation seems to have been equally bleak on the boggersphere, the only post I can find on the situation was from Metropolis Blue, apologies if I missed any others.
Aoife Kavanagh mentions in her report that Oxfam are on the ground distributing drinking water to those most in need. Oxfam's relevant page is here.
Published by Paul.
The report was quite unsettling and graphic. It showed the RTE crew driving through the void countryside and filming gaunt, angular caricatures of humans traipsing about in the wretched 40 degree heat with cups or basins hung on their fingers in the hope of finding a drink of water. They truly looked like zombies walking the earth. Later in the report they filmed a child in hospital in Wajir in a hideous condition due to the situation. The child died two hours after the filming. All about the town livestock which are the basis of the economy in the province lay rotting where they fell. For the livestock that were still alive, prices at the markets have collapsed.
Hunger and more pressingly thirst are biting hard in Eastern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia again it appears. This is due to progressively worsening, protracted droughts in recent years. I'm not sure was I more spun around by the images in Kavanagh's report or the realisation that things had gotten so bad over there and I hadn't heard an iota about it yet. Me! I'd like to think I'm relatively well abrest of current affairs around the world. In the days that have followed I've been looking at news coverage on the web of the unfolding tragedy over there. There seems to be very little of it, what there is has been patchy coverage. A selection:
BBC Hunger leads to deaths in Kenya 22nd December 2005
BBC Kenya drought response condemned 28th December 2005
The Independent Failure of Kenya's rains puts 2.5 million at risk of famine 13th January 2006
Times Online People die of famine in nation that exports food 18th January 2006
Al Jazeera Kenya's drought takes tragic toll 21st January 2006
As you can see from the dates above this is not something that has manifested itself acutely, rather warnings and calls for help have been going on since last year. Still, pledges of aid are unfulfilled in many cases.
Just today, The Guardian got on it. As a pathetic sideshow, people in Nairobi are protesting on the streets about the Government cracking down on the free press in Kenya.
Coverage of the drought/famine situation seems to have been equally bleak on the boggersphere, the only post I can find on the situation was from Metropolis Blue, apologies if I missed any others.
Aoife Kavanagh mentions in her report that Oxfam are on the ground distributing drinking water to those most in need. Oxfam's relevant page is here.
Published by Paul.
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