Somalia (Page 4) Comrade_: Who cares if any is concerned about Somalia? The OP's thread is ON the topic of Somalia..either you have something substantial to add to his topic or not...in your case you had nothing, now you show yourself to be a regular simpleton with a tantrum. Ey, we're all learning, don't get upset when someone shines light on your ignorance, just think of it as you have one less misinformed dumb opinion (Edited by Comrade_)  davidk14: . U.N. Declares Famine in 1 More Somalia Region Published September 05, 2011 | Associated Press NAIROBI, KENYA – Famine has spread into one more region of Somalia, leaving 4 million people in the lawless Horn of Africa nation in crisis, the United Nations said Monday. Southern Somalia's Bay region is the latest region to be declared a famine zone, according to a U.N. press release issued Monday. A total of six areas, including four southern Somali regions and two settlements of internally displaced people, are now suffering from famine. The press release says 750,000 people are at risk of death in the next four months if there is no adequate response. The U.N. says tens of thousands of people already have died in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti due to the severe violence, drought and famine that still has not peaked. More than 150,000 refugees have sought aid in the last few months. Somalia has been hit hardest, its problems compounded by the fact it has not had functioning government since 1991. . davidk14: . Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. The country of Somalia, has not had a functioning government since 1991. Since 1991, the country of Somalia has not had a functioning government. For the last 20 years, Somalia has not had a functioning government. . davidk14: I realize you may be becoming numb to my posting of information on Somalia and the surrounding areas. ______________________________________ Charity president says aid groups are misleading the public on Somalia Médecins Sans Frontières executive says charities must admit that much of the country can't be helped. 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 "epicenter" 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. Karunakara said that the use of phrases such as "famine in the Horn of Africa" or "worst drought in 60 years" obscured the "man-made" factors that had created the crisis and wrongly implied that the solution was simply to find the money to ship enough food to the region. He described Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as dotted with plastic sheets supported by twigs, sheltering groups of weak and starving people who had walked in from the worst-affected areas in southern and central Somalia. "I met a woman who had left her home with her husband and seven children to walk to Mogadishu and had arrived after five days with only four children," he said. "MSF is constantly being forced to make tough choices in deploying or expanding our activities, in sticking to our principles of neutrality with the daily realities of people going without healthcare, without food. Our staff face being shot. But glossing over the man-made causes of hunger and starvation in the region and the great difficulties in addressing them will not help resolve the crisis. Aid agencies are being impeded in the area. "MSF has been working in Somalia for 20 years, and we know that if we are struggling then others will not be able to work at all. The reality on the ground is that there are serious difficulties that affect our abilities to respond to need." He said charities needed to start treating the public "like adults". He went on: "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." Chronic malnutrition, said Karunakara, is not new in east Africa and needs long-term action. "The Somali people have been living in a country at war, with no government, for 20 years, with several long periods of hardship, of famine and drought. This harvest failure is just what has tipped them over the edge this time, a catastrophe made worse," he said. A brutal war between the transitional government, which is backed by western nations and supported by African Union troops, and armed Islamist opposition groups, notably al-Shabaab, is ongoing in Somalia. Fierce clan loyalties keep independent international assistance away from many communities, meaning that Somalis are trapped between various forces, depriving them of food and healthcare for political reasons. "We face constant difficult challenges over simple things like a new nurse or getting a car," said Karunakara. "When we need to be saving lives with a fully fledged medical response, we constantly need to be communicating with both sides in a war, reminding them what humanitarian aid is. One needs only to look at how few charities are working in Somalia." Ian Bray, a spokesman for Oxfam, said it was unhelpful for aid agencies to be seen to be arguing with each other. "We're being honest with donors and we have always been honest," said Bray. "A drought is a natural occurrence; a famine is man-made. We don't go around to people saying we have a magic wand, give us £5 and we will make Africa feed itself. We do say give us £5 and we won't use it to give you a history of Somalia, but we will use our expertise to save lives. This is what the bargain is we make with our donors. If you support us, we will do our level best to alleviate the distress for those people in most dire need." Source: www. guardian.co.uk/global-development/ 2011/sep/03/ charity-aid-groups-misleading-somalia .  chronology: Not really David Old Chap. You are concerned for people in distress, very laudable some would say. davidk14: . Alexandra Lopoukhin, CARE emergency media officer at the refugee camps, shares her observations: "Some families have walked two weeks. Two weeks. Sleeping where they could, pushing on to get to this camp. The children are much smaller than they should be. One story I heard was devastating: a mother walking, arrives at the clinic, takes her baby off her back and finds it has died without her knowing. I can't even imagine the pain this causes her.” Women and children make up the majority of the new arrivals at the camps. Many mothers set out on the journey with their children, leaving husbands behind to tend to what remains of their herd or other business. The women and children may walk for weeks before they arrive at the camps. Often, when families register at the camps, they find out they are overflowing — they were originally built to hold 92,000 people {note: These camps are now overflowing with over 400,000 displaced persons] — so the families settle in areas that are located further and further away from the emergency services they need. [Tens of thousands of ] refugees have set up makeshift homes in these areas. In addition, the scattered, unplanned and unmonitored sites are further exacerbating women’s vulnerability to rape and sexual violence. _________________ From the CARE website… .www. my.care.org davidk14: . I don’t know if it is public spirited or whatever, the lack of public knowledge of this type holocaust is deafening. The lack of response boarders on criminal. . memberX: that is exactly what is happening when some country will sell arms to idiots like above mentioned... where they do not produce weapons... mhm...who is providing murderers with arms, so they can create camps where people are..."the scattered, unplanned and unmonitored victims are further exacerbating women’s vulnerability to rape and sexual violence.??? if we turn back the movie at its very start, who will be responsible for that??? what do you think david? in Somalia they do not have factories for weapons. there fore your effort here to show us that you care for, is a hypocrite one ...david. david who is the no 1 arms producer in the world? uh la laaaaaaaah memberX: david above mentioned post is a fiasco for you, a real disaster... and i think that you should stop flooding with Hypocrisy ...ok? davidk14: . A response on the likes of you is a complete waste of time and effort. Some might consider you an idiot and a fool and I might just agree with them whole heartedly. . memberX: david have no words , cause he is all in shits into his neck right now... a hypocrite idiot and a fool who have no guts to admit that he is defeated and revealed only with one post... shame on you david, ... WHO IS SELLING THE GUNS AND AMMUNITION TO SOMALIANS? ahahahahaha davidk14: . Memberx: First, this thread has never been about you or me. It was created so as to inform about the current conditions in Somalia. If you took a few minutes to read the posts about the misery of millions, you might have a little compassion for those that have little to no water or food to eat...much less electricity or plumbing. So, since you have nothing constructive to say, find your local RED CROSS Chapter and donate a few bucks. . chronology: David. I think there are Online Sites folks can donate to Somalia. If they have PayPal it is fairly easy. chronology: memberX. You do seem a little unkind here. David is just trying to be nice. As the Old Saying goes; 'be nice, it's nice to be nice'. | Politics Chat Room 71 People Chatting Similar Conversations |