Madam, - I commend Paul Cullen for drawing attention to the widespread and severe food shortages throughout Africa ("Indifference compounds African crisis", The Irish Times, February 9th).
Despite the scale of this disaster, the reaction of the international donor community is puny compared with the last year's response to the tsunami in south Asia.
The tsunami did affect a huge geographical expanse. But as Paul Cullen points out, the peoples of as many as 36 countries all over the African continent now lack food to varying degrees. The worst case is Sudan, where 6.1 million are going hungry, followed by Malawi with 4.9 million, Zimbabwe with 4.3 million, and Kenya, Congo, and Niger, all with 3 million each. Altogether, 43 million people are now affected by this continent-wide emergency.
In contrast, "only" 1.8 million people were displaced by the tsunami. In Darfur alone Oxfam is looking after 1.2 million displaced persons. Why is there not equal generosity towards the very many more Africans whose lives are now in jeopardy? Is it because the tsunami was a single event that was easy for the media to put across in a few soundbites, while Africa's problems are, as Paul Cullen points out, much more complex? Many parts of Africa actually receive as much rainfall as Europe, but there is almost no infrastructure to capture and store the water.
This, together with the lack of roads, markets, technology, equipment, and capital means that African farmers face real problems making a living and feeding their families. Their difficulties are compounded by the almost complete absence of any government support due to the IMF structural adjustment policy thrust upon their countries without thought for the human consequences.
Another cruel blow is the HIV/Aids pandemic that is wiping out the most productive adults and leaving helpless children and old people behind. Is it any wonder that late or failed rains tip such poverty-stricken, vulnerable populations into destitution? The complexity of the problem is no excuse for the manifest indifference, as the rest of the world passes by on the other side. - Yours, etc,
Dr BRIAN SCOTT, Chief executive, Oxfam Ireland, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2.