Does pastoralism -- the livelihood of semi-nomadic animal herders like the Maasai -- have a future in East Africa? In my concluding post on the famine in the Horn of Africa, it seems like a fair question to ask, no more controversial than whether Somalia should be...
So, I mentioned in a previous post on the debt ceiling that my wife and I were expecting the birth of our first child. Our son, Guy William, was born this past week, and I couldn't resist sharing...
In this third post about the Horn of Africa and the ongoing famine, I thought I'd address what should be done, which seems appropriate given the visit today to the region by a team of U.S....
Here is part II of my post on the famine in Somalia and East Africa. Since I blogged two days ago, FEWS NET has extended the geographic range at risk of famine (based on nutrition levels and rates...
So, I will ultimately come back to climate change and public opinion in this country, but when I haven't been handwringing over the debt ceiling, I’ve been preoccupied by the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Somalia and East Africa more broadly. I'm going to tackle this topic in a couple of parts since this post is already quite long. The United Nations estimates that as many as 11 million people are being affected by the current crisis, seen as the worst drought in the region in 60 years (see the FEWS NET map of the extent of the crisis below).Why is this crisis emerging now, and why are...
Sorry for the blogging hiatus, I've been on the road in South Korea and Japan for the past six weeks and not able to blog. I've spent quite a bit of time talking to folks in Seoul about the situation in North Korea and whether or not we are likely to see any movement in the relationship. North Korea is again suffering acute food shortages and another famine appears to be unfolding. The poster above, according to North Korean Central Television as reported in the Korea Times was reportedly made by soldiers working at a construction site, contains an image which shows that soldiers wipe away...
Don't feel bad though. It's disempowering.Look. I get the whole ‘stop the portrayal of Africans as victims’ debate. I really do. Empowerment and portrays of empowerment are important. But I can’t help but be slightly frustrated with this entry at UN Dispatch which discusses the “shock and awe” approach to fundraising for disasters.Penelope Chester (apparently a professional Canadian humanitarian) quotes Peter Gill (who has written on the Ethiopian Famine) stating that the West :certainly has no proper answers to the conflicts and dislocation that lead to starvation and deathIn northern...