Band Aids and Beyond

Analysis…

The Ethiopian government is asking for emergency aid of $285 million to feed 6.2 million people.  The country, faced with extreme drought and 4 years of bad harvests, is requesting donations from the international community.  A report titled Band Aids and Beyond calls on international donors to adopt a new approach that focuses on preparing communities to prevent and deal with disasters before they strike. The report also focuses on providing resources for communities, such as irrigation for crops, grain stores and wells.

Matthew Yglesias | I don’t think we should construe the existence of famine conditions in the Horn of Africa (there are problems beyond Ethiopia) as a reason not to send additional troops to Afghanistan. But I do think it’s a reminder that we shouldn’t look at individual elements of our foreign policy in isolation, or see the Afghanistan situation with tunnel-vision. Is there some reasonable calculus of risks in which it makes sense to spend tens of billions of dollars on prevent a situation of chaos in Central Asia but doesn’t make sense to spend a fraction of that in the Horn of Africa? Alternatively, if the US lacks the tools and skills to solve profound governance and economic problems in the Horn of Africa why do we have the needed skills and tools to solve the in Central Asia?

The Moderate Voice | The human race, generally, tends not to want to act in its long-term best interests, reacting to emergencies rather than proactively avoiding or planning for them. So, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether OxFam will be heeded. But the fact is that drought need not lead to famine, as tragically, it so often has in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

NPR Blogs | Ethiopia is asking for $285 million in emergency food aid for 6.2 million people facing famine. Oxfam says that the imported aid helps, but that the country needs longer-term investment in irrigation and well systems to avoid a food crisis every time drought strikes.

Shakesville | In the long term, Ethiopia needs “drought-resistant seeds and technical support to incorporate soil conservation and soil improvements on their small plots of land” and “more family planning services are needed so the population doesn’t double again in another 25 years.” The international director of Oxfam, Penny Lawrence, also notes: “If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can survive despite what the elements throw at them.”
So, Shakesville can go in one of two directions (or both): In support of providing immediate food aid (Americans: urge your congress people!), and in support of providing long-term tools.

News…

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming  |  Pew Research Center

There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem – 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.

For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking  |  NYTimes

Many in today’s pregnancy-flaunting, soccer-cheering, organic-snack-proffering generation of parents would never spank their children. We congratulate our toddlers for blowing their nose (“Good job!”), we friend our teenagers (literally and virtually), we spend hours teaching our elementary-school offspring how to understand their feelings. But, incongruously and with regularity, this is a generation that yells.

Does Military Service Turn Young Men into Sexual Predators?  |  AlterNet

A 2003 survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the Gulf War found that almost 8 in 10 had been sexually harassed during their military service, and 30 percent had been raped.
Yet for decades, in spite of the terrible numbers, the military has managed with astonishing success to get away with responding to grievances like Krause’s with silence, or denial, or by blaming “a few bad apples.” But when individual soldiers take the blame, the system gets off the hook.

‘Family values’ of Mexico drug gang  |  BBC

They decapitate, torture, and extort. Then they pray, and donate to charity.
The “Familia” cartel is perhaps the most extreme example of the paradoxical enemy which Mexico faces as it tries to defeat organised crime.
It is a fight which would be much easier if the cartels were simply maverick gangs on the fringe of society.
But they are, in many areas, part of society.