I shouldn't have to reiterate what's gruesomely obvious, but it seems that I must: significantly large populations of people, living in four countries in the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, are currently facing one of the most devastating famines ever seen in recent memory & possibly in the entire history of the African continent itself. One country particularly, Somalia, has the most to lose as a result of this famine getting worse. Somalia has indeed suffered the most in the Horn of Africa region from this terrible famine, for several reasons: the lack of U.N. relief aid getting into Somalia, the severe the lack of accessibility into this country (making it basically impossible for on-the-ground assessments, as to who needs the most help in Somalia, so relief aid can reach the proper places & people in the first place), the result of over twenty years worth of carnage, murder, political imbalance (which has ruined the political and financial infrastructure of this entire country, making Somalia completely unable to deal with the severity of this famine on their own). Ever since 1991, the Somali people have been given not only the short end of the stick, but, they haven't even been given a stick to hold on to, for any potential hope to come their way. Unfortunately, they are the perpetual victims & subjects of massive abuse, externally by the international-community, as well as internally, by even their own people. The Somali warlords, ruling with iron fists & fear, who control food, water, life & death, etc., preside over autonomous pocket-sections all over of this nation, as if they were like the notorious mafia chieftains, who ruled America, during the prohibition-era.
One of the most tragic realities of this whole affair is that since Somalia hasn't had a stable central government in two decades, this has given these ruthless, tribal-warlords a free-hand, to rob, rape & pillage their own people, without any form of accountability. And, because of this unchecked oppression, Somalis are left with little options for survival, because quite frankly, no one seems to care. I mean, there hasn't been a great international out cry at any U.N. general assemblies that I've heard of as of recent, or any move to rid the nation of Somalia of its tyrannical warlords. In Iraq, all you had to say was "WMD's", and the U.S., along with her "gong-ho" coalition forces were right there on the scene, like they were the members of Marvel Comic's "The Avengers", or D.C. Comic's "The Justice League". In the early 1980's, during the Reagan-Administration, the moment that the U.S. got wind of Socialist/Communist influence expanding beyond Cuba & into Central America, particularly in the republic of Nicaragua, the U.S. gladly gave support, via military/intelligence, arms and money to the Contras (who would in our modern political context be classified as "terrorists-groups"), to do battle against the pro-Socialist/Communist Sandinista government.
I just wonder.....with all the U.S. & U.N. confirmations of "terrorists-cells" & "terrorists-groups", loyal to "Al-Qaeda", having swept threw Somalia, with their authority virtually unchallenged by the Democratic/Western-world.....why hasn't there been a great move to relieve Somalia of its warlords & to help bring stability to this 20-year long war-torn nation?!!!
Is it because the U.S. is still sour about that ass-whippin' that the U.S. Military was served, early on during the Clinton-Administration in the early 1990's, by Somali rebel forces.....could be. Or, maybe, it's because the whole "Al-Qaeda in Africa" story (which is just as much a sham as the whole "WMD" fantasy in Iraq) is an excuse needed to not go the extra-mile, to help these people-Like in the case of Rwanda: a million people were slaughtered within three months, while the "civilized-world" just sat back, and enjoyed the show, like it was a cool made-for-T.V. "Movie of the Week".....probably.
Or, last but not least, it may just stem from the old colonial mentality of not wanting former prized colonial possessions of the "Dark-Continent" to rise and be economically & politically independent nations, to be forces-to-be-reckoned-with in the world, because the former colonial masters of Africa would no longer be able to further rape its land and/or its people of their innumerable resources.....yeah, I think this is the reason.
But, whatever the reason, the excuses for not giving the Somalis, or any other country help in times of crises like this are pathetic, despicable, and are no longer acceptable, and in truth, they were really never acceptable to begin with.
There a lot of other people here to blame for the tragedy that is Somalia's current plight. I mainly blame the Muslim-World itself. From an Islamic perspective, these oil-rich Muslim/Arab royal families & kingdoms have enough wealth in their individual & national coffers, to rid not just Somalia, not just the Horn of Africa, not just Africa, not just the rest of the Muslim-World, but the entire globe of starvation. In fact, it's their inherent religious obligation to do so, just because they have more, while others have less.
But, why has hunger still remained an undisputed champion in our lifetimes, in a world of unprecedented human wealth & possession-There's plenty for all, but it seems that no one wants to share, because they just don't care.
#I'm just sayin'!!!
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