Word: ethiopia
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...Ethiopia famine this fall needs to be approached as part of a comprehensive assault on-poverty and famine throughout the continent...
Blame cannot be placed only on the western, developed nations. A significant part of the damage has been self-inflicted, resulting from government mismanagement, corruption and civil strife. In 1982, a group of Oxford economists warned Ethiopia's Lt Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam that disaster was on the horizon for his nation. The group suggested immediate food rationing and concentrated emphasis on rural development. Instead, Mengistu channeled 46 percent of his GNP into military spending, purchasing at least $2.5 billion worth of arms from the Soviet Union. What's worse, the agricultural investment in which he deigned to engage aped...
African government in general spend more on armaments than agriculture, but civil war hasn't made the situation any better. Many of the starving in Ethiopia are in the northern areas controlled by anti-government guerrillas lighting for the independence of the Eritrea and Tigre provinces Both sides, but particularly the government, have used food as a weapon in the struggle for control. The government has kept a tight leash on food distribution so many refugees from the war area dominated by the guerrilla forces have been hard pressed to receive food...
Often, relief aid comes too late and helps preserve the existing social and political order, blocking changes necessary to prevent recurring disaster. The alternative is not, as some have suggested, leaving "tolerable" levels of poverty to spark development; Ethiopia is, in many respects, too weakened to respond to "pressures" of that grisly nature. Nor does the solution lie in Indira Gandhi-like methods of population control. Unless the need for large families to increase agricultural production is alleviated by more efficient methods, the root cause will persist...
...kinds of changes Ethiopia must under go are much clearer than the mechanisms for effecting those changes. The government certainly must spend money on agriculture development and try to balance food crops against cash crops raised for export more effectively...