- From 2005: “Drought has turned farmland into useless dirt…” Image via Wikipedia
An unsigned editorial from Le Pays (Ouagadougou): A quite good reflection on the educational and other restrictions coming for future governments in Niger, but tying the famine. The papers in Niamey have little mention of the small farmers and herders Tahoua, Tillaberi, Diffa, and the north, who are long out of food and fleeing their homes. It’s evidence both that patches of famine sit beside areas which had passable crops last year, and that Nigerien politics is often quite distant from the realities of most Nigeriens. The Burkinabe writer ascribes blame for the chronic malnutrition of Niger’s citizens to both past policies and horrible governance (which is only partly the case), while leaving us with the distinctly uncomfortable vision of Niamey debating constitutional clauses while elsewhere in Niger people are dying.
Related News Links
- Niger leaders ‘must have degrees’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
- Hunger in Niger (undispatch.com)
- Niger junta to provide free food to one million (af.reuters.com)
- Famine in Niger (one.org)
- CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-U.N. aid agencies sound alarm on Niger food (af.reuters.com)
- Famine Persists in Niger, but Denial Seems in the Past (nytimes.com)
- Niger and China (sahelblog.wordpress.com)
- Niger facing famine, millions at risk — president (af.reuters.com)
- Niger calls for $123 million in food aid (af.reuters.com)
- ANALYSIS-Niger junta’s hunger alarm is break with past (af.reuters.com)
The Niger: Innovative reforms amid famine by T. Miles, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
With the miserable news from Japan taking a turn towards a science-fiction level of horror, I’m afraid I can’t get Mr. Burns of the Simpsons out of my head. In one episode, as his nuclear plant goes critical, Mr Burns is giving a phone interview to a local newscaster Kent Brockman, and happily lying [...]
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