I wish we could reduce the problems in Somalia and surrounding countries to one issue such as climate change but alas, it's far more complex than that. It involves tribal politics, corruption, arms trading, gang warfare and logistical nightmares getting these people food.

The warlords in Mogadishu probably are not greatly interested in Australia's carbon debate and may not be immediately convinced re the efficacy of some statements by Clover Moore, Greenpeace and the protest industry about global warming. It's short sighted of them.

Because, of course, there were no droughts in Africa before 'global warming' began:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought

It's commendable that the author wants to help people who are suffering. But good science will help them more than bad science and ideologically-motivated gestures.

Very sad but very true and almost totally irrelevant. The problem is the rapidly rising population in the region.
Take Ethiopia as an example. In 1984 there were food shortages and the
population was around 40 million.In response to this Bob Geldof organised giant musical concerts in America and Europe which brought in vast amounts of money to feed the hungry. By doing this he saved many lives
Now 27 years later food is again so short that they are issuing a disaster appeal. The population has grown from 40 to 80 million but of this important fact you say nothing. It is blindingly obvious that the rising population is an important factor in causing the disaster. However much money you raise and spend on emergency food
aid and improving the agriculture in Ethiopia there will continue to be food shortages because there will be more mouths to feed. I believe you are deceiving everyone by ignoring this fact
If you feed the the hungry but do not provide family planning clinics giving mothers the CHOICE about the size of their families you will increase the number of hungry people in the next generation.
This is the first essential which should have priority over all other aid

Head of campaigning for who?

Just what we need, more campaigners for more fringe operations.

Small farmers in Africa are amongst the most inefficient in regards to productivity in the world. They don't have access to proper seed stock, fertilisers, equipment or know how.

The reason that they are small farmers is largely because the economy they live in is shot from corruption and governmental mismanagement.

Any money should be spent on ensuring proper governance, not supporting a model doomed to failure.

This is why my charity is GuideDogs Australia, they tend not to exaggerate or try to emotionally trick me with cherry picked information.

The article reflects the sheer opportunism of our age, the sense of entitlement to say whatever you like if you believe it is right for you to, to befuddle the simple to get your own way.

Only the simple and gullible would not realize that droughts are natural, as is flooding. How do you trust someone who is prepared to create stories like this? I would wonder at what was being done with my money if the industry is prepared to behave like this .. is there really a problem, or is it just a self serving circular industry ensuring its own fiscal survival, of the management of the industry, it makes you wonder how much makes it to the actual subject of this article.

Sure, great intentions but when you resort to such trickery, you have to question the honesty of the industry.

I remember the droughts of the 60s and 70s .. back before the increasing CO2 "had" any effect.

So Lena. You seriously think that Gillard imposing a Carbon Tax on us is going to make the slightest difference to those living in the Horn of Africa?

For a start, while climate scientists might claim that anthropogenic CO2 emissions (you probably call it Carbon Pollution) are causing potentially catastrophic global warming, there is actually very little proof of that. Have a look for yourself.

While CO2 might have some impact, it is probable that natural factors and land-use factors are also relevant. Check Dr Roger Pielke Sr if you don't believe me. '

The other thing is that even if we accept that CO2 is the problem, the Carbon Tax will make almost no difference in any forseeable time frame that you are concerned about. Far more important (I would have thought) to address the direct causes of the problems you are concerned about.

I must admit to only reading the heading of the article and then I went straight to the comments.

First of all, as pointed out by a couple of the respondents, famine in that part of the world is nothing new and has nought to do with climate. It is a weather related phenomenon and has nothing to do with climate change. If you go back to the bible for a lesson in history you will find many examples and references to famine.

Secondly, as also pointed out by respondents, the massive increase in population has exacerbated the problem and unfortunately giving succour to the needy only helps to perpetuate it in the future unless other programs are put in place.

I'm with RPG, as callous as it might be, put your money where it will do some permanent good. It is going to take over 2000 tonnes of food a day, just to feed the people in the largest camp in the horn of Africa.

David

This article has the distinct 'smell' of Greenpeace. Everything is a crisis, its all caused by the West and ..wait for it...now more women starve than men. Its now its a gender issue! A strange assertion for which I'd guess there is probably not a sceric of evidence.

If more women starve than men then the birth rate goes down dramatically due to hormonal changes well before starvation sets in. So why is the African population so large?

Theres virtually no 'evidence' provided by the author for any of her assertions. Its all hyperbole based upon the usual old marxist Greenpeace agenda.

So cutting Carbon emissions in the West will provide more food to Africa?! Not only is the author scientifically illiterate but takes us for fools as well.

Quite so. Even if we accepted global warming theory (and I don't) its way too early for any of the really big changes that we're being warned about constantly - so its difficult to see what relevence global warming has to the African drought.

Eastern Australia has just been through a big drought, which has been attributed to the climate cycle the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. But whatever the reason for it, I suspect that it was just as severe as the African drought. Now matters seem to have turned completely - Sydney was just about washed away by rain last week.

Thank you that Lena Aahlby .
Do not waste your breath on this list full of anti-science denialists with very bad manners. Who by and large have forgotten their humanity. In their first 10 comments .

Most of whom hate volunteers; especially those who have gained enough real world experience to take full time employment in doing something positive overseas. In their role as Australian ambassadors . May I remind them that Lena is the Head of Campaigns at ActionAid Australia and is also the Director and Founder of StrategyforChange, a consultancy that works with the not-for-profit sector on strategy development, campaign design, training and capacity building. Lena has extensive experience of working with NGOs both in Australia and internationally.

PEST, I am not a denialist at all. You just have to look at the reality of the situation. As I said previously, famine has happened since time began. This is just another example of the result of the principles espoused by Malthus where the population has increased far beyond the carrying capacity of the land and the result is that the inevitable famine has had major consequences.

David

Pest, I can vouch for VK3AUU, he is not a skeptic or denialist.

This is another example of people refusing to accept the situation, over population is the cause of African problems, not climate - the climate changes it always has and always will. When times are good, people breed up, when they go bad, well stuff happens.

To blame it on AGW is just too simplistic and opportunistic, I also realize that's the role of a marketeer, to take advantage of current fears and to use them to drum up business.

We're getting fatigued by climate drama, hysteria call it what you will and now we're at the beginning of what looks like a very big taxing regime coming into our lives.

We're being asked to suffer taxes on everything, and see government waste grow, yet still have some left over to send to Africa Just when ex-PM Rudd has got double the Foreign Aid budget, $9.6B, to spray around and waste around the world .. go bother him, he's got our money, and doesn't even need to ask or tell us what he will do with it.

PEST

Well, I am a sceptic, and the world has far beyond the simplistic thinking of this article.

Take this paragraph.
"Experts agree that supporting women farmers in the developing world is a proven way to end hunger. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, supporting women farmers to the same level as their male counterparts would reduce the number of hungry in the world by between 100-150 million people."

You will note that source is a general one (report?) but in any case the writer would seem to have confused farmers with agricultural workers. I doubt very much whether large numbers of women actually own the farms or the leasehold, or that they would be regarded as seperate from extended families that farm the land. For that matter how would you support them seperately from their husbands?

There is some research indicating the women-run microbusinesses (doubt if that includes farms) in third world are a better bet than those run by men, and that led to the microcredit experiment which has since bogged down disastrously.

Giving aid so that it makes a difference is far more complicated and difficult than anyone every suspected.

Hay PEST, you make it sound like Lena does quite well out of the "aid " business.

Not for profit does not mean not for income. It simply means that at the end of the day all the money is spent on their employees and goals and not their shareholders.

In fact in some nonprofit organisations the employees have a very large amount of money to spend on themselves.

The author is highly likely to be paid well and jetting all over Europe. In fact I'd put money on it.

Greenpeace's income in 200 million Euros per year. Some of the Greenpeace's main contributors: Rockerfeller family and Ted Turner cable news mogul. Both are Club of Rome members.

"May I remind them that Lena is the Head of Campaigns at ActionAid Australia and is also the Director and Founder of StrategyforChange, a consultancy that works with the not-for-profit sector on strategy development, campaign design, training and capacity building. Lena has extensive experience of working with NGOs both in Australia and internationally."

And is paid how much for her work? Enough to feed how many? Could she live comfortably on half that? Get by on a quarter?

Please, let nature take it's course. the Horn of Africa cannot sustain that amount of people. There is an old saying, "Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind." Guildoff famine relief 20 years ago caused this many people to be effected now by saving them from starving. These people are the ones that were saved. In another 20 years there will be four times as many. The situation breads Terrorists & Ship Hijackers. The very people that were saved last time. we save them & they grow up to become Terrorists They then breed more & then we have more starving people who become Terrorists who then bomb the West again. I think we are our own worst enemy.
The UAE has contributed hardly anything to help these people. The Aid the West gives is considered to be the jizyah tax & they consider it to be the Wests obligation to Muslims.

*a consultancy that works with the not-for-profit sector on strategy development, campaign design, training and capacity building. Lena has extensive experience of working with NGOs both in Australia and internationally.*

Well that is wonderful. In that case Lena should be using her talents
to design a family planning programme for these women, for whilst
they are popping out 6 kids each on average, the problem will
only get larger and the next famine will be even larger. Given
that Australia donates 4 billion $ to foreign aid, none of it for
family planning in the third world, here is your chance Lena!

Make a difference, but don't blame everyday Australians.

We each have our own ways of responding to the dire fate of people starving, children dying on the roadside, the lack of world capacity to help provide long term solutions to the people of Somalia, and the other regions in drought crisis.

We may feel fatigued by the growing needs after earthquakes, floods, drought and the GFC. War and conflict is in many cases at the heart of the matter. While Climate Change is a reality, it is also in the background in the same ways the causal elements of crime itself is linked to the cycle of dispossession and poverty.

Never however will I be a by-stander to the events that are currently before us. To turn your back on the people of Somalia, Haiti, Pakistan. The Congo, Afghanistan, Europe and the Middle East only adds more burden to the problems we already have.

If I were to point a finger it is toward the politics of trade and the role of capital. It is difficult for me to see how we may ever achieve anything if as individuals we don't use what knowledge we have to push for change.

We must be part of the change.

I thank Lena Aahlby for writing something on the "CRISIS" in surrounding Somalia. While her emphasis is on the link between now and the future of Climate Change my own concern is on humanity. It is a crime to expect UNHCR to continue to cope, if we don't help to make the linkages connecting our role here?

I respond because it is important to make the starvation of so many visible. The larger populations per family has to do with their death rate and who are we here on our computers, in our comfort zone to judge.

Secondly, we will not ever protect the enviornment unitil we learn to protect people first.

It is distrssing to know so many are dying of starvation in Somalia and that there are so many in dire need throughout the world.

If only we, as a whole humanity could wake up.

http://www.miacat.com/

A couple of years ago I attended a local presentation by a group from our Corporate Affairs Department concerning incorporated associations. One of the presenters told us that there were about seventy different associations in Victoria who all had members from an African country which is presently in the grip of famine. He said that they all tribal and hate one another.

Until these people learn to live peaceably in their own country, how can we even start to give them any effective aid, when there is no effective governance and what there is, is largely corrupt.

Miacat, it is all very well having the sentiments that you do, but as stated by Jayb, if you don't let nature take its course, next time around, there will be even greater travail. These countries have to get their own acts together and commit to more effective use of any aid which they receive.

David

Lena,
The only problem there is re poverty is overpopulation yet so many are against doing anything about population control. Everyone is appalled at the poverty & starving but bring up the subject of population control & suddenly all concern about starving goes out the window.
We need to ask one single question. Do we really want to stop starvation or don't we ?

Miacat says:

<< Never however will I be a by-stander to the events that are currently before us. To turn your back on the people of Somalia, Haiti, Pakistan. The Congo, Afghanistan, Europe and the Middle East only adds more burden to the problems we already have.

<< I respond because it is important to make the starvation of so many visible. The larger populations per family has to do with their death rate and who are we here on our computers, in our comfort zone to judge>>

I cited this before, but it also holds some pertinence to this thread, and the sentiments expressed above—and (as you can see from the reaction of the refugee advocate in the piece ) it is something that is not often heard:

“Frances approached a refugee advocate to discuss her alarm over population growth in Pakistan, where in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake she'd witnessed something that disturbs her still. She'd helped a woman give birth to her 17th child by a husband with several other wives. But there was no more room in the tent. So the mother married off a 15 year-old daughter to accommodate the infant. A week later, Frances saw the new bride. 'It was the sight of a girl who had been raped. I've been haunted by the look of this girl, her bloodshot eyes, ever since.' When Frances raised her sense of helplessness with the refugee advocate, he put his hands over his ears.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/rocking-the-boat/story-e6frg8h6-1226088726434

The Horn of Africa has been a charnel house for decades.

I have heard the mantra of the activist “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, show him how to fish and he will feed himself for life”

Question – how many generations of fishermen do we have to train before they “get it”?

We have activists like WWF and Greenpeace ailing that the west is responsible for the rape of Africa

We have seen “democracy” and “independence” handed back to “Africa”

And now, a few more generations on, we are still training fishermen.

Why, in the half a century since the independence of the majority of African states are they not training their own fishermen?

When are the supporters of Greenpeace, WWF and all the other ram-shackle, economic cretins of activism going to get it

The West supports Africa as philanthropy, Africa, instead of rising to the challenges offered by independence has turned itself into a continent of cargo cults.

I will observe two similarities between the global poverty (especially as it appears in the Horn of Africa) and Anthropogenic Global Warming:

They are both big Cons on the pockets of private citizens of the west

They are both promoted by watermelon activists who demand to exercise dominion over the privately owned resources and choices of other people.

Self perpetuating Poverty in Africa; save the world from Global Warming –

Think of me as an “activist” for independence from the aspirations of Watermelon activists


PEST – “Most of whom hate volunteers;”

I hate no one

I simply resent ignorant twits with an inflated sense of self-righteousness often garnered from having managed to avoid doing a real job, who think they are entitled to criticize the views of those who do have real jobs and hold alternative opinions to those of PESTs.

I also understand DDT is a most useful resource – good for killing off malaria mosquitoes which breed in African swamps and other assorted PESTs

he put his hands over his ears.”
SPQR,
In Australia you get a promotion for that.

Col Rouge said:
"We have activists like WWF and Greenpeace ailing that the west is responsible for the rape of Africa"

If they are saying that then that is quite interesting since the rather secretive WWF, has taken millions of dollars in corporate donations from the likes of Alcoa, Citigroup, the Bank of America, Kodak, J.P. Morgan, the Bank of Tokyo, Philip Morris, Waste Management and DuPont to name a few.

The problem with ignoring the plight of those starving, needing the stability is that the militant Islam group Al-Shabab, or of their ilk will continue to dominate with their cruelty, corruption and tribal based violence in Africa. It is also why previous attempts have failed, where we [a world] turned our backs favoring our failed justifications for complacency.... lost.

World peace is about universal values and numbers. It is also about power. If we as global citizens feel "powerless" then we also give in to unjustifiable out right corruption of power and violence.

I hope we keep the eye on the ball. Over population is a spare argument and has no context in the reality of proper [development economic] analysis. Worse is us pointing the finger here at over there ... prattling on any notion that their death is something... "natural".... given the term of sustainability. Rather, the degree is a matter of markets, the work required to be inclusive as well as politics.

Human Ecology is about the world we are making and what this means in the future. Our comments in the West reflect starkly, as a developed world, our level of humanity and where we as a population opportune... are at.

http://www.miacat.com/

*Question – how many generations of fishermen do we have to train before they “get it”?*

They don't need to train em, Col. I once followed an interesting
discussion between an Eritrean and an Ethiopian. The Eritirean
pointed out that the Ethiopians had it down to a fine art. Dangle
a starving baby in front of Western TV cameras and hey presto,
over the horizon come boatloads of food!

Miacat says:

<< The problem with ignoring the plight of those starving, needing the stability is that the militant Islam group Al-Shabab, or of their ilk will continue to dominate with their cruelty, corruption and tribal based violence in Africa. It is also why previous attempts have failed, where we [a world] turned our backs favoring our failed justifications for complacency.... lost.>>

Quite apart from any discussion about what should be done .The proposition that us providing aid will stop “Al-Shabab, or their ilk” from dominating is a nonsense.NO amount of aid will remove “AL-Shabab or their Ilk” from power. How much more supportive can we be than taking these people in and making them citizens, as we have ( all too often) done.Yet even when we do this, many –secure with their new found Western meal tickets – have returned to fight for Al-Shabab.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/somalia-jihad-drive-probed/story-e6frg6of-1111115033793
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2009/1230/A-US-pipeline-for-jihad-in-Somalia

<<Over population is a spare argument and has no context in the reality of proper [development economic] analysis>>
Over population is central to the problem. And unless over population issues are addressed, no amount of aid will solve the horns problems

An article on SBS gives some light on the background to the 'causes of the Somalia famine'.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1573479/Q&A:-The-causes-of-the-Somalia-famine

Also the news coverage page on SBS

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/specialcoverage/331/Africa-Famine

The word "lost" refers to us all with reference to our role in what we each do with our part in market capitalism. There are no surprises about this famine in Somalia, nor the conditions throughout Africa and other regions, where multi-nationals be they Western or from China demand entry to Africa's resources without giving much back. Wherever there is "poverty" - a lack of market distribution and diversity in trade there are high rates of crime, corruption and a dire imbalance of power.

The over population is out of context less we look at ourselves as well throughout the world. The footprint of these people is less then ours. Their needs are presently village based and basic compared to ours. With health, education and a proper government, there would be more opportunity for these families. As the article on SBS says.... "The biggest cause of the Somalia famine is the failure of the state to protect its citizens. Twenty years ago we saw a famine unfold and we saw a failure of the international community to intervene effectively to protect these vulnerable people who didn't have a government to look after them.

There are also foreign economic interests in Somalia. Take a look at the US and China for example.... The story is complex. It has as much to do with failed states as world markets. Given we are the consumers, it involves us too.

Hence at the very least now;

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1569337/East-Africa:-How-you-can-help

East Africa: How you can help

http://www.miacat.com/

@ Miacat,
<< The over population is out of context less we look at ourselves as well throughout the world. The footprint of these people is less then ours.>>

The comparative footprint argument is a RED herring, its subtext: if only the resources of the world were shared there would be no more need & hunger.There are two things wrong with this;
1) It would suffice just so long as it took for the population to double or quadruple,then, there would be need for a further redistribution,and so on and so on, and
2) You would need an Al-Shabab to administer such an arrangement.

Here’s a reality check:
“The population of Somalia in 2003 was estimated by the United Nations at 9,890,000… 44% of the population under 15 years of age… According to the UN, the annual population growth rate for 2000–2005 is 4.17%, with the projected population for the year 2015 at 15,263,000.”
Population - Somalia - growth, annual http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Somalia-POPULATION.html#ixzz1Tcu1hmkX

<< . As the article on SBS says.... "The biggest cause of the Somalia famine is the failure of the state to protect its citizens. Twenty years ago we saw a famine unfold and we saw a failure of the international community to intervene effectively to protect these vulnerable people who didn't have a government to look after them.>>

Any international intervention of the type Miacat is hinting at would involve ground troops , à la the current African Union intervention but on a much, much bigger scale ( think of Afghanistan & the Taliban). And if such intervention occurred, after a couple of years of mayhem, it would give Miacat and his ilk further reason to blame the West for the plight of the Somalis

More information: 7 Billion and Counting," David E. Bloom, Science, July 29, 2011”. The demographic picture is indeed complex, and poses some formidable challenges, which are not insurmountable.

We have to tackle some tough issues ranging from the unmet need for contraception among hundreds of millions of women and the huge knowledge-action gaps we see in the area of child survival, to the reform of retirement policy and the development of global immigration policy.

It's just plain irresponsible to sit by idly while humankind experiences full force the perils of demographic change. However for those with children remember this the infant mortality rate in Somalia is 225 per 1,000 live births compared to 4 per 1,000 in Australia.

The Cold War so profitably outsourced to the Horn of Africa and created these challenges and a catastrophe with climate change in Somalia.Somalia has no arms factory but is awash with weapons from the merchants of death in the rich countries including Saudi Arabian financiars, nearly all of whom violate the 20 year UN arms embargo.
The greed, moral bankruptcy and gravy trains of the worlds rich continue.

If only evolution had mankind had the sense to match its wit.

PEST. Once again, let me tell you, loud and clear, "The situation has nothing to do with climate change", it is a result of weather and overpopulation.

David

Does it VK3AUU
In a New Scientist  article it statedd that by 2040 the melting Greenland glaciers would increase sea levels by 5 metres. The amount of world food production lost by that 5 m flooding would kill a billion people or so. That 5 metre figure is under peer review  but even if it was only 2 m it would be a catastrophe in Australia.  and wipe out billions of people in coastal cities. Another New Scientist  article shows severe climate change in latitudinal region that Somalia is in.

 Also september 29th, 2010 in Space & Earth / Earth Sciences  Enlarge  An Antarctic iceberg. Scientists estimate West Antarctica is losing between 60 and 150 billion tons of ice per year. Ice currently covers more than 10 percent of our watery planet, yet its volume is continuing to decline at a staggering pace in response to our warming world. A new NASA interactive tool lets you take a close-up tour of some of the places around our planet where climate change is taking a toll on Earth?s ice cover, including:
 
?Greenland, where the massive Ilulissat Glacier is depositing 35 to 50 cubic kilometers of icebergs into the ocean each year, raising sea level (a cubic kilometer is about  264.2 billion gallons, enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-size pools) 

? The Arctic, where sea ice continues to decline in both area and volume.  ? Antarctica, where massive ice shelves the size of some small U.S. states have collapsed in recent years  Experience the Global Ice,  Provided by JPL/NASA    "Sentinels of climate change ." September 29th, 2010. www.physorg.com/news204969981.html 

PEST, I am not a climate change denier. I have been watching the results of AGW for quite a long time, particularly the melting of the glaciers and the ice caps as you so rightly point out. However, up till now, the effects of all this on the weather has been minimal. We had a very hot dry summer a couple of years ago in Victoria, followed last year by an exceptionally wet one, but these are weather events, not a result of climate change. The weather in southern Victoria this winter is about the same as we used to experience for about a decade back in the eighties. Climate change is up till now a very slow process, we may not see any tangible results for a few more decades, unless we live in low lying coastal areas.

You should go back to the first post on this subject written by Cheryl. I don't always agree with her, but in this instance I think she is right on the money.

David

VK3AUU - I'm not a climate change denier either but I am sceptical of the idea of anthropogenic CO2 being mostly responsible for the observed trend in warming. You seem to be more convinced of AGW than me but thank you for providing a very, very, very rational view of the difference between weather effects, climate and long term changes to the physical attributes of the planet. This stands in stark contrast to PEST’s hysteria.

I also agree with Cheryl's brief but eloquent first comment. It’s almost as if the author threw in the climate change angle for good measure but I think it acts as a distraction. Or, she wants to make “the west” feel guilty because AGW has caused this famine and milk this guilt for support, monetary or otherwise. I sadly suspect the latter is true – this does not make Lena a bad person (I think she genuinely wants to help) and often the results can justify the tactics but I just really resent being lied to.

There are many elements at play in the current situation in the Horn of Africa. I think the author touched on an interesting concept targeting the women in the community – there has apparently been some amazing success with the use of micro-loans in poor communities in developing countries, especially by giving women opportunities to break the poverty cycle and become more independent. But I think Somalia is such a basket-case that these ideas have little chance of success there at the moment.

So what’s the solution? There are a few options:

- We do nothing. Millions starve and we just turn the TV off for a couple of weeks.
- We provide food and medical aid to cope with the current emergency.
- We raise an army and invade Somalia to break the strangle-hold of the war-lords.

Human nature will not allow the first. The second will obviously be enacted and nobody has enough money left over for the third (besides, there has been a couple of fairly unsuccessful, unpopular and expensive examples of this lately).

Thank You Pest. Your summary is so articulate I repeat it.

"We have to tackle some tough issues ranging from the unmet need for contraception among hundreds of millions of women and the huge knowledge-action gaps we see in the area of child survival, to the reform of retirement policy and the development of global immigration policy.

It's just plain irresponsible to sit by idly while humankind experiences full force the perils of demographic change. However for those with children remember this the infant mortality rate in Somalia is 225 per 1,000 live births compared to 4 per 1,000 in Australia.

The Cold War so profitably outsourced to the Horn of Africa and created these challenges and a catastrophe with climate change in Somalia.Somalia has no arms factory but is awash with weapons from the merchants of death in the rich countries including Saudi Arabian financiars, nearly all of whom violate the 20 year UN arms embargo.

The greed, moral bankruptcy and gravy trains of the worlds rich continue. [underlined]

If only evolution had mankind had the sense to match its wit."

http://www.miacat.com/

Ahem... PEST's post which was repeated and heartily praised for its eloquence by Miacat is simply the cut and pasted words of another. So PEST has cut and paste someone else and Miacat has cut and pasted PEST.

So much for independent thinking.

The first paragraph appears word for word here and in other places on the net.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-27/us/world.population.growth_1_global-population-perils-demographic-challenges?_s=PM:US

Its very difficult to argue a point with someone who is not the actual author of their own post.

I must say I'm heartened by the response to this piece of self-serving tripe.

First the author tries to claim that famine in somalia is a problem caused by AGW, then she seems to feel that it's actually due to there not being enough women farmers, or it might be that it's because of the West's insistence on doing business, but whatever it is, we should be Very Concerned. After all, Lena is and she should know, she makes a living out of it.

Riight.

If Somali mothers were genuinely concerned for the fate of their children they'd do their best to leave Somalia. Looking down the street near my home in Moorooka it appears that many have done exactly that. Somalia is a basket case and it will continue to be one for decades, partly because people like Lena keep insisting on spending more money on the place; money which is snapped up by people who eat people like Lena for breakfast and used to buy more power at the point of a gun.