...Well the problem of discussion on the topic exposes itself to possible feelings of guilt. I don’t think one needs to apologise for offering an opinion if indeed, to some, the opinion may sound heartless. What I intended to encourage with this topic was an opportunity outside of any need for PC., to offer a view on a very old and troublesome subject of African starvation. A never ending vista of starving African women and children, which has spanned endless years, presenting itself through our media, is difficult to swallow. Is there no end to the repetition of horror from starvation in Africa? I am there too. I am over it!

...What seems inexcusable is the lack of progress in alleviating the continuum. The consensus here is towards lack of birth control as the major cause; but is it that simple? As was aptly pointed out, before Bob Geldorfs intervention twenty seven years ago, the population was half todays count; but even at that level, starvation was the norm. So is the problem really like overstocking the paddock with cattle? I think the worst drought in sixty years is a factor; but only another factor of three major factors: They are (as stated) the prolonged drought; a civil war that has raged in the country for twenty years, contributing twenty years of political instability and offering a lack of opportunity for normal organised Government interventions into population control and other factors of women and childrens health issues: And thirdly, the nomadic lifestyles of the predominantly rural economy attaching security of survival to the welfare of animal herds.

...Before constructive discussion can continue on remedial action towards a solution to African starvation, the causes of this must be acknowledged as being more universal than overpopulation. There are a raft of countries on the globe with much higher density populations than Ethiopia not exhibiting starvation as a consequence.

I've often wondered how long the starvation problem in Africa is going to go on. Back in the 60's, somebody within our school organisation had the brilliant idea that the starving Africans (can't remember which lot) needed lots of milk for their starving babies so every day we had to bring in a few cent which was collectively added to a money pile and each week the organiser bought up as many cans of powdered milk as the money allowed.

This went on all year until at last, the storage room was chock-a-block with cans of powdered milk. If a bomb had of gone off in there, the result would have smothered half of Victoria. Eventually, the cans of milk were sent to the wharves and loaded onto a ship which sailed for Africa.

The months went by as we eagerly awaited news and a pat on the back for our efforts, but when it finally came the result wasn't an inspiration for me to continue my "humanitarian" ways. Apparently there had been some dispute resulting in the milk not being unloaded, so the ship put out to sea and dumped the entire consignment into the ocean.

So Aime,

…Obviously, the outcome of your efforts at school were disappointing . But in todays light for example, are you willing to offer any comment on the way we in the West should respond to the current (but not new) food crisis in Ethiopia and Somalia.

Diver Dan,

You are assuming that the drought and the "failed state" problem are the primary causes of the misery in the Horn of Africa, but overpopulation leads to food shortages leads to failed states. Lester Brown discusses this in his May 2009 article in Scientific American. That is behind a pay wall, but here are some excerpts

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2009/05/01/204017/lester-brown-scientific-american-food-shortages-there-is-no-bo/

Droughts are hardly unknown in Somalia and Ethiopia. The way that Malthusian collapses work is that people scrape by for quite a while as the population grows, but living standards decline, the carrying capacity is reduced by overgrazing and other assaults on the environment as people try to maintain living standards or just survive, and safety margins get thinner and thinner. Then something really bad happens, and the whole thing collapses. People (mostly) didn't die in the Irish Potato Famine because the potatoes were wiped out by a crop disease. Peasant farmers frequently have to cope with crop failures. Those Irish famine victims starved because a great many people were living on plots of land that were too small to feed a family on anything but potatoes.

Population density means little without considering the quality of the land, the availability and reliability of fresh water, and whether people have alternative means of making a living, such as trading industrial goods for food.

Sometimes a country can be scared straight after a collapse. According to a series of articles in the Guardian and more recently an article in Nature, the current government in Rwanda has been struggling valiantly to raise the status of women, find alternatives to subsistence farming, and make contraceptives available to the whole population, including long-term injectable contraceptives that women can access in secret.

DD, the problem with Western food aid is that in the end it can become
a way for those in the third world, to make their living.

I once watched a documentary from Chad, where the bloke had two wives
with 11 kids between them. He felt entitled to food aid, as there
was a drought and his kids were hungry. No doubt it was provided.

The thing is, I could not afford to feed two wives and 11 children
either. I have to plan for drought, its part of living off the land
and a quite natural occurance.

So I guess there is a philosophical question here. In nature, every
creature needs to make a living somehow and its up to the parents
to feed their offspring. Are you suggesting that Africans should
create unlimited offspring and that we will feed them all, when
they run into trouble doing what they should be doing?

We limit our children to what we can afford. My point is that
Africans should be given the same option, ie family planning, but
if they create unlimited children, its not my job to feed them all.
Otherwise next time, there will just be even more to feed, as their
environment becomes even more unsustainable for the ever growing
population

"So Aime,
are you willing to offer any comment on the way we in the West should respond to the current (but not new) food crisis in Ethiopia and Somalia."

Well, I'm not much good at this type of thing but I'll give it a shot.....

Many minds far greater than mine have tried to find an answer to this one and failed miserably. I'm afraid I can do no better! The problems facing those people are long and varied. Perhaps there are no answer but only endless questions such as........

Why do these people continue to have so many children? Surely they must concede that there will never be enough food to support their ever expanding families?

Why do they have so many children in good times only to see them die in bad times? That happens in the animal kingdom, yet these people are human beings and not animals, so why do they tend to follow the animal code of life?

Is it a cultural or religious issue?

Would they continue to have more children than they can comfortably afford to feed if the women had access to family planning including contraceptives?

Would they be better off if valuable resources were discovered on their soil?

The point of my last question is that unless somebody from an advanced culture sees that land as being valuable, then it's highly unlikely that anybody or Nation will intervene to get rid of the warlords that ruin that part of Africa. Also, to bring everyone in those Nations up to a level of well-being that we take for granted would mean that there would not be enough resources left for the wealthy to enjoy and we can't have that now can we?

Perhaps there's enough food and resources to feed the entire world equally, but who's going to convince the rich, big business and Governments that they'll have to vastly reduce their standard of living so that poor Africans can obtain quality of life?