Yet again ... yet again ... In a distant place, far far away from America's homes and minds, people are starving, en masse, due to drought, conflict, government collapse amid indifference.
These 'others' are starving out-of-sight and certainly out-of-mind of most Americans as we focus on the political soap operas and, more typically, soap operas like Glee.
The 'nation' and people on the tip of the Horn of Africa, Somalia and Somalis seem to emerge from the shadows into America's and Americans' mindset fleetingly only through disaster ... and fleetingly only if the stars align to bring attention to the issue.
What we are seeing, today, is a shadow of Somalia's past (the devastation following its collapse following the end of the Cold War) and a foreshadowing of its future (Climate Disrupted Failed State).
The question to ask:
How do we learn from the lessons of past failures (and successes) to deal with today's serious challenges to help foster a more resilient future?
With the Soviet Union's internal pull leading to its collapse, U.S. interest in supporting regimes simply for their value in countering Soviet 'client states' waned. Somalia was a key example. Always viewed with distaste, Somali dictator Barre (nicknamed the 'earth scorcher' by rebels fighting his regime) faced a growing set of military opponents in 1990 without an ability to rely on foreign support to assure his continued rule. Rather than intervene to keep him in power, a daring U.S. military mission in January, right before Operation Desert Storm evacuated the US embassy and many other foreigners as the capital, Mogadishu, erupted in conflict. In fact, as a sign of the end of the Cold War, this non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO), code-named Eastern Exit, was the only U.S. NEO to evacuate a Soviet embassy. Not surprisingly, with the images of missiles and bombs hitting Baghdad, Somalia's collapse into disorder had little impact on the developed world's attention.
Somalia, across so many domains, was a poster child for the emerging post-Cold War challenge: the failed state.
And, in the year that came, that collapse into a failed state coalesced with serious drought conditions to create a serious famine situation threatening millions. And, that famine created an opportunity for power. 'Good-doers' just want to help people and, well, they're ready to 'pay the price' to assure that people get fed. And, well, there were plenty of various fighters and tribal elements and criminals ready to get their piece of the action from the international aid community: pay us for security and your food aid gets through.
However, they were greedy ... far too greedy ... and the aid couldn't get through ... and the photos of starving children made it onto TV screens around the world.
And, well, people watched them ... including people in power. The United Nations, with U.S. aid, set up a mission in Somalia in summer 1992. And, well, it had close to zero impact. The United States executed Operation Provide Relief: an airlift of food. Guess what, airlifting food to feed 100,000s (or millions) isn't easy, isn't very cost-efficient, and, well, is horribly inefficient in energy use.
Thus, in the waning days, Operation Restore Hope was born with a promise that it was 'just' a humanitarian operation: protect the food and once people were fed, time to leave.
This, of course, ignored a simple reality ... in Somalia and elsewhere ... functioning societies don't have serious famines and disfunctional societies can't meet their population's basic requirements when faced with stresses like droughts or natural disasters. Without the conflict, the international aid community would have been able to function. Without solving the conflict, the military force couldn't leave with any confidence that the aid workers wouldn't be held up at gunpoint the next day creating renewed demands for a military presence.
Thus, Americans learned to hate (and misunderstand) the term "mission creep (pdf)" as Restore Hope (and inadequate civilian infrastructure) bungled its way from 'just protecting supplies' to working to foster a working society in Somalia. We (as a nation, as an international community) hadn't thought through the implications of intervention and what it would take to foster a society such that intervention wouldn't be required again. Thus, haltering, faltering, extremely, and ultimately failed efforts to 'plant the seeds of Jeffersonian Democracy in the fertile soil of Mogadishu'.
America's willingness to continue this died with Blackhawk Down as President Clinton made the decision to walk away from Somalia and Somalis. (Note: in the immediate aftermath of that battle, polling showed the American public actually wanted 'revenge' and to 'finish the job' -- seeing this as a motivator rather than reason to 'run away'.) Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, involved in supporting attacks on Americans in Somalia in 1993, took the lesson that Americans will run away in the face of bloodshed as Afghanistan is far from the only 'failed state' where Al Qaeda found ways to thrive.
While it took several more years, in Operation United Shield in 1995, for the last international forces to lock the doors and turn off the lights on large-scale international involvement in Somalia, Americans had zero interest in being there as Somalia became the poster child of why not to intervene in poor 'Black' societies (fostering, in part, an inadequate response to Rwanda's tragedy several years later.)
And, in the 15+ years since then, Somalia has been out-of-sight and out-of-mind for most 'ordinary' Americans. Sure, there is that piracy which got a flurry of attention but, well, didn't really register with most people. The fact that the United States has undertaken military operations against Al Qaeda associated elements -- including, sadly, fostering the conditions that enable them to gain more power -- isn't something that most Americans noticed.
And, well, now we have a situation that is a mirror of the past: a serious drought (worst drought of the past 60 years) hitting a failed state where the'powers that be' aren't interested in letting the international community provide aid to keep people from starving.
The Shabab Islamist insurgent group, which controls much of southern Somalia, is blocking starving people from fleeing the country and setting up a cantonment camp where it is imprisoning displaced people who were trying to escape Shabab territory.
The group is widely blamed for causing a famine in Somalia by forcing out many Western aid organizations, depriving drought victims of desperately needed food. The situation is growing bleaker by the day, with tens of thousands of Somalis already dead and more than 500,000 children on the brink of starvation.
Much of the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, has been struck this summer by one of the worst droughts in 60 years. But two Shabab-controlled parts of southern Somalia are the only areas where the United Nations has declared a famine, using scientific criteria of death and malnutrition rates.
This is, of course, an example of how mirror images aren't perfect. Twenty years ago, the challenge was different on multiple levels. In no small part because we perceived the Somali 'factions' as little more than criminals essentially delinked to any threat to Americans and American interests outside Somalia. Giving them money was disasteful but, even if disasteful, perhaps a necessary 'cost of doing business' to save people's lives. The Shabab have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and, in many ways, make the Taliban regime look to be a model of moderate religious tolerance.
The challenge we, as an international community face, in the near term: how to deal with the fact that the 'gangs' are avowed enemies of our very way of life? Do we pay them off to get access to reduce the starving and potentially help fund those who are sworn to harm us? Or, as the rules are driving now, do we ban any work with this group that has swore allegiance to Al Qaeda knowing that innocents will die? In my opinion, this shouldn't be considered an easy question -- no matter which is the path that you consider appropriate.
Another significant difference is, of course, that USA Today isn't publishing an OPED to "Send the Marines to Save Somalia" (a piece that appeared in September 1992) and there aren't senior members of the US military arguing for a major intervention as was the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in summer 1992. In light of Iraq and Afghanistan and our budget battles, there is zero appetite to send in the U.S. military to 'save the day' in part because -- unlike the bucolic early 1990s -- there isn't the spare military capability to send into a failed state to stabilize it to save 100,000s of lives.
And, another difference is that this is an even more serious drought situation than 20 years ago ... one that exists within the context of worsening climate disruption. This region's situation has gotten worse and every climate model shows it worsening even more into the future.
If we consider these three items as a shadow (or mirror) image of the past, consider the foreshadowing for the future: Climate Disrupted Failed States with the world community increasingly unwilling (and, well, unable) to intervene to confront armed factions worsening the situation.
Recognizing the shadows of the past and the future, our question amid desire to relieve (very) real suffering should be:
How do we conduct relief operations to help foster social networks / society in the face of future hard times to come?
How do we, amid the urgent necessity to get food to starving babies, work to set the foundations for a more stable society?
How do we, as relief workers struggle to provide emergency medical care to severely malnourished people, help these communities act to mitigate climate change and -- more importantly -- adapt to what will be worsened conditions tomorrow?
How do we, amid the very serious and painful and morally terrifying challenges of keeping people from dying, help create something that will reduce the need to face these challenges tomorrow?
East Africa Food Crisis: 48 Hours of Action
This weekend, Daily Kos is participating in 48-Hour Fundraiser hosted by environmental websites and nonprofit organizations to benefit the 12 million people struggling for survival in the East African countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Last week, the United Nations announced famine -- already declared in two districts -- is likely to spread throughout southern Somalia. This week, the UN issued a warning that food insecurity in northern Uganda is sufficiently alarming to raise the possibility that the country might become the fifth nation impacted by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in sixty years.
Also participating in this weekend of action are 350.org, Oxfam International, WiserEarth, tcktcktck, DeSmogBlog, MIT Climate CoLab, BPI Campus, Climate Change: The Next Generation, RedGreenAndBlue.org, Cool HIVE, MedicMobile, and The Enough Project.
Over the course of the weekend, experts in the field of humanitarian assistance will join environmental writers to outline the history of the region and detail how geopolitics, colonialism, ongoing civil wars, climate change and geographic vulnerabilities have combined to create the perfect storm now ravaging East Africa.
Each participating organization is choosing its particular group for donated funds. Daily Kos is donating all monies raised to directly support the work of Oxfam in the Horn of Africa. Please add $.01 to your donation so it ends up being $5.01, $20.01, $50.01, $100.01, and so on. This will enable Oxfam to keep track of all Daily Kos donations.
Click here to Go directly to Oxfam's donation page, which will enable us to keep track of how much money we raise.
Please read this if you live outside the United States - to make a donation, click this link and scroll down a bit to find your country. If not listed, please Google Oxfam in your country.
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Note: This essay / post is simply a discoursewithout any claim to expertise on today's very serious challenges. We must, however, recognize that today's challenges occur within a larger context and provide a window on future challenges -- even as we, out of basic humanity, seek to take measures to save people from starvation.
Participant Actions: (to be updated throughout the weekend)
Oxfam International: 48 Hours of Blogging For East Africa
TckTckTck joins activists and bloggers in weekend fundraiser for African food crisis
WiserEarth Supports #48forEastAfrica: A Weekend of Action
Sat. 6:30pm PST
Day One of 48forEastAfrica: Raising awareness, funds for Horn of Africa famine relief
CLICK THE BELOW LINK TO MAKE A DONATION
Donate now - Donate to Oxfam America
Remember to add $.01 to your donation so it ends up being $5.01, $20.01, $50.01, $100.01, and so on. This will enable Oxfam to keep track of all Daily Kos donations.
Please read this if you live outside the United States - to make a donation, http://www.oxfam.org/... class="donate-link" target="_blank">click this link and scroll down a bit to find your country. If not listed, please Google Oxfam in your country.
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8:08 PM PT (boatsie): AIROBI, KENYA - Al-Shabab Islamist rebels abruptly pulled out of Mogadishu, the bullet-ridden capital of Somalia, on Saturday, leaving the entire city in the hands of the government for the first time in years and raising hopes that aid groups could now deliver aid to more famine victims unfettered.
Witnesses described truckloads of heavily armed Al-Shabab fighters driving away under the cover of darkness and beleaguered residents pouring into the streets to cheer and jeer their departure.
"We have been dreaming of this day for the last three years," said Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Somalia's new Harvard-educated prime minister.
http://www.startribune.com/...