29,000 children have died in the past ninety days in Somalia.
That means: imagine the number of people at an average Major League Baseball game, except every one of them is a child dead of famine.
3.7 million people are currently in crisis in Somalia thanks to the famine, and 3.2 million of them are in need of immediate assistance. The World Health Organization is warning of a cholera epidemic.
I’d like to ask NSWATM readers, being the awesome generous people you are, to consider giving some money. The Huffington Post has a list of ways you can give. As little as seven dollars– the price of a coffee and a cookie at Starbucks– can save a malnourished child’s life. Even if you can’t donate, please promote this anywhere you can– Facebook, Twitter, your personal blog.
I know our readers disagree on a lot of things, but “keeping children from starving” shouldn’t be one of them.
Now back to your regularly scheduled masculism.
ETA: In the comments section, Fnord offers up some concerns about the effectiveness of aid to Somalia at this point (Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant organization, has blocked some aid to famine-stricken areas). GiveWell, an independent charity evaluator website that I highly recommend, will be making a stronger recommendation about where to give within a few days; they’ve provisionally suggested Doctors Without Borders as an excellent place to donate. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give money to Somalia– but you should give wisely.
I’m.. amazed and disgusted.
EE: as I understand it, then, your retort to me is “I’m not being racist, I’m just extraordinarily ignorant about the issues I’m talking about”. I’m not sure I’d be so proud to proclaim that myself. Do yourself a favour and look up a few figures, please. Populations are not quadrupling every ten years; not globally, not locally; you’re way, way off. Google is your friend. Educate yourself. Jim: actually, 2.2% population growth is fairly high compared to global figures. Although AIUI it’s fairly typical for Africa. Nonetheless, I agree largely with your argument: the people of Somalia will be… Read more »
Now that is something I can hear hear, SpudTater. Soamlia in particular has a relatively low birthrate because after all, people there know it’s a desert, have known for a long time it’s a desert, and have a hardwon sense of the limits that imposes, and their family sizes reflect that and probably always have. I don’t if it’s happening in this conversation if we are failing to distinguish between short-time disaster aid and longer-term foreign aid eforts. They are fundamentlaly different. “Well, yes, but we’re already at the point where we can’t realistically have less children. We ought to… Read more »
After speaking with a few moderators here at NSWATM, I think I feel comfortable enough responding to some of the above comments. But first: One of my biggest pet peeves in online conversations is a common assumption of bad faith. Mythago I understand you come from a background of social justice – one of the most important and difficult duties that people who are invested in social justice must carry is to point out and identify racism, sexism and other -ism-based injustices. And as uncomfortable as that may be for the subject of condemnation (such as me in your previous… Read more »
EE: yes, I am telling you that your maths is based on racism. I am not setting out to offend you here, but neither do I feel any need to spare your feelings. We’re all adults here. The figure of 2.2% population growth is easily looked up, but it says a lot about your unconscious assumptions that you went with a “population explosion” model instead — assuming a 100% marriage rate with multiple offspring in all cases. I doubt you would have made the same assumptions about population growth in the US or Europe. Note that I am not calling… Read more »
Actually we can disagree on this, quite aside from Malthusian concerns about our spiralling population growth (7bn world population this year! http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/08/world-population-to-surpass-7-billion-in-2011/ ) and the concerns of misuse of donations – well said Fnord. What about all the people starving, dying of disease, war, corrupt regimes else where in the world? We’re not posting links about the plight of the homosexual in Uganda – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill Seriously, if I want to read charity drives i’ll find ads for it elsewhere and i’m less concerned by the starvation in Somalia than the living conditions of the Palestinian people, or the theocratic tyranny… Read more »
Most developing countries are small though and the very large ones don’t have a very high population growth rate. US has a population growth of .09% in 2009 and a population of 307,000,000. China which is the largest developing country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country) have a population growth of 0.5%, India which is the second largest has a growth of 1.3%. Together they are about 2,486,000,000 eople and have an average growth of slightly less that US 0.9%. Other large developing countries are: Mexico: 1%, Brazil: 0.9%, Russia: -0.1%. Africa with a total population of about 922,000,000 seems to be around 2.3 in… Read more »
I realize that the US does have population growth, but it’s tiny compared to most developing countries.
BlackHumor: Yet the population of the US (which is a has a fertility rate at 2.1 which is considered the replacement rate in developed countries) is projected to grow at least until 2030 (lowest projection) or indefinitively (middle projection). Immigration and increasing life expectancy are factors contributing to this. Even Japan has had an population growth in 2009. In fact US seems to be considered an anomoly when it comes to the demographic-economic paradox and possible causes given are that the US is more religious (developed countries with lower fertility rate are more secularized) and that the US has a… Read more »
Well, yes, but we’re already at the point where we can’t realistically have less children. We ought to use less per person but it’s not reasonable to think we can make less people.
BlackHumor: I know, but the developed world also uses far more than its fair share of resources. An extra American causes far more environmental damage than ten extra Somalis.
Hmm, somehow my link broke.
This should be potholed under “yes it is”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate
I do think the world would be a better place if people, in general, had fewer children, but that’s not limited to developing countries.
Eh, unfortunately, yes it is. Most developed countries have children at or below replacement rate.
@ozymandias42
AFAIK it is every persons right to chose what efforts are worth hir’s effort.
Some people think their immediate neighbours are more worthy of their effort than starving people half a glove away.
Mythago: Shit, you’re right, sorry. Blame the white privilege. 🙂
I do think the world would be a better place if people, in general, had fewer children, but that’s not limited to developing countries.
@EasilyEnthused, I think that once you start comparing starving kids in Somalia to stray cats and suggesting a similar ‘I’d pay to spay ’em but not feed ’em’ mentality apply, then, um, I don’t think it’s your math that’s the real problem here. P.S., it somewhat dilutes the impact of a dramatic exit to pop back in periodically; I wish more people on the Internet understood that. @Ozy: um, speaking of unconscious racism? I think what you meant is that ‘people in developing countries should have better ability to plan their families and to provide well for the children they… Read more »
“No colonialism, Somalia would have been stable for a LONG time. And if it was stable, this famine would have been much easier to solve, if it had happened at all. You don’t get famines in stable countries, because any competent government tries to prevent them.” Somalia had been stablr for a decently long time before colonialism – several centuries at least since the Somali colonization/settlement process. There probably had been famines before, even in tis stable condition, but they were localized. it is not as if people could just freely move into new areas – already taken – or… Read more »
Besides easilyenthused’s objections, there are some real concerns about the effectiveness of aid to Somalia at this point, courtesy of GiveWell, though less so than many other disaster situations. In particular, Al-Shabaab controls many of the famine-stricken areas, and has sometimes blocked aid from entering the region (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/201172291538656428.html, http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/07/22/general-af-east-africa-famine_8579261.html).
I urge anyone to watch blog.givewell.org for any updates about effective aid to the region, or consult givewell.org for cost-effective ways to save lives outside unstable regions.
BlackHumor:If I may use this as an open thread for a minute:
Gloria Steinem came on the Colbert Report recently. How does this relate to masculism? 2:00 through about 3:15. (or, I suppose, you can read Feministing’s commentary, but that’s spoilers.)
(Not to sound mean but I’ve been working on that and feminists have been my biggest roadblock. I wish her luck though.)
Stepping in here only to defend my math: I went by the story Ozy linked to that talked about a “family of six” so I assumed two parents and 4 children. That meant to me that if I fed 10 children to the age of reproduction that they could be expected to establish their own family – creating four children. Therefore, for every child I paid for to reach adulthood – I should expect four new children who need to be fed. That’s all. But thank you so very much for jumping to the conclusion that my math was based… Read more »
Err… what the fuck, people. Am I detecting just a little bit of a racist stereotype here? I mean, I know Somalia has a relatively high population growth (2.2%), but EE’s guess of “40 people starving to death in 10 years”, in lieu of 10 today, is way out. 10 * (1.022 ^ 10) = 12.4
In short, it’s not suffering from famine due to overpopulation; Somalia has a similar population density to Argentina. It’s suffering from famine due to severe drought. Which will hopefully pass soon, but in the meantime, we could do a bit to help.
Here’s the history of Somalia
No colonialism, Somalia would have been stable for a LONG time. And if it was stable, this famine would have been much easier to solve, if it had happened at all. You don’t get famines in stable countries, because any competent government tries to prevent them.
You’ll have to point out exactly how a bunch of Westerners putting up an artificial border and calling the area enclosed “Somalia” had any effect on this famine. I can at least see Jim’s logic WRT the lack of centralized government. If “Somalia” technically doesn’t exist except in the minds of the West as an apparently convenient way to refer to “disparate clans in this general area”. Calling or not calling that area Somalia isn’t going to effect it’s actual “government” in practice (as far as I can tell anyhow).
Unlike Ethiopia, there never really has been a nation of Somalia except as an artifact of European colonialism.
YES EXACTLY.
“The way the Berlin Conference relates to Somalia in particular, is that there is no nation Somalia that can easily be governed. ” I don’t see how that situation derives from a conference in Europe. Lack of centralized government is natural in desert areas. Centralized government is not some naturally occuring norm, and it certaily does not arise spontaneously in a dry and thinly settled area like Somalia where the the natural social and governmental unit is the clan. Unlike Ethiopia, there never really has been a nation of Somalia except as an artifact of European colonialism. One might arise… Read more »