Main Entry: ap·a·thy
Pronunciation: 'a-p&-thE
1 : lack of feeling or emotion : IMPASSIVENESS
2 : lack of interest or concern : INDIFFERENCE

Why dont we see this on network news? Why didn't those live aid dicks at least charge $5 a ticket for these people? This world is one constant churning pile of misery, right? any thoughts? Whose is responsible? Have we talked about this before?



Niger famine crisis 'at 11th hour'

James Sturcke
Wednesday July 20, 2005


A child suffering from severe malnutrition is treated at the Médecins Sans Frontières centre in Maradi, Niger. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty


Western countries were today accused of failing to deliver on aid promises as famine in Niger put the lives of 2.5 million people, including 800,000 children, at risk.
Food supplies, already low after a drought and locust plague swept through the west African country last year, had reached critical level, aid agencies said. The world's second least developed country was suffering "an acute humanitarian crisis", the United Nations said.

Amid a surge in the number of children dying from malnutrition and people arriving at food centres, aid organisations warned there was a gulf between the pledges of political leaders and the amount of support arriving on the ground.

"We have been trying to raise the profile of a developing crisis in west Africa since last October," said Oxfam's regional humanitarian co-ordinator, Nick Ireland. "It's been clear since then that there would be a food shortage this summer but it has been painfully slow.
"We have been hearing promises from the G8 leaders at Gleneagles about making the fight against poverty more important and at the same time there is a famine across the Sahel. People are very slow to respond."

Mr Ireland said some aid was starting to arrive and Oxfam had had teams in the worst-hit areas since the end of June.

"In all frankness, the money should have been there four or five months ago to give aid agencies the chance to do this properly. We are really at the 11th hour."

The UN first appealed for assistance for Niger in November and got almost no response. Another appeal for $16m (£9.2m) in March got about $1m. The latest appeal on May 25 for $30m has received about $10m but "it's still too little", the UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said.

"We are having now an acute humanitarian crisis in Niger in which children are dying as we speak," he said. "We could have prevented this and the world community didn't."

He said there were no figures on the number of deaths in Niger, but he cited a report from one feeding centre where 14 of the 61 severely malnourished children that were being treated last week died.

"In nowhere in the world is the gap between our capacity to act and the number of lives at risk as great as Niger today," he said. "I hope that within weeks, we will have been able to close that gap."

Last year's invasion of desert locusts and lack of rainfall plunged nomadic herders and farming families in Niger, where life expectancy is 46 years, into crisis, along with neighbouring countries. Late last year Oxfam said there were signs of hardship and distress at what should have been the peak harvest period.

"In Niger, several years of economic hardship or decline have also lowered people's capacity to deal with such shocks," said Henri Josserand, the chief of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) global information and early warning system.

"People in affected areas are in critical need of seeds and enough food to carry them through until late October," he added, appealing for an urgent international response.

The FAO said severe child malnutrition was increasing rapidly and the number of children supported by feeding centres was rising. Out of 63 districts surveyed, 11 had some populations in an 'extremely critical' situation, and in 16 districts the situation was considered 'critical', according to national estimates. Pastoralists, in particular, were having difficulty accessing main food staples. Oxfam reported a six-fold increase in the price of millet.

The FAO said it had only received $650,000, donated by Sweden, in response to a $4m appeal for Niger in May. Canada pledged $1m last week for food aid to Niger, although other members of the G8 industrialised countries have generally done little to prevent the crisis.

Last week, the UN World Food Programme almost tripled the number of people it plans to feed through its emergency operation to 1.2 million. Most immediately at risk are young children. Feeding centres run by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are reporting admission rates nearly three times those during the same period last year.

"Children are dying and adults are going hungry," said WFP Niger country director, Gian Carlo Cirri. "We have said this before and we are saying it again - Niger needs help today, not tomorrow."

WFP's initial response had been severely hampered by late funding and difficulties buying food within the region, he said. Supplies were now being sourced at ports in west Africa and on other international markets.

The WFP said the bulk of its $4.2m appeal for 465,000 people was received in the last six weeks. However, WFP now needed another $12m to cover the rapidly rising costs of the expanding operation.

Even in a good year, malnutrition rates amongst young children in Niger are extremely high. Some 82% of the population rely on subsistence farming and cattle rearing while only 15% of the land is suitable for arable farming. There is little irrigation, leaving most farmers at the mercy of the rains.

"The international community cannot allow Niger to live as if cursed by poverty - we have the means to make a change and we need to mobilise them urgently," said Mr Cirri.

Average annual earnings in Niger are £115 and the country ranks 176 out of 177 countries listed on the UN's human development index.

Exactly.

My thought:

Apathy Kills.

c-

I don't know. Why do we post on a message board? Why do some people found organizations and others just take petitions door to door? Why are some concerts free with an optional donation and some cost $40 with all proceeds going to something? They did what they thought they could do. The Live 8 artists felt like they could do good work by just putting some information in front of people that they weren't getting otherwise. Maybe they figured charging would result in less people coming out and learning what they had to teach.

Jesus! Everyone's bitching about that Live 8 shit like they've could put together something so much better. Fuck! They did SOMETHING. They made noise. They called for action for once instead of sitting on their asses and everyone acts like they smeared shit on small African children.

Live 8 was nothing more than a giant ego stroke for the bands that played, making them think they were doing something. I suspect this was the reason why bands such as Pearl Jam, radiohead and other bands that are socially active did not play. It accomplished pretty much nothing, you really think a majority of those people care about Africa? Do you think most of them left thinking, wow, we need to do something about Africa? My guess is most people left the shows thinking, wow, Pink Floyd kicked ass or such and such band sucked.

When I become famous, remind me to never bother even trying to do something decent.

We sort of talked about it here
http://www.theskyiscrape.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ght=hunger
That thread was all kinds of awesome.

What did they do? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people know that Africa is poverty stricten and that the people there die of starvation every day.

Why didn't they try to raise money? They could have had a telethon or something. The telethon for 9/11 raised millions of dollars. Sally Struthers' $.20 a day commercials do more for the people of Africa in one day than what Live 8 will ever do.

I know people who have done far nobler acts than G8. If the G8 founders wanted to actually help starving Africans, they could at least start by donating some of their spare pocket change to the cause. As it stands, they are rich people whining about how the government (ie, taxpayers) is not donating enough. There's not much noble about what they did. All they did is say, "Something needs to be done."

They didn't wipe out poverty in Africa. Yeah, sorry. God, they tried to get people to give a shit. Is that not a valid goal? They could have dumped a few million of their own dollars into African aid, but that does nothing to address the rampant apathy in the Western world. As long as no one gives a shit, Africa will just keep slipping into poverty as quickly as you can throw money at it.

I think the correct thing to do was show that they care by making a donation. Try to set an example. Show that the way to make a difference is by taking action yourself rather than pleading for someone else to do it. Maybe their personal donation won't end poverty in Africa, but if they can get all the people to start making donations, they might get a bit closer.

I hated that thread.

I agree, I am glad that they(the celebrities) are activists, that they dont just piss away their time doing coke. I just think fucking awareness when people are dropping like flys is a joke. I would like to see these people get their asses over there and help build an irregation system or something.

Well I would rather the charged for tickets, then ran ads on the TV showing starving children, then maybe apathetic americans would call their congress/senate rep.

I don't think that would have been a bad thing, but people act like the Live 8 artists are greedy fucks who enjoy jerking off into the faces of small African children.

what a vivid picture you paint in my mind

Oh man, that was one of the best threads in N&D history.

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/donations/

http://www.oxfam.org/eng/donate.htm

You go to Hell ... and take that damn thread with you!