Fr. Jose Poch

Friday, August 19, 2011

ON THE FAMINE CRISIS IN SOMALIA

I have been following in prayer the famine situation in the Horn of Africa. The pictures and the news interviews are horrifying. The number of dead children is beyond sad, to just completely devastating and discouraging. How do people go through this situation in the 21st Century? And yet they do. I can only imagine what it would be like for our family if in that same situation and yet I know that we can’t even come close to imagining what these people - fathers and mothers and children are going through. We, prayerfully, will never be in their shoes. 

May God have mercy! They deserve all the help we can give them. This must be breaking the heart of God. I want to encourage all of you who read my blog to help in whatever way you can. 

You can imagine the shock that I received and how angry I became when I read the news item below:


“MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia's famine victims have been stolen and are being sold at markets in the same neighborhoods where skeletal children in filthy refugee camps can't find enough to eat, an Associated Press investigation has found.  The U.N.'s World Food Program for the first time acknowledged it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months. The WFP said that the 'scale and intensity' of the famine crisis does not allow for a suspension of assistance, saying that doing so would lead to 'many unnecessary deaths.' And the aid is not even safe once it has been distributed to families huddled in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp, where several aid groups have been distributing food, said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it. Ali Said Nur said he received two sacks of maize twice, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader. 'You don't have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here,' he said."

This is amazing to me. I will not, nor do I want to, discourage any of you from giving or from praying in order to see this situation changed for good and to save as many people as possible. But it is another example of how evil human nature without the love and the instruction of God can be. We become selfish, abusive, and manipulative. God knows how many abuses are being perpetrated by those with power over these men, women and children in need and powerless. The world needs to help, must help, there is no excuse for not helping the Somali people, but we expect the Somalis to help their own people also. God have mercy!

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