Nebraska
Ice chunks the size of small cars ripped through barns and farmhouses; baby calves were swept into freezing floodwaters, washing up dead along the banks of swollen rivers; farm fields were now lakes.
The record floods that have pummeled the Midwest are inflicting a devastating toll on farmers and ranchers at a moment when they can least afford it, raising fears that this natural disaster will become a breaking point for farms weighed down by falling incomes, rising bankruptcies and the fallout from President Trump’s trade policies.
(The New York Times, March 18, 2019)
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Mozambique
Cyclone Idai has triggered a ‘massive disaster’ in southern Africa affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, the UN has said. …
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called it ‘a humanitarian disaster of great proportion’.
He said more than 1,000 people may have been killed after the cyclone hit the country last week.
(BBC, March 20, 2019)
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I hasten to clarify that, while thousands of pigs have died, only two people have and two others are missing in Nebraska. By contrast, despite what that country’s president said, 200 people have died and 100,000 are “stranded” in Mozambique.
That said, you have probably heard or read lots about the devastation in Nebraska. But I’d be surprised if you’ve heard or read anything more than a headline about the devastation in Mozambique.
I am loath to belabor this difference. It’s just that the juxtaposition of so much media coverage on the loss of farm pigs in Nebraska with so little on the loss of human lives in Mozambique has been stark. Arguably, this reflects the “misplaced values” that govern the global village that is the world today.
Of course, Nebraska will recover, not least because those affected compose much of President Trump’s political base.
In other words, they will not suffer the salutary neglect President Bush infamously showed the flood-ravaged victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans — most of whom, he had good reason to suspect, did not vote for him. Nor, indeed, will they suffer the similar neglect Trump himself infamously showed the flood-ravaged victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico … for the same political reason.
Amid a chilly dampness that has become all too familiar in these parts, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a message: America is here for Nebraska. …
During a three-hour visit that included an aerial survey of floodwaters and meetings with first responders and victims, Pence said the federal government will expedite disaster relief in response to the historic flooding that has affected much of the Midwest.
(Omaha World-Herald, March 20, 2019)
On the other hand, I am all too mindful that a confluence of compassion fatigue and chronic fecklessness (with respect to foreign aid) informs how many news organizations cover disasters in Africa, which seem so commonplace. This, especially when natural disasters like these floods have nothing on the man-made disasters that account for so much of what plagues this Dark Continent.
Here, for example, is how I bemoaned this juxtaposition with respect to the constant plague of famine in “‘Another African Famine?! Nobody Cares!’ Then Call Me Nobody,” May 2, 2014:
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To be fair, we have floods of Biblical proportions surging through the Deep South, fires from the pits of hell raging through the West, trains carrying crude oil derailing and exploding through the Northeast, and Donald Sterling’s racist outburst still reverberating throughout the country. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that the American media are ignoring the UN sounding this alarm about yet another famine in Africa. …
Every American can fairly ask: Why should I care about starving kids in Africa when African leaders are the ones starving them, and their fellow Africans don’t seem to give a damn?
No doubt the prevalence of drought-borne famine gives the impression that Africa is fated to Mother Nature’s neglect … or wrath. But the disillusioning truth is that the administrative incompetence and nefarious devices of African men are far more responsible for chronic starvation on that Dark Continent. It’s bad enough that these genocidal maniacs couldn’t care less about causing starvation, but they have shown no compunction whatsoever about impeding, or even killing, foreign aid workers trying to deliver relief.
And don’t get me started on countries like Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and others competing to become the Taliban paradise Afghanistan used to be. …
Worse still, according to a BBC Newsnight report on August 5, 2011, even leaders of a country as dependent on aid as Ethiopia invariably use development aid as ‘a weapon of oppression.’
It’s clearly foolhardy for foreign governments to continue giving aid directly to African governments, only to have local leaders use that aid to line their pockets and oppress their people.
But I am truly humbled by the thousands of foreign aid workers (mostly white Americans) who, despite all of the challenges and frustrations, continue to march to the front lines. They help combat everything from chronic poverty to the vicious cycle of tribal warfare I bemoaned just days ago in “South Sudan Continues Descent into Heart of Darkness,” April 25, 2014.
Accordingly, I can never tire of doing what little I can to support them and keep the humanitarian work they do in public consciousness.
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It is impossible to fully appreciate or even assess the scale of this devastating cyclone, which to a lesser extent is also impacting the neighboring countries of Zimbabwe and Malawi. But it’s noteworthy that many news organizations are referring to it as the “worst humanitarian crisis ever” in the Southern Hemisphere. And that’s saying a lot.
At least half a million Mozambicans have been displaced by cyclone Idai, but that figure may rise to four times that in the aftermath of the devastation, United Nations officials warned on Tuesday.
The World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, and other UN agencies launched an appeal for immediate international funding and logistical support to save hundreds of thousands who remain isolated and with no access to food or clean water.
To see the many ways you can donate to recovery and relief efforts, click here.
Related commentaries:
Another famine…nobody cares…
Katrina/Puerto Rico…