Starvation in Africa

I didn't catch the news tonight so I will have to pull one from last night.  Remember, last night was full of good ones and this one certainly fits the bill.  I think you can guess what the basis of the story is.



The story started out talking about how several countries on the continent have a huge population that is starving.  They showed people in medical "facilities" (a series of tents) are shriveling away.  They showed a 1 year old child that weighed on 8 pounds with an arm circumference equivalent to that of a pre-mature baby in the United States.  The story continues by telling why this baby, and many others like him, are this way.  Their mother's are so dehydrated and malnourished that they can't produce enough milk for him.  The next phase of the story was the reasoning behind the issue with these mothers.  There is a major drought happening and has been going on for a couple of years.  In fact, they said that if there wasn't any rain in the next few weeks all of the crops that were planted will be lost.  All around it is a rather sad situation.


So why do I have a problem?  Well, there is a simple answer, because they seemed surprised by this!  Most of these countries are in the northern part of Africa.  There is this small thing located there, I can't remember what it is called... very arid... lots of sand... oh, that's right, a huge desert called the Sahara!  A place where it is not uncommon for it to go decades without rain!  Come on, these people are living on the fringes of this huge desert you can't really tell me that you are shocked that there is a drought happening.


To top off the fact that they are shocked about this, they then pushed a couple of charities!  This is supposed to be the news, not a campaign for donations!  I think that is what pushed me over the edge regarding the whole story.


Yes, it is sad that these people are suffering but we have people here in the United States that are suffering also.  Why are we so concerned with taking care of the whole world and not even thinking about our own people?