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Africa Subsaharan
WFP appeals for $118m in food aid for Zimbabwe
2007-08-02
The United Nations food agency on Wednesday appealed for $118-million in expanded food aid for Zimbabwe and pledged to assist about 3,3-million starving citizens of that country.
No. As Tolstoy once said, don't delay the revolution.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that it plans to provide, over the next eight months, food aid to up to 3,3-million Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages. "Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are already starting to run out of food and several million more will be reliant on humanitarian assistance by the end of the year," said WFP regional director Amir Abdulla. "WFP plans to feed more than 10 times the current number of beneficiaries over the next eight months to avert the threat of widespread hunger, but to do this we need more donations and we need them immediately."

The WFP has 138 000 metric tonnes of food already in stock or in the pipeline for Zimbabwe but still needs another 207 000 tonnes of cereals and other commodities, valued at $118-million, to cover its increased relief activities from now until April.

Without additional funds, WFP's food stocks would begin to run dry in September and will be completely exhausted by December,
110% coincidentally
just as the crisis reaches its peak, it said. In addition, a group of United States-sponsored NGOs known as C-Safe plans to distribute food to another 800 000 vulnerable Zimbabweans, giving a combined total of 4,1 million people, it said.
Posted by:Fred

#14  flour from China.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2007-08-02 14:24  

#13  First they read out the report as posted above, "Adding Insult to Injury".

Then we dig deep for Bob's last round.
Posted by: rhodesiafever   2007-08-02 13:11  

#12  I blame tribalism apartheid and greedy colonials. Put them all to the assegai... if any can yet be found. Our cooking pots await them!
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-08-02 11:57  

#11  No more aid for Africa. Let the tyrants eat their belts like the regular population does.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-08-02 10:58  

#10  Yo, Bob. Where my free food be at? An toss in a pack o Marlboros too. I's a war vetrin ya know.
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard   2007-08-02 10:34  

#9  A bad idea gone bad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2007-08-02 10:21  

#8  If it goes anything like the aid sent to NKor, the starving people wont see a grain of that wheat. It will all go to Bob's cronies, the military(which you have to feed for your own safety), and those who are politically aligned with Zanu-PF's party elite. The poor starving hicks wont get a damned thing. Let the WFP administer this deal and you just made it worse to the 3rd degree. They'll steal all the money before the grain is even bought.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2007-08-02 09:43  

#7  The answer is not more grain. It's more lead. Applied to the those responsible for the mess. However, the usual suspects, in aiding and abetting the continuation of the situation, absolutely refuse to acknowledge that fact and are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives in order to avoid doing what is necessary. They are just as guilty of the deprivations as Bob. It's the same crowd that whined and cried that the invasion of Afghanistan would lead to wide spread famine and a humanitarian disaster. They were WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. They are so wrapped up in their own personal self worship that they will not, can not acknowledge the absolute poverty of their own life philosophy. So people will continue to endure and die.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-08-02 09:01  

#6  What's that in Zimbabwe money, about 87 bucks?
Another African famine. Who coulda seen that coming...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-08-02 08:51  

#5  It's beginning to look like the water shortage may do them in before this food is even delivered (see article below this one). Geez, there has got to be a special place in Hell for guys like Che, Castro, Mao, Stalin, Jong-Il and Bob.
Posted by: BA   2007-08-02 08:42  

#4  "How shall we split up this extra money the WFP was so kind to free up for us, Bob? The usual fifty-fifty?"

"Sure, I'll count. One for you, one for me. Another one for you, two for me! One for you, three for me! ..."

"Something doesn't seem right about this, Bob."

"You're right. Shut the windows so we don't have to listen to all those people whining out there."
Posted by: gorb   2007-08-02 03:30  

#3  When we offer GM grains you publicly refused it so FOAD Mugabe.
Posted by: 3dc   2007-08-02 02:18  

#2  The world owes you NOTHING, you did this to yourself.
Posted by: newc   2007-08-02 01:46  

#1  Big mistake. As Kenyan economist, James Shikwati, said, "For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!" (excerpts):
Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

... at some point, this corn [wheat] ends up in the harbor of Mombasa. A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unsrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN's World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It's a simple but fatal cycle.
[emphasis added]

It's time to ratchet up the pressure on African dictatorships and tyrannies in general. Propping them up with food supplies—often diverted to feed military enforcers—only prolongs the agony. Oppressed populations must take to the barricades and begin the onerous task of cleaning their own political houses.

The West's only great sin is that it does not have the moral fiber to send in hit squads who would eliminate these blood ticks. They are the vampire elite and long ago forfeited any claim of mercy or forebearance. It is impossible to overstate the amount of needless suffering, injustice and early death this despotism has wrought.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-08-02 01:35  

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