X-NUPop-Charset: English
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.xcult-l
Date:         Fri, 2 Oct 1992 15:30:53 CST
Reply-To:     chowning@acuvax.acu.edu
From:         Richard Chowning <chowning@ACUVAX.ACU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Somalia

In Message Thu, 1 Oct 1992 21:18:46 EDT, Joyce Neu <CCJN@EMUVM1.BITNET> writes:

>   Glad to see some focus on Somalia.  It is a sad situation, indeed.
>One reason I think that we in the west wring our hands and do so little
>(just as we did nothing as Cambodians were being killed by Pol Pot in
>the 70s--to the tune of anywhere from 500,000 to a million--about
>1/9 of the population) is because "those" people are so different from
>us.
Joyce, I think you are right on target.  It is almost a racial and not a
cultural problem.  We kill 100,000 on the ground in Iraq and call it a war
with little loss of life.  The press needs to morn the losses of life in
Somalia more.  Anyone have phone number of some of the CNN news announcers.
I sure would like to talk to a few of them personally, cry a bit with them.

>I think with Somalia we're doing a similar kind of thing. But this may not
>be all.  I also am a firm believer in interest groups rallying support
>for causes (e.g., Bosnia, Nagorno-Karabakh, etc.) and getting media
>attention.
Sure, it is the grassroots organizations and the NGOs as deliverors of the
food.  Governments and polititians will not do much, very fast.  Their
system is to guey....every to committee after committee and debate after
debate while the people fall dead on the gound.

>Unfortunately, Somalis (like Cambodians and Ethiopians
>before them) don't have much power in Congress or any strong lobbying
>groups in the west (I'm assuming this--am I wrong?).
Your right.  They have very few ears. They need advocates.

>Then there is also the phenomenon of tragedy-overload.  How many
>heart-rending crises can people react to meaningfully?  How many
>times can people feel that doing something will even have an impact?
>(Especially in a place so far away--Americans do seem to pour out money
>and clothes, food, etc. for domestic victims of catastrophes [but not
>for the chronically desperate homeless folks].)
I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but there are going to be a lot more people
dying in southern Africa real soon.  Aid agencies and governments have some
of their lowest budgets in years for aid to Africa.  There are Russians to
compete with, so they pull out.  The people need help, long term help and
short term (food now) help, and they pull out.......(tears)


>Chelagoi, I would encourage you and others on Africa-l list to send
>your essays on Somalia to newspapers, to TV stations, etc. Write letters
>to the editors; enlist the help of congresspeople to send in editorials
>(write the editorial for them and then let them put their name on it).
>Save the Children and CARE seem to be doing good jobs in Somalia, we
>might contact them also.
We are beginning to do that.  Are you saying some of this short e-mail stuff
needs to be sent too.  I surely could send it as a fax to radio stations,
not that they would read it on the air, but they might be more attuned to
the stories they can choose from on the wire services.  THANKS.
>Djamm ak djamm,
>Joyce

--- Chelagoi
_____________________________________________________________________
Chelagoi               alias                         Richard Chowning

chowning@acuvax.acu.edu                  Abilene Christian University
chowning@acuvax.bitnet                                 Abilene, Texas
rchowning@igc.org                               Voice: (915) 674-3754
_______________________________________________________________________