Pachamama Alliance of Oregon

Draft: WORK IN PROGRESS

Today  as World Habitat Day advocates the basic  human right to adequate shelter, Mark Horvarth, creator and producer of InvisiblePeople.TV, sits down with progressive talk show host Angie Coiro to discuss homelessness in America. Horvarth, who hails from Los Angeles, swung into San Francisco late last night, at the tail end of his  2 1/2 month roadtrip roadtrip across America. He has some fine suggestions to share, like a Yelp for nonprofits and an iPhone app to direct volunteers to the nearest location in need of their help.

So tonight, in acknowledgement of WHD, EcoJustice joins Angie and Mark Live from the West Coast as

Listen live here. Comment on the live blog here ....

Let's go LIVE from San Francisco!

It would be worth testing and exploring more the hypothesis that most successful development is homegrown. And if so,
research should concentrate more on homegrown determinants of development rather than spend
so much time on outsiders’ actions. Perhaps then we might find that the ones most likely to “save
Africa” are Africans themselves.  Link

<blockquote>Konso people, for example, still have and use a well-developed knowledge concerning which wild-food plants can best provide a dietary supplement in periods of food shortage. Konso people, well known for their hard labour and sophisticated agricultural system (Lemessa, 1999b), have been stricken by drought since 1996. In this period they have faced repeated significant harvest losses and even complete crop failures. Nevertheless, until June 1999, most Konso people managed to cope with these harsh climatic conditions and survived by increasing their consumption of wild-food plants. Damaged, reduced or even lost crop harvests have been partly compensated by the collection of wild-foods. Unfortunately, three severe years with only meagre harvests and yet another harvest failure in 1999, was just too much for many people in Konso, an ecologically fragile area, despite the people's incredible efforts to protect and conserve the local environment. <a href="http://www.africa.upenn.edu/faminefood/index.htm">Ethiopia Famine Food Survival Guide</a></blockquote>


THIS year’s drought is the worst in east Africa since 2000, and possibly since 1991. Famine stalks the land. The failure of rains in parts of Ethiopia may increase the number needing food handouts by 5m, in addition to the 8m already getting them, in a population of 80m. The production of Kenyan maize, the country’s staple, is likely to drop by one-third, hitting poor farmers’ families hardest. The International Committee of the Red Cross says famine in Somalia is going to be worse than ever. Handouts are urgently needed by roughly 3.6m Somalis, nearly half the resident population (several million having already emigrated during years of strife). In fractious northern Uganda cereal output is likely to fall by half. Parts of South Sudan, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Tanzania are suffering too. Rich countries are being less generous than usual. The UN’s World Food Programme says it has only $24m of the $300m it needs just to feed hungry Kenyans for the next six months.

The drought cycle in east Africa has been contracting sharply. Rains used to fail every nine or ten years. Then the cycle seemed to go down to five years. Now, it seems, the region faces drought every two or three years. The time for recovery—for rebuilding stocks of food and cattle—is ever shorter. And if the rains fail before the end of this year, an unimaginably dreadful catastrophe could ensue. <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14506436&source=most_recommended">A catastrophe is looming</a> The Economist, Sept. '09

CARE is already implementing long-term programming to help mitigate the impact of the current drought, such as building and maintaining boreholes and water distribution points, providing extra nutrition to young children and mothers, distributing seed for farmers, and helping pastoralists cope with the effects of climate change by diversifying their herds and sources of income. But to date, investment in long term solutions has been insufficient to avert the coming crisis. Immediate emergency measures are now needed to help the more than 20 million people now in need of food assistance.

“The situation is already becoming desperate in some areas. The levels of acute malnutrition are rising rapidly, especially amongst young children. We need to get more nutrition programs going as soon as possible,” said Khaled. “At the same time, we need to act now to prevent more people from falling into the hunger trap. In southern Ethiopia, for example, we have a short window to provide seed to farmers before the next rainy season starts. If we miss it, we’ll be forcing people into a position of relying on food hand-outs, rather than helping them feed themselves through their own crops.”<a href="http://abbaymedia.com/News/?p=2894">Hunger Crisis Worsening for 20 Million in East Africa</a>
<a href="http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/22-care-rejects-us-food-aid/"> Care rejects food aid from US </a>

<blockquote>The US policy implements the practice of monetization, a food aid policy in which the US government buys surplus food from American agribusinesses that have already been heavily subsidized, and ships it via US shipping lines (generating transport costs that eat up much of the $2 billion annual food aid provided by the US government) to aid organizations working around the world. The aid organizations then sell the US-grown crops to local populations, at a dramatically reduced cost. The aid organizations use proceeds from these sales to fund their development and anti-poverty programs. But several groups, with CARE at the forefront, have pointed out that this policy has the effect of undermining local farmers and destabilizing the very food production systems that aid organizations are working to strengthen.

A policy that puts local farmers out of commission and undermines agriculture in developing countries becomes part of a process by which those countries lose the means to develop—and thus grow more dependent on the stronger and more dominant nations. These countries become more vulnerable in every sphere, not only economically but politically as well. The result is likely to be more hunger and less sovereignty as countries are tied ever more tightly to the world market. </blockquote>

<a href="http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2827813401/"> The Beggers in Addis Ababba</a>: A short documentary about extreme poverty in Ethiopia, where drought and climate change make people struggle for survival The life is tough for the two women Belay and Zemu, who live in the small village Kajima in Northern Ethiopia.

US Aid to Ethiopia tied to short-term military assistance with situation in Somalia and disregards the corruption and non-democratic policies within the country. Ethiopia's belief that US financial assistance is inviolate has led to Link http://cyberethiopia.com/home/content/view/148/









<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/407862977_cfb31b34d1.jpg">
<em><strong>Jodhpur Market, Rajasthan, India. Photo by Zé Eduardo</strong></em>

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/3038821890_129a84396e.jpg">
"The oldest living city in the world," Flower market, Varanasi (Benaras) India.


<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/110/296150321_829a2e405a.jpg">
Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, India.


<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/342005575_c943f368e1.jpg">
Vegetable Market by Anurag Yadava.
Weekly Vegetable Market, Chandigarh