Dieoff starting in Africa

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 01 Jul 2011, 13:38

Er, I thought we were talking about Somalia.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 01 Jul 2011, 14:15

biffvernon wrote:Er, I thought we were talking about Somalia.

The whole region is caught up in the same crisis. It is just worse in some places than it is in others.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 Jul 2011, 01:02

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14008087

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 04 Jul 2011, 01:15

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 Jul 2011, 01:35

It will be interesting to see how far this topic climbs up the agenda of the mainstream media, and how people in general react.

What will Bob Geldof have to say about it, I wonder?

The picture you posted is one of those that tells more than a thousand words.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 04 Jul 2011, 09:31

The BBC are making it top story for now. The world's media are clearly descending on area.

If I was a cynical b*stard I would wonder if the government are encouraging the reporting - nothing like a good famine to make people feel guilty about complaining about a mere collapsing economy and wipeout of the welfare state.

RogerCO · Post by **RogerCO** » 04 Jul 2011, 14:04

RalphW wrote:If I was a cynical b*stard I would wonder if the government are encouraging the reporting - nothing like a good famine to make people feel guilty about complaining about a mere collapsing economy and wipeout of the welfare state.

+1. It seems to me that we are entering an era where our personal focus of attention is going to become much more localised. The 'global village' is a tool of consumerist growth based thinking.

As is noted in many threads on this forum the future is not going to be like the past in many ways, but one way in which it might be more like the past is that we simply will not know about bad things that happen distant from us - and certainly not with electronic media immediacy.

I would be inclined to agree with Ralph's cynical assessment, although I don't think it is necessarily deliberate - I always prefer cock-up to conspiracy.

The consequence and implicit intention of almost everything that flows through the mass media is to reinforce the status quo and BAU. This shouldn't really surprise anyone on here (although it often surprises me how seldom this is pointed out; do you really all still watch television news and believe that what you see is what they tell you it is?)

Various kinds of population decrease globally will take place over the coming years - some highly visible (if you are there) like this famine, some invisible (like death rates marginally exceeding birth rates in failing industrial countries). If you are directly and personally connected and you know what is going on then you might get involved in helping mitigate the consequences. Otherwise you probably need to just take it as a warning and build up your personal resilience - what will you eat when the supermarket shelves are empty?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 Jul 2011, 14:51

RogerCO wrote:
The consequence and implicit intention of almost everything that flows through the mass media is to reinforce the status quo and BAU. This shouldn't really surprise anyone on here (although it often surprises me how seldom this is pointed out; do you really all still watch television news and believe that what you see is what they tell you it is?)

I wouldn't want anyone to compromise the BBC, but I don't take much notice of any other TV news apart from Channel 4. Do they tell it like it is? Not usually, but they are a hell of a lot better than the rest of the commercial competition. Newsnight is often quite good because it is made under the assumption that the viewers aren't stupid.

But obviously if you want to try to uncover what is really going on then you need to be a creature of the internet.

Various kinds of population decrease globally will take place over the coming years - some highly visible (if you are there) like this famine, some invisible (like death rates marginally exceeding birth rates in failing industrial countries). If you are directly and personally connected and you know what is going on then you might get involved in helping mitigate the consequences. Otherwise you probably need to just take it as a warning and build up your personal resilience - what will you eat when the supermarket shelves are empty?

Mushrooms, weeds and roadkill!

Lord Beria3 · Post by **Lord Beria3** » 04 Jul 2011, 16:39

UndercoverElephant wrote:It will be interesting to see how far this topic climbs up the agenda of the mainstream media, and how people in general react.

What will Bob Geldof have to say about it, I wonder?

The picture you posted is one of those that tells more than a thousand words.

Very little coverage so far. The Times had a tiny box about 10 million on the brink of starvation but that was it! My sense is that people are getting tired of the continual demands from food aid charities.

Polls show huge resistance to foreign aid and I can't see that trend changing. Once governments and agencies run out of money/food Africa will be on its own.

Lets hope Biff is right but I doubt they will be able to feed their own populations without foreign food or oil.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 04 Jul 2011, 17:22

UndercoverElephant wrote: Mushrooms, weeds and roadkill!

There won't be much roadkill when the oil runs out

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 04 Jul 2011, 17:24

looters shot on public highways?

Lord Beria3 · Post by **Lord Beria3** » 05 Jul 2011, 09:25

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tself.html

The soaring prices of staple crops adds to their woes – maize has nearly doubled in price in Kenya, sorghum is 240 per cent dearer today in Somalia than a year ago. Somalia, perhaps worst affected but where figures are hard to pin down, is simply too dysfunctional and mired in war to cope.

Food prices will continue to rise - maybe by 800% - in the coming decade.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 05 Jul 2011, 09:33

RalphW wrote: If I was a cynical b*stard I would wonder if the government are encouraging the reporting - nothing like a good famine to make people feel guilty about complaining about a mere collapsing economy and wipeout of the welfare state.

Maybe, but given that this seems to be even worse than the 1984 famine, I think the media would be onto it anyway.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 05 Jul 2011, 09:36

RogerCO wrote: Various kinds of population decrease globally will take place over the coming years - some highly visible (if you are there) like this famine, some invisible (like death rates marginally exceeding birth rates in failing industrial countries).

I don't think famine is out of the question in industrial countries. As that graph someobody posted recently shows, Britain is careering towards near-total dependency on imports for its energy needs. Unless in future we can find something to trade for that energy except toilet-paper pound notes, we're going to be in trouble.

Lord Beria3 · Post by **Lord Beria3** » 05 Jul 2011, 09:42

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-develo ... nteractive

Ludwig - I don't know if you have read the analysis into net export decline and regional die-offs but you may be interested. Europe is targeting a die-off around 2030 with 200 million Europeans dying of famine.

Worth reading.