Drought In Africa

[emmie]

am i being naive when watching the news on the drought situation that is occurring across Africa, why the inhabitants continue on having more babies.
when all you can see if distressed, dying infants because there is no water.

[sp1814]

A little naive - in the regions you're talking about, access to contraception is pretty limited. Family planning isn't at the level that we enjoy.

Also, we have to remember timing. The drought we are seeing now began in the last twelve weeks. I don't think that the men and women who conceived children in the summer last year were anticipating the issues they are facing today.

[ummmm]

I was going to say pretty much the same as sp....

[emmie]

according to the BBC news this has been going on across Africa for three years, so not just in the last few weeks.

[ummmm]

Different parts are being hit.

[Old_Geezer]

But there's always a drought or famine in Africa isn't there ! Probably why past generations came out of Africa looking for a place better able to sustain them. I'm no expert but I feel that disaster is an ever present possibility there so wonder why, after all these centuries of movement, there are still so many there making a life, not anticipating the future.

[Smowball]

Yes the news I watched yesterday was on an area that hadn't had a drop of rain for three years.

[emmie]

i can't find a link, except ones that goes back to last year.

[gulliver1]

Emmie, are you by any chance related to Naomi ?.

[emmie]

not that i know of, why?

[EDDIE51]

Yes you are being naive. Such areas have no medical or health care facilities at all. No possibility of getting contraceptives or advice on prevention of unwanted pregnancy.

[woofgang]

Additionally, the tradition is that children are needed to support the family....no state benefits there....and sadly when you believe that children are needed and the mortality rate is high, the perceived solution is to have many children as you can in the hope that enough will survive.

[Cloverjo]

I've watched two things on tv tonight (not by my own choice, but OH's sound spills out of his headphones). One was about British people getting wrecked through booze and needing to be helped by paramedics. The other was about people in Africa dying through want of food and water.
What a crazy world we live in.
In reference to another post, would moving to Mars really help us?

[anotheoldgit]

What I have to ask is why the need for such scenes to be televised into our homes on a nightly basis?

What can we do about their situation? Money, resources and skills have been ploughed into Africa for years, but things never alter.

Why don't the inhabitants of these uninhabitable parts of Africa migrate to the more habitable and richer parts of Africa?

[emmie]

aog
perhaps because much of Africa is in drought, or at wars, with famine.

[Khandro]

//why [are] the inhabitants continue on having more babies.//

Too much bonking?

[anotheoldgit]

allen

/// Africa was dreadfully exploited and generally abused by the West for a few centuries ///

Before the West 'exploited' (as you put it) Africa, it was a tribal wilderness.

The West gave them 'civilisation' schools, law, railways, bridges and viaducts, roads, clean water wells and Dams, beautiful government buildings and regular food and work for it's peoples.

And those who chose to go to our universities to be further educated, came back to Africa and made themselves leaders and repaid us by convincing their people that we were taking them for a ride, so much so that they kicked us out.

And we can all see how Africa has now sunk back almost to how it was before the West came, civil war after civil war, most of those buildings left in a state of disrepair, and if you have been watching Griff Rhys Jones, 'Slow Train Through Africa' you will get some idea of how our once great African railways are now.

[Khandro]

If anyone wishes to know what life was like in these regions less than a century ago, I can recommend this really terrific book by the explorer and soldier, Wilfred Thesiger, which I first read 20 years ago and have recently re-read;
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation