Pick of the week – Horn of Africa Update

A few weeks ago Channel 16 had a pick of the week about the food crisis in the Horn of Africa. Since then the UN has declared a famine in parts of Somalia. The situation is getting worse, and there are concerns the international community is not acting quickly enough to help those in desperate need of assistance.

1. Famine in Somalia: When does the world decide to use the ‘F’ word?
The word ‘famine’ may be a familiar one, but it is not thrown around lightly by the people who decide when there is one.

2. Thinking Images v. 20: Famine iconography as a sign of failure
A critical look at the iconography of famine, and how this reflects the inadequate responses to early warning systems.

3. Somali rebels say famine label used for politics
Somali Islamist rebels accused the United Nations on Thursday of exaggerating the severity of the drought gripping the south of the country and of politicizing the humanitarian crisis.

4. The vital statistics of hunger
Despite the challenges a groups of researchers have been working in Somalia to gather data on malnutrition rates.

5. Jerry Rawlings, African Union envoy to Somalia
An emotional plea to the international community to support those in need in the Horn of Africa.

6. Drought = Hunger? Not an inevitable equation
Headlines tell us that a severe drought in the Horn of Africa is responsible for creating “the most severe food security emergency in the world today.” But is it?

7. Murdoch and starving Somali children
A critical look at the recent Times editorial cartoon.

8. Somali rebels say UN food agency banned
Rebels who control some of the famine affect regions have banned aid agencies they say have a “hidden agenda”.

9. Food Crisis in the Horn of Africa: International response driven by image of Africa
International responsiveness to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa has relied again on the art of managing the headlines.

10. Somalia’s famine: their agony and our historic part in it
But Somalia was also a war-ground for the outside world. Who ruled in Mogadishu mattered.