Sir, - Will we never learn? Why does international assistance always wait until famines emerge rather than responding to the obvious early warnings before the suffering breaks out?
Last December our famine news website (www.ucc.ie/famine) warned of food shortage in Somalia. In January, we urged action to combat looming famine in Ethopia, writing that "the number of people in need of food aid is now the most since the famine of 1984/85".
Why is it only now that there is any sense of urgency about the almost 8 million people facing severe hunger and displacement in the Horn of Africa? If preventive action had been taken several months ago we would now be dealing with an altogether different situation. Why will the world only react to an actual famine and not to a potential one?
At least now let us ensure that the inevitable and belated deluge of food aid for the hungry is accompanied by longer-term assistance and, most importantly, a meaningful pledge to act earlier the next time.
We should learn from our own history. The earliest signs of Ireland's Great Famine came in 1845. They were ignored. Relief schemes only began to operate several years later and were pitifully small. The same neglect of early warnings was evident in the mid-1980s with the famine in Ethiopia. Unbelievably, unforgiveably, we have neglected the warnings once again. - Yours, etc.,Stephen Jackson,
Director, International Famine Centre, UCC, Cork.