Famine in the Horn of Africa

The Wests response to repeated famines gets down to population 
numbers.

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Famine in the horn of Africa  2012.
UN HQ

The UN disaster relief agency and the World health organisation 
representatives groaned as the data on the current famine were 
displayed on the video wall in the UN HQ building. It was a case of 
here we go again, the third time this millennium that the countries 
of Ethiopia and Somalia were facing famine. The once  reasonably 
reliable rains had failed for the 4th consecutive year . Vast 
quantities of food were needed. Basically the land could not 
support the number of people even in good years let alone the bad 
years. 

The meeting went through the by now routine disaster response 
planning almost in a  sense of numbed helplessness. After the 
junior workers had departed to start the flow of aid one of the 
Arab members casually said there was a way to prevent this 
happening time and time again. As he outlined his plan the meeting 
became electric. The debate was long and furious. Eventually the 
combination of the US and Arab members carried the day and the 
proposals would be privately put to the UN.

 Abadana  Feeding station   Ethiopia

The staff could not believe the instructions from HQ even when they 
were repeated time and again. Some resigned but most eventually 
accepted the scheme. Slowly the organisation prepared its self for 
the new way of allocating aid.
 The scheme was simple. Any family with a male had to send or bring 
that male to the feeding centre. If there was no male then the 
family got the standard allocation of food. If they had a male then 
they had 2 choices, on gave them half the standard allocation the 
other twice the normal amount. Every male from the family  that 
came forward would get the extra ration of food . 

There was nearly a riot when the scheme was outlined to the 
starving masses but by the next morning the first young boys were  
presented by their mothers and dully dealt with. The second day saw 
the trickle turn to a flood and the scheme was well under way.

It was a simple process. First the family registered, next the male 
was inoculated and given a couple of pills, one to take immediately 
the other for later. A few minutes later the male was presented to 
the special assistant , after which he sat in line for about an 
hour before getting his allocation of food. After this he was free 
to go. In full flow each assistant could process about 100 males 
per our. Provided their testes had descended it didn’t matter how 
old they were, once treated they were eligible for the extra 
rations.

On that second day one of the staff leant against the wall watching 
the line of boys staggering down the road with their larger than 
normal bags of food and smiled. Each one walked with a legs wide 
apart gait. The naked ones clearly showed the little ball sacks 
stretched tight and blue in the evening sun. The red lines of the 
rubber elastrator bands could be seen on some but most had the 
bands sunk deep into the skin. The process of adjusting the 
population to fit the lands ability to sustain  the people had 
begun.