Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Niger Cont.

Yesterday I discussed how the Starvation in Niger is our, as in all Black peoples, problem. The AP highlighted an issue that was brought up by the BBC last week, that there is indeed food in Niger, it just costs too much for the poor, a large percentage of the population, to purchase. In an article entitled Niger's market filled with food but unaffordable for the poor we find the following:

While mothers continue to bring children weak with hunger to feeding centers, market stalls are filled with food — but at prices well out of the reach of many in this desperately poor nation.

"It is the government's job to deal with the hungry, we the traders are here for business," said Ibrahim Baye, who sells millet, a staple in Niger, at a Maradi market.

The well-stocked markets are deceptive. The food shortage is real. Last year locusts, in the worst invasion in 15 years, ravaged 7,000 square miles of Niger farmland. That and a subsequent drought cut cereal production by 15% last year, according to the United Nations.

Hunger was a problem in Niger even before the locusts and drought. Today, more than a third of the nearly 12 million people in Niger face severe food shortages. Children are most at risk.

On Tuesday, Baye shooed away beggars dressed in rags and staring at the heaped food on display. A friend sitting with him who gave only one name, Louali, said the grains on display had been stockpiled "and traders wait until the lean season to sell at double its price."

Prices have dramatically increased. A bag of 220 pounds of millet went from $23 to $44.

Few can afford that in the second-poorest nation in the world, where 64% of the people survive on less than $1 a day.

hmmmmm. I see. So it is the job of government to deal with the hungry. Fair enough. But since the govt. is clearly unable to do so who should pick up the slack? Oh yes,, the white foreigners. Let's shoo our hungry women and children away and let the white folks feed them. I mean we got profits to make!!!

I think I get it now. Allah Be praised! Here's a model Muslim for us.