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Print This PageMedecins Sans Frontieres:Top-Ten Humanitarian Disasters of 2008
Medecins Sans Frontieres has published their list and report of the top-ten humanitarian disasters of 2008. Africa suffers its disproportionate share:
Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises. The report underscores major difficulties in bringing assistance to people affected by conflict. The lack of global attention to the growing prevalence of HIV-tuberculosis co-infection and the critical need for increased global efforts to prevent and treat childhood malnutrition—the underlying cause of death for up to five million children per year—are also included in the list.
Here’s the press release. Incidentally, MSF has a terrific blog collection on their site (here), with blogging from volunteer MSF doctors in the field.
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Of a different order of magnitude, but still of interest, Multinational Monitor has their list of the “10 Worst Corporations of 2008.”
at 9:35 pm EST Patrick S. O'Donnell
A very welcome report by the MSF, but unfortunately this press release is going to be buried by the never ending Palestinian Israeli conflict. Without derogating anything from the dangerous Middle East conflict it is fair to say that the Arab Israeli conflict subordinates all other crises where the volume of death is higher but less dramatic. Somalia has not had an effective government since Siad Barre. Consequently, it has spiraled into what we have today, a lawless stretch of land in which diseases are endemic and life expectancy is very low. Lately, Somalia has been in the news not because of this very dire situation but because of the pirates who are causing havoc in the Indian Ocean. Ethiopia is in the news because of its involvement in Somalia but not much is said about its less-than-democratic friendly government hence the perennial suffering of the Ethiopian people. The crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been going on for too long. We are in danger of subconsciously accepting the situation in Congo and the whole Central Africa region as a normal way of life in that part of the world. I guess we have already done so to Myanmar. But for the repression of the monks and the May 2, Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than a hundred thousand people, very few people talked about the effects of the repressive regime of Myanmar/Burma never mind head line news about this murderous dictatorship. Just like Burma, where the junta has neglected the health sector, Zimbabwe was recently in the news because of a cholera outbreak. But HIV and Aids has been silently killing people in both countries for the past many years. More people die from treatable illnesses in Zimbabwe each week than people killed at the height of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in months.
The last statement shows how unfortunate our world has degenerated to. Statistics of death is used as a barometer to measure the seriousness of a given crisis. But most of these deaths could be avoided only if the international community takes preemptive steps and goes to the root of the problem i.e. poor governance which results in human rights abuse and the symptomatic suffering that ensues. Instead, we, as the international community are reactive rather than proactive. We wait until it is too late to take any meaningful action, if ever. At the end of the day we find ourselves overwhelmed by avoidable humanitarian crises. There is no acceptable reason why in this day and age we should be witnessing childhood malnutrition and high infant mortality rate. Neither is there any understandable reason why HIV-tuberculosis co-infection is still prevalent. The reason for all this agonizing human suffering is simply because human rights abuse has not yet been accorded the urgency and position that it deserves. There is nothing internal about abuse, gross or otherwise, of human life. I am yet to come across any leader who abuses his own and without any pressure from anyone realizes on his own that he is abusing the rights of his people. Once a government starts to abuse its people it never relents unless and until it is forced to desist by external pressure. Internal pressure almost always results in further human rights abuse or civil war but timely and effective intervention by the international community stops an abusive government on its tracks. Unfortunately, there is a very discouraging record of the international community taking the necessary steps to rid itself of abusers of power.
Yes, the Middle East conflict requires urgent attention but so does other crises that go on without enough coverage and attention. If only we realized this point the world would be a better place. Some may call this assertion naïve and interventionist but I challenge those who think so to try and pay more attention to all these crises and see where we will end up. We cannot be that distant from reason.
at 4:58 pm EST Godfrey Mhlanga