The Suffering of Africa is our Shame

The first of these news posts will be about Africa. Now this, is already a strange thing in itself. Unlike Bob Geldof who is currently claiming on BBC World that Africa is the best place on Earth ("yeah, my continent is better than yours !"), I have no, and never had any, attraction for Africa and African culture whatsoever. On the other hand, I have always been a great admirer of South-American ancient civilizations (the Inca, the Maya, the Aztec) and the Japanese past and present history, these are cultures I'm fascinated about. Africa is, for me, just a wonderful place for animals and a terrible place for humans with what seems a never-ending source of pain for those poor people.

Lately, if my mind on the matter of civilization hasn't changed, recent events have drawn my attention again to the suffering of these people and have literally infuriated me against the indifference our world has shown. It is going to be difficult to put in words all the anger I feel towards the people who rule us and also towards some of our fellow men, but let's try. "As usual" I'd be tempted to say, many tragedies have been happening in Africa, but two mostly have been grabbing our attention lately: the excruciating genocide in Sudan and the famine in Niger.

Not so long ago, there was this Live8 concert. I didn't watch, I couldn't care less about the people there and modern music in general. Still, it sounded like a generous idea, to put an end to poverty, perhaps to try to cut the long-time running circle of pain. But when you compare this to what's happening in Africa right now, genocide and famine, you can't help thinking the whole thing is just a damn joke. Not only do you have to bring entertainment and individuals they cherish - the "stars" - to the crowd to draw their attention and sympathy, but seemingly this cause only interests them the time the concert lasts. Moreover, the idea in itself I think is leading nowhere, it's a "let's have a party to save the world" event, it's just a fleeting moment.

What's killing Africa right now is rock-solid and is definitely not a "fleeting moment", that's what is horrendous about it. It's been happening for so long that it could have been well prevented, but not only did we fail to prevent it, but we, the people who can, the people with the money, the people who waste so much everyday, we did not even try to prevent it. The massacres of the Darfur region, in Sudan, are taking place since February 2003 ! Everyday children, women and men are killed and their cry for help has remained unanswered, no one in the world stood up for them. They've been moved from their land, they've lost their home and they now have to live in the worst misery with, in their mind, in their body, the horror of it all, murders, rapes, and the indifference of their fellow men.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is our beautiful, civilized world. In a rush we went to Iraq to fight the large army of a madman, while not a single army was sent to fight a disorganized milicia and protect the civilians slain on the screens of our TVs, right in front of our eyes, in the poor country of Sudan. Incredible efforts and money were spent to make a war in Iraq, but an even more important issue such as an eminent genocide, with much less opposition and complexity, did not raise a single fund from the countries of the world. This is a shame for everyone of us, a burden we should all carry for the rest of our lives because we are all just equally guilty for not caring about it. But carrying a burden is meaningless if we keep ignoring the calls of distress from the people in need. So what are we waiting for, what is the world and our leaders are waiting for to save the people in Darfur ? That it becomes history and these poor people too perhaps ?

There are so many terrible scenes and stories about Darfur. The BBC has been doing a great job in talking about it, their reporters went there and they showed, and they pleaded; they talked to the victims and we heard stories of events, of dreadful events, which none should be allowed to take place in our modern world. These people had almost nothing, now they are really left with nothing at all. They begged for help, they cheered when they thought the US would come to save them; I remember that's what an officer who was sent there as an observer mentioned in one BBC report, but no help came and since then they've just been losing their hopes and lives by great numbers.

And now recently, another tragedy from the African continent came to overshadow the events in Darfur, perhaps because people's generosity is so restrain that they cannot give it to more than one cause at the same time. People in Niger, and children mostly, are dying, dying of starvation. I remember a speech I often heard on TV when I was a kid in the 80's, it was saying that in the times we are living in, in such advanced times, where welfare is so well-spread in our modern countries, intense and sometimes deadly hardships such as starvation or slavery should not be happening anymore. Great speech, so true. But 20 years later, I still hear the same speech, the same words, these things should not be happening, still, they happen right now, exactly like before. There's a difference though, we're richer, we're more advanced, but the people are as poor as they used to be. Where is the logic in that ? There's no logic in hypocrisy. Things like this should not happen, but they will keep happening, because we don't care: our well-being is not affected, why should we care ? This is merely the truth.

We, the fat, ugly, stupid people for whom destroying ourselves is a luxury, a refinement, a pleasure, that we accomplish by smoking, drinking, polluting, overeating. Look at all our old fat leaders, both in politics and economy, in their tight suit laughing together at the world, their disobedient pet, going insane. Why should we care about what's happening to the very poors in the heart of Africa ? What makes this even more disgusting, even more intolerable once again is the predictability. This famine in Niger was announced, back in november 2004 reports BBC World. And it's true, so true, I remember like if I had witnessed it. When they announced the famine some days ago, I couldn't believe it, I remembered this report months and months ago, about how the locusts had destroyed the crops and about reporters and experts warning that something should be done otherwise next year a famine would occur. It was told so long before ! Imagine someone is going to announce you will die in 10 months unless you receive food. Wouldn't you laugh at him ? If you were living in Niger, you wouldn't.

Africa is a person dying in front of us, bleeding from his many wounds, we could save him just by touching him, by putting our hands on the wounds, to stop the flow of blood. But we don't, we just watch him die and tell him how sorry we feel.

If you want to do something, here are a few links, hopefully these sites can really help:
- http://www.worldvision.org
- http://www.savedarfur.org
- http://www.savedarfur.com