By Tongkeh Joseph Fowale, A World View
Saturday, August 20, 2011
One reader, for example, said Canada was built from scratch and so can Africa. Another simply said Africa should handle its problems and leave the rest of the world alone.
Individuals, families, communities and nations all have their problems. So why should famine in far-away Somalia be the concern of countries struggling to grapple with their own domestic problems and crises of all types — economic, security and political?
Reports about corruption in Africa show African leaders are richer than those in developed countries. Their personal accounts in European, American and Canadian banks hold astronomical amounts of money which can eradicate poverty over in their respective countries.
How much have they contributed to the Somali course?
While these questions and worries are genuine, it is sad to know they have no ready-made answers. Instead, they generate more questions.
In Somalia for example, the most vulnerable section of the famine-hit population are women, girls and children. Do three thousand children deserve to die of starvation in the 21st century? What have women and girls done to be raped in the middle of starvation?
In every analysis about Africa, it is important to distinguish between the government and the people. African governments represent greed while their people are the victims.
While an 11-year-old Ghanaian schoolboy, for example, is able to raise $500 dollars to support the course in Somalia, the government of South Africa, Africa's economic giant, contributed a meagre sum that is worth the price of a single politician's car according to BBC.
Like I pointed out in a previous column, the primary victims of Africa's crises are not the leaders or their families. It is the poor and hungry masses.
Take the case of Tunisia. When a popular uprising started in that country, President Ben Ali's half brother immediately boarded a private jet to Canada. For the poor masses, migration to Europe is usually through overcrowded boats where their corpses end up being served to fish in the Mediterranean.
Still in answer to sceptics about why Somalia deserves attention, I point to the fact that poverty and suffering represent potential threats to human civilization.
Just as traces of nuclear contamination were found on the coast of British Columbia after nuclear disaster struck Japan, so does Somalia effect the rest of the world as poverty and misery breed terrorism.
It is my personal conviction that when humanity is faced with situations like the one in Somalia, it is better to ask how we can be of help than why we should be of help.
This is what Jesus meant when he said in Acts 20:35 "There is more blessing in giving than in receiving."
Somalia represents the biblical analogy in Mathew 25:34-41 in which Christ reminded his apostles "When I was hungry you gave me to eat, I was thirsty you gave me to drink, I was homeless you opened your door ...."
It might sound absurd to describe a biblical situation in a Muslim country like Somalia but one does not have to be Christian to appreciate the Golden Rule that applies to all mankind: "Do unto others as you will have them do unto you."
Nothing is lost when we show kindness to humanity — not even the assistance we give.