Winnipeg Free Press
Thursday, July 21, 2011
And no wonder. The world has been here before, many times actually, and the results are cause for pause, if not for inaction.
About 20 years ago, then president George H. Bush sent troops to Somalia to break a famine caused by the eruption of civil war. The humanitarian effort made some progress, despite the looting of food supplies, until newly elected president Bill Clinton decided to engage in a nation-building exercise by hunting down the leaders of an insurgent faction. The result was two Black Hawk helicopters down and nearly 100 American soldiers killed or injured, leading to the abrupt departure of foreign forces, including Canada's Airborne Regiment, which ended its career in disgrace following the murder by Canadians of a Somali teenager.
Since then, Somalia has been engulfed in a bloody civil war. Combined with drought, corruption and incompetent governance, the nation seems to have been constantly on the verge of famine and disaster. An armed intervention by Ethiopia five years ago failed miserably and troops from the African Union have been equally ineffective in trying to impose order on the lawless nation. Somali pirates have even created havoc off the Horn of Africa, seizing ships and kidnapping foreigners, despite a large multinational naval presence.
With this history and under these circumstances, it is understandable, even commendable, that the world's great powers are avoiding any talk of armed intervention, but it is harder to grasp why a full-blown famine and refugee crisis had to occur before the world awoke from its slumber.
Some nations have already started to ante up the money that will be needed to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Canada has committed relief money to the region but Oxfam believes it should pledge at least $40 million more for famine relief.
Cold cash is a cheap and easy way to ease the conscience, but there is more that Canada and other countries should be doing to ease the suffering in the Horn of Africa.
They could speed up the refugee process and allow more Somalis onto their soil.
But, as Winnipeg refugee advocate Tom Denton explained on these pages recently, Canada has been rejecting Somali refugees at an appallingly high rate because they allegedly lack credibility, or the inability to prove that their need is urgent and true. The reasons for rejection seem both preposterous and insensitive, but they are particularly offensive under the current circumstances.
Beyond the delivery of money and food, however, the options for decisive action in Somalia are limited. It's not even clear at this time if aid can be delivered without a challenge from the insurgent forces, who claim they are agreeable, but who have been quite disagreeable on these matters in the past.
It is paramount, however, that the effort be made, not just by governments, but by ordinary Canadians and citizens of the world who recognize their responsibility to ease the suffering. Canadians were quick to respond to the needs of Haitians when their country was stricken by an earthquake, but less generous and speedy when a similar disaster hit Pakistan.
The discrepancy is probably connected to a range of factors, including Canada's historic ties with Haiti, but also, in the case of Pakistan, to the fatigue that sets in following a series of major disasters.
If nothing else, the Somali famine has forced the world to focus its attention once again on the problems of Africa, which is beset with troubles ranging from brutal dictatorships, disease and climate change to terrorism and armed conflict. The continent and its problems well-illustrate the limits of power to change the world.