"A Famine We Made?" By: Alex Perry (Blog 3)

          In his article, “A Famine We Made?” author Alex Perry explains the situation occurring in Southern Somalia. It turns out that Texas is not the only location that is experiencing severe droughts; Southern Somalia is experiencing it too. However, the corrupt African country is going through much worse compared to Texas. Luckily, Texans have the government and wealth to keep people from becoming very ill due to the drought. Southern Somalia is not a wealthy country, nor does it have a central government. Somalis are starving to death. And to top it all off, there is a war occurring in Somalia. Their war is not against another country. Their war is against themselves. Somali people are killing each other. Two of the symptoms for the cause of this war are piracy and the rise of the Islamists supporting strict Sharia, which is an Islamic law based on the Koran’s teachings. Somali officials have estimated that a million people have died due to war and twenty-nine thousand people have died due to starvation. Sixty-three percent of the region’s population (2.8 million people) is either starving or at risk of starvation. The U.S. is attempting to help their starvation issue by airlifting high-energy biscuits to the country. The biscuits are able to feed 1.6 million people, but only for one day.

          This situation is ridiculous. War is ridiculous. I will never understand why violence was the answer to our greatest problems. Somali people are resorting to piracy because they are desperate for wealth. I remember an incident in the year 2009 when Somali pirates captured an old couple out at sea. The pirates told the country, where the old couple were from, that they were holding the couple hostage until they receive some ridiculous amount of money. I believe it was around sixty-million dollars. The country refused to pay that amount, instead they sent in a special rescue team to rescue the two hostages. Somali people should be trying to work together to fix their corrupt government. Then, they could possibly team up with other countries to help with their own starvation issue. I wish more people would be aware of the Somali crisis and make an attempt to help.