Horn of Africa: Millions at Risk in "Deadly Cocktail" of War, Climate Change, Neoliberalism
This video from Democracy New is an examination of the Horn of Africa famine and in concentrated mainly on the interview of author Christian Parenti. Parenti attributes this problem to war, climate change change and the neoliberal strategies of unabrasive free market policies. I will examine climate change in other weeks. However, Thisneoliberal agenda is an example of development strategies (such as the one I have examined in Rwanda) and the effects they can produce when the triple bottom line is heavily weighted towards economic prosperity as opposed to social or environmental justice. (Faloon 2008). As Amartya Sen has examined in depth it is not necessarily the lack of food that causes a famine. In both the Bengal Famine of 1973 and the Irish Potato Famine there was food, it was just an issue of availability(Sen 1983). As Parenti espouses ‘Prices have risen over 300%, so while there is food available, it is simply out of reach of the common person on the ground’.
Bader, Pascal. 2008. Sustainability: From principle to Practice. Available at http://www.goethe.de/ges/umw/dos/nac/den/en3106180.htm
Sen, Amartya. 1983. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation. Clarendon Press. London
