he will put it. on it's technology innovation called in news developments from the round russia we've. covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then. part of it and realize everything you thought. welcome to the big picture. so hollerin gold does not come easy. ravaged by poverty a country torn apart. and in

a dirty war. when the peacekeepers leave one of the world's poorest nations also coming to the next humanitarian catastrophe. to watch our special coverage by you if you know she. mali african he's. on our team. please.

in july two thousand and eleven the horn of africa was struck by a wave of famine. again our screens were flooded with images of a may see that africans. over

thirteen million people in somalia kenya ethiopia eritrea and djibouti are once again threatened by famine. the u.n. approaches the international community for immediate food aid. you know the only thing you notice are children from the most horrific that we've

seen in years and. we grew up learning about africa as hunger problems. that the african people always suffer from hunger and the so-called developed world always sense food. is there perhaps something wrong with the food aid mechanism. if you're looking at all this money that has been pumped into the fifty's and you're still starving. then it means that something's not right incomes or the interest of those who are

putting to be assisted in kenya or any other african country to improve their food security part of the hate public. will be pumped. and you can see it in going to be many ways because it becomes almost like. a business. to do what. it gives once you can put together speaking we're looking at a very wealthy continent which has been now sustained into public teat just see for aid in the street and that's why we need to put two and. these approach both language. as i would you know changing the predicament. if a computer.

yeah. perhaps. northern kenya was one of the regions affected during this recent famine wave. the land is arid and barren. that was. never. carried here that was written i am the turkana are

this region's inhabitants one of kenya's most traditional tribes and their. right over. i got it in my. head it that was. their nomadic pastoralists. for centuries they have learnt to survive on this harsh land depending on the rain periods. i. know i have never yet. i. but in recent years the ongoing droughts threaten their very existence. i. am weak. in northern kenya we had a year with basically no rain and tools to qana region as seen. successive

droughts of the past few years and what we're seeing is these threats are getting more and more frequent and the rain is becoming less less common. the traps left many of the animals is very very weak so people didn't have it didn't have the usual income. of. manu titian level is really short term. not what the global acute malnutrition rate is fifteen percent in some areas of true country it was up to fifty seven percent that is more than double. the. yard work i had to go to. i mean to go to not five and they all died.

even then we couldn't eat them. your little boy in my small field was of no help the seeds died before they could sprout. a year young it was a bad year without trained we couldn't plant anything. but there was great hunger. even the wild fruit became rare. afternoon while my sister died last year during the long drought and she was old and as there was no food. she died and i came to take care of her children.

there was no food of water because it was too dry a lot of the. animal in the way. that you probably know how bad it was last year on the way most animals died. you get this is a man's tomb and the other two are women. and they died of hunger. there was no food and the government didn't help. if hope would come sooner with these people have been saved they yelled they are all the guests they would be alive and these tombs wouldn't exist you've gone.

up she was complaining that she was hungry and thirsty. all about arguably. all of the above with it she couldn't sustain herself. not but everybody knows we need food and water to live. there he put it in. how long after her death did the food arrive. after five months.

it is chilling to say the least to hear that the two thousand and one drought had been predicted and that lives could have been saved if the system functioned differently the drug does not happen just like switching on and off electricity growth is something that comes with being a period of time. after ethiopia's famine in one thousand nine hundred fourteen one thousand nine hundred five which left one million victims the us created a forecast system for dangerous droughts in order to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

in two thousand and ten this system had already warned of things to come. yeah we saw it coming and we've been warning for months before you know people were paying attention death sometimes to a problem you know the problem often with the world attention is that sometimes. people only play pay attention if you see the dying children. but i will warning systems nowadays our knowledge is so sophisticated we know months in advance we've been warning about this since the four before the crisis happened because we could see that the rains weren't good enough. but people were left to starve. they had to die before the international community was mobilized.

to speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of p.r.p. interviews intriguing story for you. then try. to find out more visit our big. dog called. i don't want to hear his you have you heard him in the way to the current state of what you do you do that but i did

a you did a and that family paid her medical. you mean i think that up to those you disagree with her. but i did. thank. you. we just need to be. giving you all the music. and you will do. the movie. the problem is that governments both national and international journalists and

also the bush monitoring community. during its always act as quickly as they can. and it takes unfortunately it takes you know those pitches on t.v. screens to really mobilize public opinion and get governments and politicians interested in the crisis. when it becomes of more interest to the international media then you tend to get a very strong public response which is extremely helpful which pushes the politicians into action because when the public cares about it then the politicians where they need to to respond because. their public expects them to do so. unfortunately you know action should have been taken at the start of two thousand and eleven or earlier in the year. victory really of stopped it becoming such

a big crisis but unfortunately. far too often the action isn't taken until it's too late and so people are already suffering. and it's not the first time that the turkana people receive help. international organizations and n.g.o.s have been visiting their area for the last fifteen years . and it will always welcome them with joyous song. am. i

am. ever. good. bob marley no no no no. the women are not your mother no no no. no they provide them with food that accident the children and check them for signs of malnutrition. on the way that you come from. from the tell of. how far is

motel of. many hours away which means that it was left for the sunrise. for decades to turkana have been living in a constant state of hunger. they belong to one billion people around the world who have no access to their daily nourishment while at the same time more food than ever is being produced on the planet. contrary to crisis periods this chronic hunger phenomenon rarely reaches the evening news. never the less it is deadly. it kills over fifteen million people yearly. three times more than those killed during the gear of the second world war. approximately six and

a half million of them are children eighteen thousand die every day. to fight hunger the international community decided to distribute food to those in need. however since its birth in one nine hundred fifty four and until today food aid has never been a matter of sheer humanitarianism it's been a matter of economic and political correlations with the u.s. playing the leading role the simple reason everyone focuses on u.s. food aid policy is us accounts for more than half of all the world's food aid so as goes the united states so goes the global food aid regime you know the united

states is providing fifty to sixty percent of the world's food aid any given year all of europe combined only provide fifteen to twenty percent. of the. we have given much to the impoverished peoples of europe one simple thing about i'm sorry. but as a countermeasure against the attempt by the soviet union come you know if you're up the american people sharpen the strategy for cooperating with the non communist countries in a comprehensive bipartisan european recovery program. after the success of the marshall plan which delivered tons of food to western europe. in one thousand nine hundred eighty four president eisenhower signed the famous public

law for eighty one. the new laws the purpose was to distribute the u.s. agricultural surpluses serving at the same time as a tool for economic and foreign policy which would help promote the country's interests. according to the president's own words the new law lays the basis for expanding our exports of agricultural products with lasting benefits to ourselves and peoples of other lands. said oh it's great growth and not the deleterious effect on our football. if you're going to break the bonds of their very we play our best efforts to help them help them. all at her very very quiet not because the communists may be going it not because we think they're both but we are getting it right in one thousand nine hundred

eighty one president kennedy acknowledged public love for eighty as being a fundamental importance to the united states and renamed it food for peace. so the primary objective of food aid policy was surplus disposal but it had a secondary objectives the hope that it would also build future export markets for u.s. agricultural commodities and that it could achieve humanitarian objectives associated with reducing hunger and under-nutrition and that it could perhaps with some our allies abroad. with the same law kennedy founded usaid the u.s. organization responsible for international development which would administer civilian foreign aid. is. the u.s. government for spreading beyond many cunning flurried policy through human

dignity and to systems. during the cold war large quantities of food were sent to countries of strategic importance to the united states like india indonesia and pakistan. likewise large cargoes were sent to eastern asia during the korean and vietnam wars. during the seventy's a large bulk of food aid went to the middle east. during the ninety's after the fall of the berlin wall food aid was directed to countries the former eastern bloc the same pattern was repeated in afghanistan and iraq during the war on terror. if you have took aboard diplomacy it's a bit a subtle way of pushing a message of agenda. to another country you know because if you if you've seen even

in a more suchness training elephants for their training even cheap and since they use food in that if you don't train much upon such a dance like a human being you keep rewarding it with a little beast people something so. vindictive you jump up american people sing jump up you jump up see what i mean. from very early on africa became the focus of attention as the u.s. and soviet union were trying to gain zones of influence countries like somalia ethiopia and kenya received help.

there's a little peace is good as it would be easy to prove to them or the police doesn't mean that the united states is doing business to actually be providing you know the same time. there's no politics behind it going in there we're trying to do things in a way that is most effective way to save lives so i don't think that criticism really holds true. i'm honored to work for this organization i think we do fabulous were partners in the united nations and it's really inspiring. when there's bugger riots with an american plug on needs from the american people. if the first thing is this the appreciation of the american people because if

somebody helps you then you have to appreciate the. country that assists your people in this topping the approach you to bring in the investments. you see the be very much willing to tell them good them come and if you're not just doing the the funding in the hole in last year. the child needs to study what their wisdom comes we should do the chinese also for the first time brought their food aid completely to trucks they also must have much is that wait a minute this food aid thing is not just the tusk another soaked up torch in terms of winning over a country to dominate over to push their value such across the globe.

apart from helping foreign policy food aid also had other benefits and help with internal affairs and we had a large american agribusiness and shipping companies. but there are other important beneficiaries lurking in the shadows one are agribusinesses and i emphasize agribusinesses rather than for. farmers because very little food aid is sold by farmers directly that sold by large firms the great hidden beneficiary for u.s. food aid and this is distinct from any other food aid program in the world are the shippers.

i would rather ask questions for people in positions of power instead of speak on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.t. question more.

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