Archive for the ‘Hunger’ Category
Blanket on the ground
Felim brings his luscious blond bride back to the bridal suite on their wedding night where he strips her naked. She flops on to the bed and lies spread-eagled, leaving nothing to the imagination. She looks at Felim and says: ‘I think you know what I want big boy?”‘
‘Aye’ answers Felim ‘The whole shaggin’ bed by the looks of it!’
Crisis, What crisis?
Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries. Its people inhabit a vast swathe of territory in Africa, much of it desert or under risk of desertification. Those crops which grow are subject to devastation by locusts.
I’ve never been there and I doubt I’ll get there now, but I have heard their national radio station La Voix du Sahel broadcasting from the capital Niamey. Each night it ends its programmes with its jaunty national anthem performed by a group of school-children, most of whom are out of tune. I believe the recording was made at the time Niger gained its independence from France in 1960. I wonder how many of the school-children are still alive or even in Niger? Many, probably the lucky ones, migrated to France where they eventually settled. no doubt having to suffer discrimination and hostility at first. Others may have died of hunger in one of the incidents of mass malnutrtition which have visited Niger. A small handful may have joined the small elite of senior army officers, bureaucrats and politicians who never have to worry about hunger, who live in comfortable villas with all the latest mod-cons and who send their off-springs to be educated in either the best French lycees or exclusive American B-schools.
The Nigerien government seems to be very sesnsitive about figures. Not surprising, I suppose, given that fhese figures usually place Niger on the bottom rung in the world and that they usually hint that life has disimproved dramatically since independence. These figures are embarrassing, but the government”s response is embarrassing at another level.
The succesful case brought by Hadijatou Mani has highlighted the persistence of slavery in Niger. Human rights organisations like Anti-Slavery International claim there are as many as 40,000 slaves still in Niger; the Nigerien government dismisses the claims as grossly exaggerated. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has worked for many years in Niger, says there are tens of thousands of malnourished children in Niger. The government doesn’t agree and in July it suspended MSF’s activities in the country. Since then the charity has asked to be allowed to resume work but has received no response from the authorities. This has prompted the charity to pull out of the country altogether.
Have some of these bureaucrats trained in Ireland?
