Shin Ugly Blog

I will be gone for the next week, but thought this letter worth sharing before I left.

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Paul:

I noticed that you’d posted a notice about Sudan’s Darfur region on the blog. I was just writing to see if you could do the same on behalf of Niger.

A season of failed crops, drought and a plague of locusts have conspired to turn Niger into another 1980’s Ethiopia by fall. The UN estimates it will take another two months to mount a full-scale relief effort - and there are ALREADY thousands of children dying of starvation daily.

One thing that’s always struck me since my move to Europe is how LITTLE media coverage of Africa and Asia I had access to in the States. What many people your side of the Atlantic may not know is that this African nightmare-scenario was actually forecast months in advance by numerous humanitarian agencies - and was therefore 100 % preventable. Once again, Europe and the rest of the industrialized world looked the other way…

Please ask your readers to donate to their relief organization of choice - AND to pressure their government representatives to step up US relief efforts.

I have no doubt that the western world has the technology and resources to end the needless suffering of millions NOW…

The only question is where shall the political will come from? If it comes from anywhere, it must come from WE THE PEOPLE!

Thanks, Jason

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Here’s an abbreviated version you can send to your elected representatives, taken from Jason’s text:

A season of failed crops, drought and a plague of locusts have conspired to turn Niger into another 1980’s Ethiopia by fall. The UN estimates it will take another two months to mount a full-scale relief effort - and there are ALREADY thousands of children dying of starvation daily.

This African nightmare-scenario was actually forecast months in advance by numerous humanitarian agencies - and was therefore 100 % preventable. Once again, Europe and the rest of the industrialized world looked the other way.

I have no doubt that the western world has the technology and resources to end the needless suffering of millions NOW.

Please speak and act on behalf of us all.

Thank you.

Here’s a good link for finding your representatives and actually sending the message:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2005 at 2:31 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.