On the third page of a recent edition of Malawi's leading daily newspaper, there was a small article which said the number of people facing hunger in the country is now 1.97 million. This figure represents approximately 11 per cent of the population, and is a 21 per cent increase from the last estimate. The rest of the paper covered business as usual.
There is nothing immediately dramatic about this hunger crisis. People are not dying. Populations are not moving. There is no visible epicentre around which media can mobilize to take heart-wrenching photographs.
The crisis has not happened suddenly. Visitors over the years would notice the gradual erosion of greenery, the deforestation, the growing barrenness of the landscape around villages. But even the villagers themselves barely distinguish this year from the one before. Their hunger has become chronic.
Yet the impact of their hunger in 2012 will shape the rest of their lives, particularly, the lives of the children.
In the village of Nedi, 25 year old Patricia Patero is already a mother of four. Like her neighbours, Patricia's family has been hit by another year of poor rains and poor harvest. She sold her few belongings months ago, and now supplements her income by chopping down any remaining trees and selling them as charcoal, or working as casual labour in the nearby fields, picking weeds in exchange for mangoes. This may bring in four to five dollars a week.
The money doesn't go far, not with inflation at 28 per cent and the price of her main food source - maize - now double what it was last year. Her coping strategy is to reduce the amount of food the family eats every day, from two small meals per day to one.
Other villagers have similar stories. Fathers regret having to take their children out of school to work as casual labourers in the fields. Mothers fear for how frequently their weakened children are falling sick with malaria and diarrhea. Teachers speak of a 20 per cent drop in school attendance due to hunger-related absences. Grandparents and parents worry particularly for the young girls, so easily abused - a risk made even more severe by the country's 11 per cent HIV rate.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201211180249.html
Beady Eye david bowie Eric Idle rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim Rio de Janeiro Shark Week
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