Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Media Disinformation and 

the Causes of the Somali Famine

By William Bowles

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25889

Global Research, August 4, 2011

Strategic Culture Foundation and williambowles.info

BBC news coverage of the famine in Somalia has been saturating the airwaves and it's always like this whenever 'natural disasters' strike. Fundamentally it's little more than a fund-raising promo paid for with our taxes as endlessly repeated shots of emaciated babies and dying people serves no informative purpose except to tug covetously at our purse strings. And of course it has the added benefit of distracting us from our own condition – until the next crisis comes our way.

The experience of Somalia shows that famine in the late 20th century is not a consequence of a shortage of food. On the contrary, famines are spurred on as a result of a global oversupply of grain staples. Since the 1980s, grain markets have been deregulated under the supervision of the World Bank and US grain surpluses are used systematically as in the case of Somalia to destroy the peasantry and destabilize national food agriculture. The latter becomes, under these circumstances, far more vulnerable to the vagaries of drought and environmental degradation. -- Michel Chossudovsky

News coverage is further complicated by the fact that the disaster is taking place in a Western-originated and maintained 'war on terror'. Thus the ban on aid entering the region controlled by al-Shabab, the 'terrorists' is made play of by the BBC, though it presents us with conflicting stories on the subject.
On 6 July the BBC carried a story titled, 'Somalia Islamists lift aid ban to help drought victims' but then on 22 July we read that somehow al- Shabab had managed to maintain a ban that it had supposedly lifted, 'Somali Islamists maintain aid ban'. Methinks the BBC speaks with forked tongue.[1]
But what of the US sanctions in place on Somalia? The BBC carries one story on the subject of the sanctions put in place by Obama in April 2010 that banned any US aid to areas controlled by al-Shabab (which is pretty much the entire country apart from a few streets in what's left of Mogadishu, the capital) and now revised with the following proviso made by the deputy administrator of USAID:

"What we need is assurances from the World Food Programme and from other agencies, the United Nations or other agencies, both public and in the non-governmental sector, who are willing to go into Somalia who will tell us affirmatively that they are not being taxed by al-Shabab, they are not being subjected to bribes from al-Shabab, that they can operate unfettered" -- 'US 'to aid Islamist areas of famine-hit Somalia'', BBC 20 July 2011

In other words, so far no aid is being sent by the US, thus the reality betrays the claims of the headline.
Meanwhile...

"They call it "bug splat", the splotch of blood, bones, and viscera that marks the site of a successful drone strike. To those manning the consoles in Nevada, it signifies 'suspected militants' who have just been 'neutralised' to those on the ground, in most cases, it represents a family that has been shattered, a home destroyed." -- 'Murder By Video Game And 'Bug Splats': CIA Drone War In Pakistan' By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

The BBC is less effusive on death by drone attack. Shots of the the uncounted victims of the Empire's drone attacks are also somewhat thinner on the ground (ie. zero) with a total of just six stories between the 27 May 2011 and today and no closeups of 'bug splats'. But every time one of the Empire's soldier's dies somewhere, the BBC not only notifies us of the death but we a get a photo and short bio thrown in. No such tribute to the people of Pakistan wiped out so casually by somebody sitting in a room in North Carolina playing real death video games.
Just how coy the BBC is about the Empire's reign of death from the sky is summed up thus:

"The US says the region is home to al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents.
"It says militants who have found sanctuary in these areas are involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan. North and South Waziristan are regularly targeted by drone missiles.
/../
A number of militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but many civilians have also died." -- 'Pakistan: Drone attacks in Waziristan 'kill 30', BBC 12 July 2011

The BBC has even given up inserting the word 'alleged' before 'militants' as the only source is apparently the US military for the claims of 'dead militants' and one wonders just how many 'many civilians' really is as no one is bothering to count the 'bug splats'.
The IMF as a 'natural disaster'
The disjuncture is complete. On the one hand endless video footage of emaciated Somalis trudging through a parched (or flooded) landscape, and on the other - nothing except a PR handout by the Empire.
The reality behind the 'natural disaster' in Somalia is altogether different than the Western media's portrayal of events in the Horn of Africa and extends back to the transformation of Somalia by the IMF into a 'failed state' in 1991.

"Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are quietly sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside.
"According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. -- 'Somalia: the Real Causes of Famine' by Michel Chossudovsky, 21 July 2011

Between 5 July and 3 August, the BBC ran 30 stories on the famine in Somalia but without exception not a single story recounts the history of Somalia or the role of of the West in creating the conditions that have led to the unfolding disaster.

"Somalia was a pastoral economy based on "exchange" between nomadic herdsmen and small agriculturalists. Nomadic pastoralists accounted for 50 percent of the population. In the 1970s, resettlement programs led to the development of a sizeable sector of commercial pastoralism. Livestock contributed to 80 percent of export earnings until 1983. Despite recurrent droughts, Somalia remained virtually self-sufficient in food until the 1970s.
"The IMF-World Bank intervention in the early 1980s contributed to exacerbating the crisis of Somali agriculture. The economic reforms undermined the fragile exchange relationship between the "nomadic economy" and the "sedentary economy" - i.e. between pastoralists and small farmers characterized by money transactions as well as traditional barter. A very tight austerity program was imposed on the government largely to release the funds required to service Somalia's debt with the Paris Club. In fact, a large share of the external debt was held by the Washington-based financial institutions." -- (ibid)

So, far from being a 'natural disaster' events in Somalia can be traced directly to Western intervention, an intervention carried out in at least one hundred indebted economies the world over in the name of 'structural adjustment'.
Note
1. World Food Program in Somalia: Angel of Mercy or Angel of Death? By Thomas C. Mountain
See also: 'US-backed forces launch military offensive in Somalia as aid is used as a weapon of war By Susan Garth'

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__________ Sunday, August 7, 2011 ________________


TODAY'S TOP STORIES
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information Clearing House Newsletter News You Won't Find On CNN August 06, 2011 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Just so everyone is clear: The Outstanding US Public Debt as of 06 Aug 2011 at 11:04:19 PM GMT is: $ 1 4 , 5 7 3 , 0 5 1 , 8 5 1 , 5 9 5 . 3 0 Just over 14.5 Trillion Dollars The estimated population of the United States is 311,072,294 so each citizen's share of this debt is $46,847.80. How Much Is A trillion? A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. A million minutes ago was - 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago. A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ. A million hours ago was in 1885. A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth. A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury. A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury. [Note: this was pre-Obama] One trillion seconds ago - 31,688 years - Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe. Million: 1,000,000 Billion: 1,000,000,000 Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000 And we the people of the USA, formerly the richest and most abundantly resourced continent on the face of this planet owe 14 of them to the private banking cartels. From 'Sirk' on the Yahoo comments thread. = "Everybody Knows" Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That's how it goes Everybody knows Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows that the captain lied Everybody got this broken feeling Like their father or their dog just died Leonard Cohenhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28769.htm = Let Us Get Off Our Knees Take The Pledge "I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza until our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning." http://october2011.org/welcome === Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590" Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq:   4,792 www.icasualties.org/oif/ Number Of  International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,656 = Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan Total Cost of Wars Since 2001 $1,229,447,424,988http://www.costofwar.com/ = Humanity At A Crossroads Libya and Universal Human Rights By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey Any Nation which does NOT bring a case against NATO is a snivelling coward and as such deserves the utter derision of the international community; http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28780.htm === WikiLeaks Cables Show US Strategy for Regime Change in Syria By Kevin Gosztola The rebels the US has supported (and possibly armed) are now dealing with "tribal hostilities" within their ranks, meaning they are now assassinating and killing one another. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28781.htm === The Credit Crisis Rages On Why the Dow fell 512 points on Thursday By Mike Whitney What does it all mean? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28775.htm === A New Historic Low S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating for First Time By Zachary A. 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Military planning against Iran is underway. And we are certainly concerned about an escalation of a large-scale war in this huge region," Rogozin added. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192596.html === Somali mother sends children back to famine as camps overflow: When Somali mother Eblah Sheikh Aden gathered her seven children and set off walking for Ethiopia to find food, she never imagined she would end up sending some of her brood back into the heart of famine. http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77504D20110806 === UK Torture inquiry 'pointless' as key groups plan boycott: Human rights groups and lawyers representing some of the detainees warned they do not plan to take part because it lacks "credibility or transparency". http://tgr.ph/nC9SLY === Average US income drops $3,500 from 2008: The average income was $54,283, a drop of more than $3,500, or 6 percent, from 2008. That put the average income at its lowest level since 1997. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60717.html === "Let us be peace and joy" Tom Feeley

Weekly Report from Taiwan Security Research (Aug. 7, 2011)

For full text, click on the title or visit the TSR web page at taiwansecurity.org

South China Sea Dispute Heats Up

China Issues Guidelines to Ease South China Sea Tensions
(Reuters, Aug. 2, 2011) China has unveiled rules aimed at easing territorial disputes with southeast Asian nations with an official newspaper on Tuesday placed much of the blame for recent tensions in the South China Sea on U.S. trouble-making.

Cross-Strait Issues

ECFA Follow-Up Negotiations Slated for Aug. 1-7
(CNA, Aug. 1, 2011) A new round of follow-up negotiations on the landmark Taiwan-China trade pact signed last year is slated for the week beginning Aug. 1 in Taipei, MOEA said.

Chinese Tourists Bring NT$200 Billion: Official
(CNA, Aug. 6, 2011) Tourists from mainland China have created more than NT$200 billion (US$6.94 billion) in foreign exchange reserves for Taiwan over the past three years, the Tourism Bureau said.

U.S. Policy and U.S.-China Engagement

China Welcomes Locke Appointment, Warns on Taiwan F-16 Sale
(VOA, Aug. 4, 2011) China is welcoming the confirmation of U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke in a commentary in the ruling party's flagship newspaper.

China Reacts to Admiral Mullen Visit By Peter Mattis(China Brief 11(14), Jamestown Foundation, Jul. 29, 2011) The best evaluation is the recognition, that while Beijing and Washington view the world in fundamentally different ways, silence and mistrust have consequences.

China Tells U.S. It Must ‘Cure Its Addiction to Debt’ By David Barboza (New York Times, Aug. 7, 2011) China, the largest foreign holder of United States debt, said that Washington needed to “cure its addiction to debts” and “live within its means,” just hours after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s long-term debt.

PLA, Military Balance and Arms Sales

China Begins to Build Its Own Aircraft Carrier By Bill Gertz(Washington Times, Aug. 1, 2011) China has begun work on its first aircraft carrier and probably will develop two or more, along with outfitting a former Russian carrier that is set to begin sea trials soon, Pentagon officials.

Beijing Confronts Long-Standing Weakness in Anti-Submarine Warfare By Lyle Goldstein (China Brief 11(14), Jamestown Foundation, Jul. 29, 2011) Observers of China’s naval development generally accept that Chinese anti-submarine warfare remains an Achilles’ Heel of the otherwise highly methodical and quite remarkable evolution of Chinese maritime power.

Taiwan Wins in War Simulation: Report
(Taipei Times, Aug. 2, 2011) The latest computerized scenario carried out by the military showed that in a war with China, Taiwan’s military was able to defeat enemy forces after they landed and tried to occupy the country, a local newspaper said.

Taiwan Lowers Its Military Sights By Jens Kastner(Asia Times, Aug. 2, 2011) The Taiwanese military released its regular defense white paper, which some observers likened to the island waving a white flag of surrender.

Seeking an Answer on U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan By Paul Mozur(Wall Street Journal, Aug. 1, 2011) Should the U.S. back away from its defense commitments to Taiwan? There is no clear evidence that the Obama administration is acting on that advice yet, but the fact that the debate is out there, and that questions are being asked is certainly a significant change.

181 U.S. Congressmen Urge Prompt Sale of F-16 C/Ds to Taiwan
(CNA, Aug. 2, 2011) One hundred and eighty-one United States' congressmen have urged the U.S. to sell F-16 C/D jet fighters to Taiwan as soon as possible to help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

‘Journal’ Editorial Warns Obama Not to Appease China by Withholding Jets (Taipei Times, Aug. 6, 2011) The Wall Street Journal has published an editorial on its Web site, warning Obama not to appease Beijing.

US Governor Lobbies for Sale of F-16’s to Taiwan
(CNA, Aug. 7, 2011) Citing his state's dismal unemployment rate, Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, recently wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama asking the federal government to accept Taiwan's request to buy F-16 C/D jet fighters as soon as possible.

Taiwan's Domestic Issues and Foreign Relations

Opinion Poll on 2012 Presidential Election and Legislative Elections (China Times, Aug. 5, 2011) 33% of respondents supported Presdient Ma Ying-jeou, 28.6% Tsai Yin-wen, and 10.3% James Soong.

Tsai to Announce VP on Aug. 28
(China Post, Aug. 3, 2011) After months of speculation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen will finally announce her vice presidential running mate on Aug. 28, her campaign spokesperson confirmed.

U.S. Rating Downgrade to Have Little Impact on Taiwan: Official
(CNA, Aug. 7, 2011) Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating will have only a slight affect on Taiwan's economy, government officials said.

‘Taiwan Academies’ to Open First in US
(Taipei Times, Aug. 5, 2011) Taiwan is set to open institutes in New York, Los Angeles and Houston in the US in October as part of a project initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou to establish “Taiwan Academies” worldwide to promote “Taiwanese culture with Chinese characteristics,” an official said.

US Disinterest Is Barrier to FTA: Scholar
(CNA, Aug. 5, 2011) The real barrier to the signing of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Taiwan is not China's opposition, but American disinterest and Taiwanese protectionism, a research fellow of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation said.

Taiwan’s ‘Freedom of Action’ in Danger By William Lowther(Taipei Times, Aug. 5, 2011) Robert Sutter of George Washington University told a conference titled “The Future of US-Taiwan Relations” that there is a dark underside to the very positive sentiments that are expressed toward Taiwan by Washington.

China's Rise and Its Domestic Issues

China Blames Foreign-Trained Separatists for Attacks in Xinjiang By Michael Wines (New York Times, Aug. 1, 2011) Chinese authorities accused Pakistan-trained Uighur separatists of planning and executing the first of two deadly attacks over the weekend that struck the ancient Silk Road town of Kashgar in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.

Japan Policy

Japan Warns of Rise in China’s Naval Activities
(BBC, Aug. 2, 2011) China's naval forces are stepping up their activities in the East and South China Seas, and the Pacific, Japan has warned in its annual defense report.

Keep an Eagle Eye on China’s Military Buildup
(Editorial, Yomiuri Shinmbun, Aug. 2, 2011) Other countries are becoming increasingly nervous about China's expanded maritime activities. These include Australia and India, as well as Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines. Tokyo must look into the possibility of cooperating with these countries.

China Lashes Out at Japan for Criticizing Its Military Buildup
(AFP, Aug. 5, 2011) China launched a series of blistering attacks on key rival Japan after a defense paper approved by Tokyo criticized Beijing’s military buildup and growing territorial assertiveness.

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Regards,

Dalton LinEditor, Taiwan Security Research