Graffiti depicting Mogadishu's roving militias. As we all know, news has become commodified, is sold in a market of competition, where "appealing" beats "informative" in the same way that "tasty" beats "nutritious". The places we hear about - Iraq, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq - while being pretty fucked up situations themselves, are really only a fraction of the terrible fuckedupitude of the world. As terrible as Iraqis have it, media attention means they're more likely to get assistance than not.
Enter Doctors Without Borders' top 10 fucked up situations that no one's talking about. Here's a quick rundown.
15 years of internal conflict dropped a little last year, when the Islamic Court Union formed and took control of the capital, Mogadishu. Previously, Mogadishu was... Well, some people would say anarchic, but I know better. It was ruled by militias who "preyed on the local population". The ICU claimed its intention was to "ensure that Somali people suffering for 15 years would gain peace and full justice and freedom from the anarchic rule of warlords who refuted their people to no direction." See that? "Anarchic rule". I mean, come on.
Anyway, once in power, they allegedly were more about imposing Sharia law. Or something. The West intervened, along with Ethiopia, backing the "Transitional National Government" in taking Somalia from the ICU. The ICU eventually resigned, listing some pretty sensible reasons, and oh yeah, there were also a bunch of natural disasters. Somalia is fucked.
More coups and violence. The CAR used to be a French colony, but since its independence in 1960, it's had a pretty shitty time. For three decade, it was ruled by a series of unelected leaders who often took office by force. In '93, with help from the UN Office for Electoral Affairs, they had their first democratic election. This hasn't stopped some rebel forces from causing trouble, however, and violence has caused 100,000 civilians to flee across the border to Chad - a country named after Midwestern high-school quarterbacks. Malaria and other diseases abound throughout the refugees, many of whom are young children. The Central African Republic is fucked.
TB isn't something you catch in nice white countries like our own, but apparently in Oogabooga Land and such, the coloureds are quite prone to it. Almost 2 million people a year die from TB, and often both prevention and cure would be possible if the world wasn't so fucked. Worse than that, the Miracle of Evolution has occurred, and there are now prevalent strains of TB that are resistant to both first-line and second-line antibiotics. Superbugs, we used to call them, back in the day. More preventable deaths every minute of the day, tuberculosis is fucked.
I'm surprised we've even heard of Chechnya's existence, there's so much of a media blackout on coverage of the war-torn country. Even though many refugees are now returning to their homes, the society has been shattered by Russia's refusal to let Chechnya out of its grip, and while responsibility is ostensibly handed on to an ostensibly Chechen government, abductions and violence continue daily.
The war between the official Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers continues, with civilians being caught in the crossfire. The Tigers want a separate state for Sri Lanka's Tamil population, and the Sri Lankan government doesn't want to give up large sections of its state. Odd. Doctors Without Borders continue their work there as best they can, faced with obstacles like the murders of aid workers and suspicion of international agencies from all sides. Sri Lanka is fucked.
Acute Malnutrition
I read this poem once, about a butterfly that emerged while it was raining, and it rained for all of its two-day life, and then it died. Meanwhile, right this minute, 60 million children around the world suffer from acute malnutrition. That's some seriously preventable shit right there. You don't have to have wars to have malnutrition, you just have to live in a world that pours resources into making iPods and superyachts while children starve to death. Doctors Without Borders have had some success with feeding malnourished kids a milk/peanut-butter paste. Gaining weight and not dying is an improvement, but come on, humanity, you can do better. Acute malnutrition is fucked.
I read this poem once, about a butterfly that emerged while it was raining, and it rained for all of its two-day life, and then it died. Meanwhile, right this minute, 60 million children around the world suffer from acute malnutrition. That's some seriously preventable shit right there. You don't have to have wars to have malnutrition, you just have to live in a world that pours resources into making iPods and superyachts while children starve to death. Doctors Without Borders have had some success with feeding malnourished kids a milk/peanut-butter paste. Gaining weight and not dying is an improvement, but come on, humanity, you can do better. Acute malnutrition is fucked.
The Democratic Republic of Congo
Once again, rebels versus governments equals fucked civilians. Count 'em: measles, malaria, rape, meningitis, cholera, no clean water... 50,000 displaced civilians. In the last 10 years, 4 million people have died from violence in the former Belgian colony. The UN says 1000 people are dying a day. It's just fucked.
Colombia
Second only to the Sudan in terms of internally displaced people, 3 million people have fled their homes in Colombia. The conflict between the capitalist government plus associated paramilitary groups and rebel groups like FARC have, surprise surprise, resulted in massive trouble for the civilian populace. To fund their struggle, the FARC fall back on the drugs trade and kidnappings, which gives them a bad rap, but Phil Rees' interviews and encounters with them in his excellent book Dining with Terrorists is worth a read for a different perspective.
Haiti
Haiti, a special favourite of being fucked over by the West, some great information is available from Democracy Now!. Haiti was the home of Emmanuel Constant, a CIA-backed murderous terrorist who for years lived happily in Queens, New York, secure in the knowledge that both Clinton and Bush II would dismiss extradition claims. Yes, the US harbours wanted terrorists. Constant's now in prison for rape, but still won't be extradited. Who'd have thought. Chomsky on Haiti, though written in 2004, still relevant.
Central India
"In central India's Chhattisgarh state, clashes between Maoist insurgents, Indian security forces and anti-Maoist militias, also known as Salwa Judum, has been occurring for more than 25 years, resulting in the displacement, sometimes reportedly forced, of more than 50,000 civilians. Others flee into neighboring states while thousands of people have lost their livelihoods and have little access to their land, food, essential health care, or emergency medical services."
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