Nonreporting of crisis bad news for people of Somalia

There is a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, but you probably do not know, Otago economics professor Stephen Knowles writes.

Acartoon published in the ODT in the 1990s shows a man slumped on his couch snoozing, while the news reader reports on a devastating flood in Bangladesh, which caused many deaths.

Then the sports news starts, with an update on All Black Zinzan Brooke’s knee injury. The man immediately wakes up, eager to hear about Zinzan’s knee.

The message behind the cartoon is clear. It is easy to ignore crises far away, that are unlikely to have any impact on us, especially if they are happening to people different from us.

Floods in Asia are still reported by the media in New Zealand. However, a major humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa (which is especially serious in Somalia) seems too far away to make the news.

For months now, a serious food crisis has been unfolding. One child per minute is being admitted to a health facility with malnutrition in Somalia alone. The United Nations has been warning that inevitably a famine will be declared.

There has been very little media coverage of the crisis in New Zealand, despite ongoing efforts by aid agencies here trying to raise awareness of the crisis. But aside from a couple of stories here and there on mainstream news channels and platforms, the coverage is minimal.

The story not being reported here is bad news for the people of Somalia.

Research by economists has shown that donations in response to such crises are higher, the greater the media coverage. Consistent with this, staff from global aid agencies operating in New Zealand report that it has been harder to raise money for projects in Somalia than in Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis is in the news all the time, whereas the Somalia crisis has largely not been reported. What is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, but so is what is happening in Somalia.

Several aid agencies are raising money for the crisis, including Save the Children, which has been working in the region since the early 1950s and last year reached some three million people, including 1.7 million children.

There are several factors contributing to the Somalia hunger crisis including decades of civil war, four years of failed rains (which climate change is contributing to), the Covid pandemic and higher food prices due to the war in Ukraine.

Many of these factors are external. Somalia’s contribution to climate change is tiny. It did not start the war in Ukraine. Covid originated elsewhere. Only the civil war is an internal factor and the children dying from malnutrition did not start the war.

The food crisis in Somalia is not big news here, and this is no doubt making it harder for international development charities to raise funds for their programmes to help the malnourished. Perhaps when famine is finally declared it will make the news and more money will be raised. Hopefully, that won’t be too late.

TODAY is Thursday, February 2, the 33rd day of 2023. There are 332 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1864 — A fire breaks out in the premises of general merchants Messrs G. and H. Hart, near the top of Stafford St.

Due to a lack of water it quickly spreads, causing widespread damage.

1878 — Dunedin telegraph office employee Alois Lubecki makes the first telephone call in New Zealand, from the Dunedin Telegraph Office to Charles

Henry, in Milton. Within a short time telegraph poles and crossbars carrying wires are erected across the country.

1901 — A crowd of 20,000 gathers at the grounds of the New Zealand Parliament to mourn Queen Victoria on the day of her funeral in London. Huge processions and ceremonies are held throughout the country and trains stop running for half an hour; Sir Edward William Stafford, three times New Zealand prime minister, dies aged 81.

1905 — A large crowd gathers in central Oamaru to witness Governor Lord Plunket unveil the South African War Memorial.

1931 — New Zealand woman Katerina Darley (nee Nehua) swims for nearly 48

1973 — Richard Hadlee makes his debut in test cricket when New Zealand plays Pakistan at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

2021 — Waikouaiti and Karitane residents receive notice not to use their tap water for drinking, cooking or in the preparation of food due to elevated levels of lead in the water supply.