Headline:Over a million Africans flee flooding
Disaster:Flood (Hydrosphere)
Date: September 15
Source:http://www.thestar.com/article/257029
Summary
Across Africa more than a million people, in 17 different countries, have been affected by torrential downpours and flash floods. So far the death toll is numbering in the hundreds and could continue to grow if the prediction for more floods to come is correct. Emergency teams are requiring boats and helicopters to deliver emergency supplies due to washed out roads and collapsed bridges. The hundreds of thousands of people who are currently displaced due to the floods are a main concern to the government as the threat of an outbreak of disease grows and grows with the lack of clean water, medical supplies, shelter and food. In some places, local officials say that the flood damage has had such a severe effect due to deforestation. The damage done will take awhile to repair, as not only schools, houses and other buildings have been destroyed, but farm lands of important crops like maize and mallet have been destroyed.
Response:
It is without a doubt that this is a horrible tragedy. However what makes it even more so is people's, mainly North Americans response to this catastrophe. What is the response you ask? Its just Africa. In this day and age it seems to be common acceptance that Africa is a troubled place. I was watching a news report the other week on this incident, and that's when it really struck me how isolated we are. I was channel flipping between the various news stations that evening, and only one had any information on the floods. It was the BBC world news. As for Canadian news, which there had to be at least 5 different stations of it, nothing. Not a single word. It was highly alarming. With hundreds of people dead and more possibly joining them, one of their main agricultural resources wiped out and now the threat of wide spread disease, its basically repulsing that we do not really know. Our government has at least pledged $3 million dollars in aid, but the affected countries will need more. These peoples’ entire lives have just been washed away, and yet no one is really trying to help them. If this had happened in the states we would be there in a second helping these people think of all the times we have donated our time and money to assist victims of hurricanes. We have been there time and time again donating millions of dollars all on this one country. Yet we can only give 3 million to 17 different countries? This raises the question, what is the real difference between the United States and Africa in our eyes?
