Opinion
Wednesday, December 9, 1992
Starving Africans desperate for relief
Somalia gets help with 'Operation Restore Hope'
by Robert A. Hibberd
Co-Editor-in-Chief
When I thumb through
the channels on my remote con­
trol television, I sometimes
stumble upon images of starv­
ing African people. Most often
I find them on channel lOor 20.
Usually the shows con­
sist of Sally Struthers wading
through a desperate mass of
Africans. She wears an expen­
sive dress and speaks as though
she’s asking Daddy to forgive
Meathead. Struthers’ perfor­
mances most often give me the
feeling that the production is
being sensationalized. Really,
is it possible to feed a family on
a few cents a day?7
But lately , I have been
finding the starving Africans
on channels two, six and eight.
It seems that 1,000 Somalian
citizens are dying each day, and
it seems that 300,000 Somalis
are already dead and 1.5 mil­
lion are on the verge of death. It
also Seems that efforts to get
food and medicine to the Afri­
cans have failed because feud­
ing Somali clans and bandits
(gangs) have been stealing toe
food for themselves.
Ì hear that toe entire
country of Somalia is at war.
Nobody has told me what toe
war is really about, but from
what I can gather, there are
vation being broadcast on toe
nightly news. The same kind of
images that I’ve been able to
build an immunity against since
toe L.A. riots.
Everything was going
fine;.! figured that sooner or
later BobGeldof or PeterGabriel
or somebody would see the news
broadcasts and do some relief
concert and then everything
wouldbe cool in toe world again.
Iwouldfeelgoodbecauselcould
catch a good concert and donate
some cash for a Shirt and help
toe Somalis in toe mean-time.
Then, all of the sud­
den, I discovered that we (toe
U.S.) are planning some mili­
tary action to get relief to the
Somalis. This was surprising
because it goes against the cur­
rent policy of just letting toe
desperate nations kill them­
selves off. Apparently, we are
planning to use an amphibious
unit of Marines to capture toe
international airport at
Mogadishu so other troops and
equipment can arrive safely.
The mission is being
authorized by toe 15-nation
Security Council. It is being
called "Operation Restore
Hope." It will be a U.S.-led
multinational event. It seems
like a very well thought-out
mission that (considering the
inexperience of the Somali
gangs) will most assuredly suc­
severalfactio.ns(gangs) shoot­
I
ing afone anotier for food and * ceed.
All things considered,
territory and stuff like that. I
guess,outofall toe gangs,there I feel fine about this plan to help
are two major gang leaders-a . the. starving Somali citizens.
guy named Abdulrahman Tour
commands toe northern half of
toe country, while a guy called
General MohamedFairah Aidid
controls the southern half of the
capitól.1
Anyway,toeSomalian
image is almost toe same as toe
Yugoslavian image-alotof des­
perate shots of warring and star-:
But whenever I hear
about American-led relief ef­
forts overseas, I’m compelled
to think about toe relief needs
here at home. I think about our
inner-city citizens that are suf­
fering because their communi­
ties have been taken over by
gangs. I think about toe Afri­
can-American mother who is
afraid to let her children go
o
SOMALIA
outside after dark because of the
danger on the streets of her
community. I think about the
African-American child who
won’t eat dinner tonight be­
cause her mother is numbing
toe pain of poverty with toe
dose of heroin she bought in­
stead of food. I can’t help but
think of a generation of Afri­
can-Americans stricken with
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and
other, related afflictions.
I’m thinking that if it
is entirely possibletoeffectively
relieve a country such as Soma­
lia, then it should be entirely
possible to relieve American
cities that are suffering from toe
similar sort of dilemma, such as
L.A.
What if we (the U.S.)
were to set up a Marine am­
phibious assault unit out in toe
Pacific Ocean along toe coast of
California? We could set up toe
101st Air Assault Division in
Arizona to act as support. We
could even go so far as to have
General Colin Powell command
the exercise.
I’m sure that by utiliz­
ing America’s best and bright­
est, we could invade L.A., rid
the area of gangs and secure the
city so that we can bring relief to
all the citizens suffering inside
the gang controlled areas. -I’m
sure that there must be some old
plans lying around the Penta­
gon that we could use for this
mission.
In fact, I’m thinking
that American intervention in
Somalia will be the final big­
victory for the Bush adminis­
tration. I feel that they (the
Bush administration) will be
demonstrating in Somalia what
they had intended to do for
American domestic problems
in the next four years had they
won the election. Didn’t Bush
promise that James Baker would
be an economic czar?
It has always appeared
to me that the best thing that
could happen to a struggling
nation was to be invaded by the
Americans. So maybe the best
thing that could happen for
America is for America to have
Americans invade America.
I think that the Clinton
transition team will be watch­
ing the Somalia military exer-
ciseclosely. According to plans,
if everything is done correctly
the Somalia mission will be ini­
tially completed by inaugura­
tion day. Who knows? We may
just get the exciting first 100
days that the Clinton/Gore cam­
paign promised.
Then again, maybe
we’lljustgetalotof concerts on
television. I’ll buy a shirt or
donate a few cents per day.
Holiday shopping season upon us
Yes, folks, that time of
the year is here again-it’s holi­
day shopping season. It’s the
time of year that people do the
one thing that boosts the na­
tional economy, SHOPPING!
And like most years
before, this season’s line of ma­
terial goodies promises to be a
deusy. The shopping centers of
the cosmos will be busier than
Grand Central Station trying to
push their sales above those dis­
appointing figures that the last
two years set.
Maybe it’s President
Clinton. Maybe it’s Madison
Avenue (that is creating the
absolute skyrocket in our
economy). But whatever the
case, whipoutchyo’ credit cards,
Me
"Mey.i
¿ÜST A ÛARTOOM
PoUT é'ieÄ
arm those checkbooks, and
prime your pens, it’s holiday
shopping time again (and has
been since Dec. 26,1991)!
Ifcfott MORE WMW êALL-’j
F
W.«, ABOJE .
¡.oqiSft. '
Uwl-Siavioeh .
There are material
goodies to buy, and some not to
buy. So why worry about what
to buy when I have taken the
worry out of it for you with the
1992 categorical list of “Mate­
rial Goodies Not To Buy.”
What not to buy: Stuff
that might induce violence (ex­
ample: My First AK-47, Candy
Halcyon), stuff that might be
cheaply made, stuff that isn’t
the
major
brands (hey,
this is Christ­
mas! A time
NOT to be
cheap!), stuff
with
sexy
overtones (we
are not getting
our moral fi­
ber!), stuff
that harms the
environmnent major-league
(minor-league damage can be
reversed, if I’ve heaidcorrectly),
politically-incorrect stuff (this
is the society of political cor­
rectness, don’t you know?).
This is obviously go­
ing to be the best year to do your
shopping since the 10-yearparty
C";
the 1980s.
Do not believe the mis­
conception that the holiday
shopping season began the day
after Turkey-Parade-Pigskin
Day, (Thanksgiving for those
of you who haven’t figured it
out yet) because that is not the
The
World
Beat
by Eric St. Anthony's
truth. It began on the day after
Christmas, the official day of
shoppers.
(Note to the reader: This was
my light-hearted look at this
holiday shopping season. If what
I said didn’t come out right in
your opinion, I did the best I
can. If you w?
.■> put in your
opinion on this, don’tbe afraid).