I'm disturbed, today, and this post is a depature from my usual ramble. I read a newspaper article about people in Haiti having to eat mud 'cookies' to survive.
Now, starvation is not new. Famine has always been with us, somewhere on the globe. But it left me wondering.
My first reaction was 'What kind of government lets this happen to its people?' I do wonder about that, but again - it's not new that these places have miserable, corrupt governments. It's a cinch that the rich and those in authority are getting plenty of food. Otherwise, something would be done about it.
But what can we do, as just people, to prepare for this kind of thing?
Why does famine happen? Weather is a big reason - drought and floods, mostly, bringing along disease and wiping out the crops. Insect invasion - locusts can strip an entire region in no time. People invasion - war, genocide, power struggles.
In Haiti's case, the final straw was a hurricane, although they've been in trouble for years. So how do we prepare? I don't mean in Haiti or Bangladesh or Ethiopa; we send them relief but don't do anything about the corrupt governments, so we're throwing the relief down the proverbial drain. But what about ourselves?
Any of these things can happen here. And if it's severe enough, I suspect we have one of those governments that will not worry about certain segments of the country. We may be on our own.
If a drought occurs for several years, our precious backyard gardens will not be alive to feed us. The farmers will not have crops. The animals will die on the hills and in the feedlots.
How do we prepare? In the end, are even we at the mercy of nature? Are there ideas I'm missing?
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