Development Blogs.com


Ancient Memories via Earth Blog November 8th, 2008 at 01:31

Wonder why the world is going to hell in a hand-basket? It could be a memory problem—not something we have forgotten, but rather, something we are failing to remember. The tiny ant has no memory problem. Like all other insects, it knows a lot, even without being taught. It comes into this world, and, as if by magic, knows how to build a nest, gather food, reproduce, communicate with other ants, and many other things necessary for survival. The ant’s behaviour is hard-wired into its brain, an organ about the size of a pin head. Everything the little creature needs to know has been passed down genetically from generation to generation over tens of millions of years. Humans, although lacking the instincts of an ant, have a brain thousands of times larger and a history on the Earth...

SOMALIA: Acute Malnutrition Is a Chronic Emergency via Ainashe.net August 8th, 2008 at 15:29

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Acute malnutrition is a chronic emergency all over the country. Families who have been displaced for years due to the political conflict require urgent assistance. Pastoralists in some areas have lost half of their herds. In southern Somalia, historically the country’s breadbasket, production of staple foods (such as sorghum and maize) has fallen by up to 50 percent because of the protracted drought. With a $3 million CERF allocation, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is treating acute malnutrition in displaced children under five and vulnerable host Populations by handing out Plumpy’doz (a compound of vegetable fat, peanut paste, sugar, skimmed milk powder, malto-dextrine, and complex vitamins and...

HANUUNIYE: My favorite somali singer via Ainashe.net January 18th, 2008 at 01:23

Hanuuniye is and will always remain my favorite somali singer…..of all times…… This is for KJ......

SOMALIA: US Urges African Involvement via Ainashe.net September 9th, 2007 at 22:20

Peter Heinlein of VOA writes: Washington’s top diplomat on African issues says regional leaders must do more to ease simmering tensions in the Horn of Africa. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer made the comment after leading a team of senior U.S. officials on a tour of Ethiopia’s tense Ogaden region bordering Somalia. I think the US Government is asking the wrong group of countries to get involved in tragic Somali political conflict. Neither Kenya nor Ethiopia is an honest peace broker. These countries have strategic and security interests that can only be achieved by keeping Somalia weak and fragmented for many years to come. Hence, it is not only illogical but counter-productive to expect those countries to pull Somalia from the current...

SOMALIA: Mr. Bondevik as Special Envoy via FOOD CRISIS IN SOMALIA February 8th, 2006 at 04:28

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, as his new Special Humanitarian Envoy for the Horn of Africa, in response to recurrent drought and food insecurity devastating the region. More than 40 per cent of the population are currently undernourished in the Horn, one of the most food-insecure regions in the world. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that severe drought is threatening the lives of an estimated 11 million people across Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. This compounds what is already a dire humanitarian situation in countries beset by years of high rates of malnutrition and morbidity, chronic food insecurity and the effects of conflict.  Time permitting, I will write more about this...