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US Food Aid Contributing to Africa’s Hunger?

Published by News Room October 30th, 2009 in Health and Opinion. 0 Comments

Above: A quarter century after the 1984 famine, which left
millions of Ethiopians destitute, familiar faces still linger as
the country remains dependent on food aid. (Sven Torfinn )

ABC News
By DANA HUGHES
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct. 29, 2009
Drought-stricken Ethiopia is pleading for food aid again to stave off starvation, but some critics are complaining that the policies of the country’s most generous donor, the United States, is exacerbating the cycle of starvation. A hungry Ethiopia gets 70 percent of its aid from the U.S., but according to a new report by the aid organization Oxfam International, that help comes at a cost. U.S. law requires that food aid money be spent on food grown in the U.S., at least half of it must be packed in the U.S. and most of it must be transported in U.S. ships. The Oxfam report, “Band Aids and Beyond,” claims that is far more expensive and time consuming than buying food in the region. Read More.

Video: Famine eclipses Ethiopia’s beauty and rich history (Worldfocus)

The Huffington Post:
25th anniversary of Ethiopia famine – Has anything changed since?
My colleague Marc Cohen, a senior researcher at Oxfam America, reflects on the 25th anniversary since the devastating famine of 1984 in Ethiopia. He was in the country a few months ago: Twenty-five years ago, Michael Buerk’s dramatic BBC footage from Korem, in northern Ethiopia, brought a devastating famine to the world’s attention. Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge from war and drought in the town. Every 20 minutes, a camp resident died from hunger and related diseases. Buerk called Korem “the closest thing to hell on earth.” Read the whole story: The Huffington Post.

Video: The 1984 Ethiopian famine (BBC)

Related from Tadias archives: We are the World

Above: To raise money for the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia,
45 popular singers collaborated to record the charity single
“We Are the World”, co-written by Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie. They included Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder,
Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, The Pointer Sisters, Kenny Rogers,
Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and
many more. (Photo: United Support of Artists for Africa)

The Song Michael Jackson Co-wrote to Benefit Ethiopia
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Monday, June 28, 2009
New York (Tadias) – The painfully wrenching images of hungry children, which invaded living rooms around the world in the mid 80’s, prompted Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to organize the 1985 Live Aid concert and ‘raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia’. The multi-nation event, which showcased some of the biggest names in the music industry, included Michael Jackson, who co-wrote the project’s signature song “We Are the World” along with Lionel Richie. The song was recorded on the night of January 28, 1985, following the American Music Awards. Read more.

Video: We Are The World

25th anniversary of Ethiopia famine – Has anything changed since?

Published by News Room October 21st, 2009 in Health and Opinion. 3 Comments

Above: A quarter century after the painfully wrenching
images of hungry children invaded living rooms around
the world, familiar faces still linger as millions of Ethiopians
remain dependent on food aid. (Sven Torfinn Photography)

The Huffington Post:
My colleague Marc Cohen, a senior researcher at Oxfam America, reflects on the 25th anniversary since the devastating famine of 1984 in Ethiopia. He was in the country a few months ago: Twenty-five years ago, Michael Buerk’s dramatic BBC footage from Korem, in northern Ethiopia, brought a devastating famine to the world’s attention. Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge from war and drought in the town. Every 20 minutes, a camp resident died from hunger and related diseases. Buerk called Korem “the closest thing to hell on earth.” Read the whole story: The Huffington Post.

Video: The 1984 Ethiopian famine (BBC)

Video: We Are The World

Our Beef with Kitfo: Are Ethiopians in America Subscribing to the Super Sizing of Food?

Published by Lifestyle Editor August 23rd, 2008 in Health. 0 Comments

By: Dr. Asqual Getaneh & Dr. Adam Waksor
Photo by Ayda Girma

Updated: Saturday, August 23, 2008

New York (Tadias) – Every few years a new fad diet, which promises to slim, beautify, energize and prolong life hits the media and ends up on the shelves and kitchen tables of America. It is a staggering 30 billion dollar market. Paradoxically, Americans continue to expand and suffer signiﬁcant obesity related morbidities. Ethiopians in the U.S. usually ridicule the folly of these diets. We also do not heed the numerous sound directives from the U.S. Surgeon General on healthy diet, tobacco cessation and exercise. Celebrating one of the most complex cuisines in the world, most of us continue to indulge in the sinfully rich kitfo, downing it with a stiff Black Label as often and as much as possible with robust gusto and humor. Some of us ﬁnish off with a well-branded tobacco or a fashionable cigar.

True, a few of us might choose the heart friendly red wines; and humor does contribute to healthy arteries. The effect, even so, is an ever growing mid-riff , inﬂamed and clogged arteries and the associated health problems. Anecdotal information shows that the prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are on the rise both among Ethiopians living in the West and the affluent urbanized population in Ethiopia. These conditions, individually and together with tobacco, are the leading causes of heart attacks and strokes. Among Ethiopians in the U.S., a coronary artery bypass surgery after an unexpected heart attack in a man in his 40’s is no longer a rare occurrence. In fact he is considered lucky to have survived.

Ethiopians living in the West (or the urbanized in Ethiopia), in general, have undergone a nutrition transition. In content, our diet has changed from a relatively diversiﬁed menu, which included legumes (shiro), vegetables (gomen) and high ﬁber grains (teff) to an almost exclusively meat-centered (kitfo/tibs), reﬁned carbohydrates (rice/wheat based injera) and animal fat diet (kibae). In quantity, we have subscribed to the American super sizing of food, or in Ethiopian restaurant parlance – a “combination plate”. Large quantities of rich food, which would have been eaten over several days in Ethiopia are consumed as a meal. Thanks to the many Ethiopian eateries and tireless family members who pack luggages full of food, there is easy access to a cheap, familiar and delectable meal every day. In addition, we have an appetite for fatty and spicy cooking. The preference for fat might be biological and not unique to Ethiopians. The key however is our conscious contribution to a sustained fat consumption, which in itself leads to changes in our brain. As a result, our appetite cues and energy expenditure are negatively inﬂuenced. In a nutshell fat begets fat through a complex neurological and chemical regulation.

Not only are we consuming high fat and large portions of food, but also our lifestyle has not kept up with our energy consumption. Unless expended, the body stores all excess energy from dietary fat, alcohol or vegetables as body fat for use in time of caloric need. In affluent societies there is no time of need if it is not artiﬁcially introduced, for example as aerobic exercises. A high-energy diet requires a consciously planned parallel program of energy expenditure. Admittedly, having an exercise plan and adhering to it is difficult in the era of long-commutes, parking garages, office jobs and the rush to attain the trappings of life in the West. Our relaxation and socialization also revolves around elaborate meat-centered feasts and alcohol and not enough around physical activity.

Besides its many direct toxic effects on brain, blood and liver cells, drinking moderate to heavy alcohol limits one’s exercise capacity. It increases the risk of dehydration through its diuretic effect and reduces endurance and blood sugar levels limiting the duration of physical activity. Heavy alcohol use also contributes to weight gain, which in turn limits exercise capacity. However, it has been shown that low to moderate consumption of alcohol has beneﬁcial effects on energy intake and on lipid (cholesterol) proﬁle.

We admit that Kitfo and alcohol together do not have as much devastating effect as cigarette smoking on health. Sporting Winston, Chesterﬁeld or Marlboro whirls reeks havoc on the human body from skin changes, to cancers to heart attacks and strokes. If one were to do only one thing today to beneﬁt his health, smoking cessation will be the most important step towards better health. However, we will leave this main health hazard for a later issue.

So, our beef with kitfo is its frequent and excessive use, its high content of butter, its frequent coupling with heavy alcohol and smoking in many cases, and the lack of any mitigating lifestyle habits such as exercising, a balanced diversiﬁed diet and normal weight.

A few tips…

*Keep kitfo and other heavy fat meals as delicacies, for special occasions.

*Keep your midriff slim without plastic surgery. Plastic surgery does not have beneﬁcial effect on health as loss of abdominal fat. Know your waist to hip circumference ratio and keep at goal. This ratio should be less than 0.8 for women and less than one for men.

*Know your body mass index (BMI) and keep at goal: BMI is calculated as follows. Weight in kilogram divided by height in meters squared. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 reﬂ ects normal weight. Between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. Over 30 is in the obese range, which is associated with a signiﬁcant risk for developing diabetes, high blood pressure and their complications, arthritis, liver and gall bladder diseases.

*If the portion of meat is more than the size of your palm (3 ounces or 85 grams), it is too much. And, in general you should not have more than two of these a day.

*A gram of fat has 8 calories, a gram of protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories and a gram of alcohol has 7 calories (one teaspoon of butter has 5 grams of fat).

*If your plate does not contain more than one color, you are not getting adequate nutrition and are most likely consuming more calories than you need. Different colors in fruits and vegetables are a low caloric source of various vitamins and minerals.

*If you are having more than 5 drinks a week, your body is taking too much. More than two units for women and three units of alcohol a day for men are excessive.

*Cigarettes are passé and no longer chic.

“The Wogesha Will See You” Traditional Ethiopian Medicine, Then and Now

Published by liben February 18th, 2007 in Health. 2 Comments

Traditional medicine has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the sum total of all knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not, used in the diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental or social imbalances and relying exclusively on practical experience and observation handed down from generation to generation, whether verbally or in writing.” This system of health care is also known as folk medicine, ethnomedicine, or indigenous medicine. In some countries, including the US, the terms complementary or alternative medicine are used interchangeably for traditional medicine.

It is generally accepted that traditional Ethiopian medicine is the outcome of long and dynamic interactions among African, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions. These interactions, combined with the variations in the country’s unique ecology and diverse ethnic groups, make the traditional medical system in Ethiopia very rich and complex. Records show that the existence of such a health care system can be traced back to the period prior to the 16th century. Although the expansion of modern medicine appears to influence some aspects of the traditional system, traditional Ethiopian medicine remains rooted in magico-religious beliefs and empirical knowledge from the natural environment.

An estimated 80% of the Ethiopian population relies on traditional medicine. Socio-cultural appeal, accessibility, affordability, and effectiveness against a number of health problems seem to foster its widespread use. Consistent with the increasing global interest in alternative medicine, the demand for traditional medical therapies in Ethiopia is on the rise. In 1986 over 6,000 practitioners were registered with the Ministry of Health. More recently, the Ethiopian Traditional Healers’ Association, which was established in 1987, reported a membership of 9,000 healers. A few experts estimate the number of traditional medicine practitioners, vendors, and collectors in the country at more than 80,000.