Adam Gartrell
JULY 4 2017 — 5:43 AM
“Africa made its own problems. Quit having 10 kids. Famine is nature’s way of saying there are too many people. Stop reproducing.”
This comment by one Australian on social media attracted 23 likes. Even though the food crisis gripping East Africa is driven by civil war, drought and economic collapse — not overpopulation — it’s a common refrain among Australians posting on social media and news site comment sections.
“Send them a box of condoms instead of any food. They only know how to breed nonstop and then beg for food,” says another.
Famine is always happening in Africa anyway, right? The aid money never does any good — it just makes them dependent or goes to corrupt officials. We should look after our own. Besides, they’re all Islamic countries anyway. They deserve it.
These are the ill-informed and sometimes ugly attitudes that permeate public commentary around the crisis, which is putting up to 23 million people at risk of starvation and has been described as the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II.
Local NGO Plan International Australia has performed an audit of the public’s perception and attitudes of the disaster as the aid community grapples with why normally generous donors are not responding to this crisis the way they usually do.
It found that despite sympathetic mainstream media news reports on the crisis, the comments in response were consistently and pervasively negative.
Plan CEO Ian Wishart says most of these attitudes come from lazy stereotypes and a poor understanding of the situation — and occasionally also unkindness.
“We’re currently responding to a very serious crisis in the eastern part of Africa that may rival the terrible 1983 Ethiopian famine in scale and severity, yet apathy and negativity about this emergency is widespread,” Mr Wishart said.
