Despicable Acts

Images of children starving to death are always disturbing. After reading a report about how food aid is being stolen and then sold on the market in Somalia I was saddened, sickened and outraged at the same time. A news report from Associated Press said that the food reaches the hungry people in the refugee camps and is then being removed from them with threats of violence and sold for profit. What kind of people are these that we share the planet with. What would make someone profit from those who have nothing.

And what is more this report brings into question the credibility of agencies to deliver the aid. So many people around the world want to help, but what will they think after reading this report? Will you still offer aid if you have heard that it is being stolen from hungry mouths? 

"While helping starving people, you are also feeding the power groups that make a business out of the disaster," said Joakim Gundel, head of Katuni Consult, a Nairobi-based company often asked to evaluate international aid efforts in Somalia. "You're saving people's lives today so they can die tomorrow."

I would like to appeal to all those who have the power to stop these thugs, for that are what they are, from stealing food aid. Show them no mercy. 

Jacob Aldridge, South Africa

We Want to Study

Thank you for your informative magazine, and although it is difficult to find a copy, I got it from a government friend. I would like to write about the tragedy in my country. To put it simply Swaziland is broke. We have no money to run the country and provide basic services. The worst part of this is that schools cannot operate and children cannot learn. Now we have a situation where our only university cannot open for this academic year. The university officials said it would close indefinitely. So many of us are now worrying about our future. Having seen what is happening in the rest of Africa we are only too aware that without an education we are nothing. Our neighbor South Africa has offered to help us with a $342 million loan. This raised my hopes, as I believed some of this money would be used to reopen the schools and university. Now I hear that government agencies are squabbling about whom the money must go to first and government creditors believe they should be paid before any of the education institutions. This is unbelievable. Surely we can reach a compromise so that we can go back to study for our futures? To make matters worse we see and read reports of our King living a lavish lifestyle during this difficult time. Thanks for accepting my letter and look forward to your new edition.

Abigail Kunene, Swaziland

To Read or Not to Read

I enjoyed your story in the July issue about reading culture in Africa. I think we do not lack a reading culture but we lack reading habits. When Africans do read it is usually romance novels or gossip magazines and comics. Book publishers need to repackage their products to appeal to young people, who are more interested in parties and music. Internet also is not helping, as youth are more often reading trashy websites and not gaining any knowledge. The answer is to make books cheaper and widely available, and include interesting topics that people can relate to.

Bernard Kwaku, Ghana

Rapid Rail

In your August issue you wrote a story about the Rapid Rail and how China is using rail transport to grow its infrastructure reach and develop areas along the new rail lines. As I have been in China and traveled on some of these fast trains I must say I hope we can see such transport on the African continent in future. China built the famous 1,860 km Tanzania-Zambia line for Africans back in the 1970s and we hope there is future investment in railways for our continent, as we often find resources cannot get to market in a timely way because of the lack of road and rail transport. I recently read that China's fast speed railways, which not only travel fast, but were built fast, is encountering some safety issues after a serious and tragic accident took place in Wenzhou city. Perhaps the saying "more haste less speed" is a wise one, as rapid development is always bound to encounter safety issues along the way.  We trust China will overcome any safety issues and continue its remarkable progress.

 Eunice Kubeka, Zimbabwe