UN declares Somalia famine in Bakool and Lower Shabelle

The United Nations has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as it suffers the worst drought in more than half a century.

An estimated 10 million people have been affected by the drought in east Africa.

The UN said the humanitarian situation in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had deteriorated rapidly.

It is the first time that the country has seen famine in 19 years.

Meanwhile, the UN and US have said aid agencies need further safety guarantees from armed groups in Somalia to allow staff to reach those in need.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has recently allowed limited access.

An estimated 10m people have been affected in east Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century. More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia. 

'Rarely used'

Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine. Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily.

"Across the country nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south," said a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia.

It said that the ongoing conflict had made it extremely difficult for agencies to access communities in the south, which are controlled by al-Shabab.

"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," the head of the agency Mark Bowden warned.

The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says the emotive word "famine" is used rarely and carefully by humanitarian organisations, and it is the first time since 1992 that the word has been applied to a situation in Somalia.

The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, said the response by many European and developed countries to the crisis in the Horn of Africa had been "derisory and dangerously inadequate".

"The fact that a famine has been declared shows just how grave the situation has become. It is time for the world to help," he said.

Meanwhile, the UN is calling for unhindered access to affected areas, saying that the security situation is hampering humanitarian efforts.

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told reporters that the situation for aid workers in Somalia is "not what we want it to be".

"We do have a very minimal presence, and we have regular visits into the country, but we need significantly better access than we have at the moment to address an emergency of this scale," he said, speaking from Geneva.

The UN World Food Programme, which is trying to feed 1.5 million people, estimates that as many as one million people are in areas it cannot currently access.

"Once we have the assurances of security and the ability to have full access to deliver and distribute and monitor, then we will be prepared to go back in," Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the WFP, told the Associated Press news agency.

Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, says the US was assessing if they were seeing "real change" from al-Shabab, or whether the group planned to impose some kind of "taxation" on aid deliveries.

"Al-Shabab's activities have clearly made the current situation much worse," Mr Carson said.

"We call on all of those in south-central Somalia who have it within their authority to allow refugee groups and organisations to operate there to do so," he said.

In a separate development, Amnesty International says children in Somalia are being systematically recruited as child soldiers by militant groups such as al-Shabab.

Drawing on interviews from more than 200 Somalis who have fled their country, the rights group says some of those recruited are as young as eight years old.

The report says al-Shabab lures children with promises of money and mobile phones, but also carries out abductions. 

Areasn Of Food Shortages.

“O’ Muslims! What have you done ?”

So long as we keep blaming others for our woes, so long we will not realize that the fault is ours for allowing others to take advantage of us. Pakistan pompously professes to be an Islamic Republic but doesn’t know what that means. Which Islam? The Islam of God or one of the 72 versions of the cleric? That is our core problem from which all other problems arise. We don’t know who we are and why we are. This leads to an erosion of self-confidence and self-esteem (except in rhetoric), the lack of which make us in thrall of alien ideologies and their political, economic and social constructs.

This poem on the Holy Quran written some 35 years ago by the ninth President of India, Dr. Pandit Shanker Dayal Sharma, says it beautifully. It’s very good because it’s very true. I have translated it myself.

Amal ki kitab thi.

Dua ki kitab bana dia

(English)It was a Command for action.

(English)You turned it into a book of prayer.

Samajhne ki kitab thi.

Parhne ki kitab bana dia.

(English)It was a Book to understand.

(English)You read it without understanding.

Zindaon ka dastoor tha.

Murdon ka manshoor bana dia.

(English)It was a code for the living.

(English)You turned it into a manifesto of the dead.

Jo ilm ki kitab thi.

Usay la ilmon ke hath thama dia.

(English)That which was a book of knowledge;

(English)You abdicated to the ignoramus.

Taskheer-e-kayenaat ka dars denay aayi thi.

Sirf madrason ka nisaab bana dia.

(English)It came to give knowledge of Creation.

(English)You abandoned it to the madrasa.

Murda qaumon ko zinda karne aayi thi.

Murdon ko bakhshwane per laga dia.

(English)It came to give life to dead nations.

(English)You used it for seeking mercy for the dead.

Aye Musalmano ye tum nay kia kiya?

(English)O’ Muslims! What have you done?


Please don’t take kneejerk offense. Righteous rage before thinking is a hallmark of the ignoramus. Don’t focus on who says something but on what he says.

Look at the Muslim condition. They remain on the lowest rung of the ladder. The Jews, numbering less than the people who live in Karachi, are on the top rung. Why? Because they educated themselves, used their minds, recognized and understood the real levers of power, bought stakes in them and became the most powerful people in the world. The Muslims, on the other hand, remain mired in ignorance, waiting for Divine deliverance without bothering to lift a finger, fooling only themselves by wallowing in their undoubtedly glorious past, deluded in their present illusions. They live on homilies and humbug.

The total GDP of all 57 Muslim majority countries put together is less than the GDP of California. The turnover of some top multi-nationals is more. Muslims have the highest illiteracy rate in the world, the lowest educational levels, lower still in subjects that matter like science, the highest birth rate, the highest female and child mortality rates, not a single world class school, university or hospital, no state institutions worth a dime, no nothing. All we have is a bomb and one good friend that some ‘heavenly’ Muslims regard as ‘godless’. If they only knew their religion properly they would be shocked to realize that China is closer to the ideal Islamic state than any Muslim country is.

Muslims were enjoined to become the “central community” that others could emulate – ummatun wusuta. Instead, we’ve become a model of what not to emulate. Of 57 Muslim majority states, only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran call themselves ‘Islamic’. That’s a big claim, so big that it makes one’s heart quake. However, it’s most incumbent upon Pakistan to deliver for it claims it was made in the name of Islam in order to create that model Islamic state that God wanted. To what extent has Pakistan discharged that responsibility? Zero.

Riba is usury and exploitation of all and any sort. It is rampant. When they call usury by another name it doesn’t change its exploitative and un-Islamic nature. Calling riba ‘interest’ is the mark of hypocrisy. Calling it ‘mark up’ is the mark of the devil. There is no such thing as ‘interest’ distinct from usury. It is only a slight of tongue, a play of words devised by the rapacious. Pakistan’s is an economy based on usury upon usury, something that has brought the western economic system to the brink. Our banks charge inordinate amounts in usury on the ignorant excuse that it will lower inflation when it actually raises it. We pay inordinate amounts in usury for our unconscionable debt addiction to live an illusory life of luxury having collateralizing our sovereignty and our soul. Living beyond one’s means is stupidity in the extreme. It is defiance of the Divine. We belong to Dr. Faustus. Luckily, Dr. Faustus is terminally ill with a disease called usury.

Pakistan has all but lost its sovereignty. You know what that means for a state that calls itself Islamic? All sovereignty belongs to the Almighty. He has conditionally devolved some of it on humanity because He has appointed Man his khalifa or vicegerent – a sovereign’s administrative deputy – since humankind is His greatest creation (ashraful makhlooqat). Thus what we have trashed is the sovereignty God devolved on us. Great going!

Pakistan has all but lost its nationhood. You know what that means? The best translation of the Arabic world ummah that I have seen is ‘nation’ – nation of believers in One God within which is the Muslim ummah. That is the first pillar of Islam – Tauheed – belief in One God. So by losing our Pakistani nationhood, are we perhaps not in danger of losing our place in the ummah as a whole? Big talk comes easy for it comes cheap – “Pakistan is an Islamic Republic” – but it’s very difficult to live up to. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Certainly don’t bite if you have no intention of chewing. Most certainly don’t bite if you don’t even know how to chew, not if you have borrowed dentures for which you are paying usury.

Like apes we mimic our master’s systems. God tells us to ‘choose’ from amongst ourselves and from amongst the best. ‘Choose’ implies democracy. Our British system ensures that we choose from amongst the worst. Our parliament-cum-legislature is not only supposed to be an advisory body but also a law making one. Yet it comprises people who know little about jurisprudence, Islamic or Anglo Saxon. The adjudicature includes lawyers many of whom are on a rampage of illegality. Judges are more concerned with matters facetious than with issues requiring immediate justice. We have no institutions with expert jurists to make laws. When law, advice, governance are missing it means Amr bil ma’roof wan nahi ‘an Al Munkar – those who command good and forbid evil – are missing.

New TB Vaccines: A matter of political will

TB vaccine research is moving forward steadily. In their 2010 annual report, the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) looks back at a scientifically successful year. Researchers within TBVI’s network are progressing towards new, safer and more effective tuberculosis vaccines. However, in order to successfully deliver these live-saving vaccines to the market, both political support and innovative investment are crucial. Worldwide, 12 vaccine candidates are now in various phases of clinical trials and several more are on their way. Many of these candidates received support through one of TBVI’s research projects. 

“Good reason to be positive,” said Prof. Kaufmann, chair of TBVI’s research project NEWTBVAC. “Having 12 candidates in clinical trials is a breakthrough that nobody would have thought of 20 years ago.” In 2010, existing challenges remained though, one of them being a lack of validated biomarkers, indicators that could for example predict levels of protection. Finding these biomarkers is one of TBVI’s research priorities and research carried out over the past year has certainly led to a better idea of what to look for.

Developing new tuberculosis vaccines is scientifically challenging, but the progress that has been made over the past ten years is tremendous. TBVI ties together a network of more than 40 research institutes, universities and industries with the aim to develop more effective tuberculosis vaccines. TBVI calculated a critical financing gap of 560 million euros, needed to bring the first, most advanced vaccines out of its portfolio to the market. In order to close this gap, the organisation has proposed an innovative funding model. In this plan, European governments are asked to provide guarantees to make it possible for TBVI to finance clinical trials through a loan. The loan can then be repaid through the sales of marketed vaccines. “New vaccines can be developed at no cost for the tax-payer and with minimal risk for state budgets,” explains TBVI’s vice president Joris Vandeputte.

New, more effective and safe tuberculosis vaccines are within sight. However, some promising projects are close to being put on hold because of a lack of funding. New vaccines could be available within a decade. It’s now up to decision makers, politicians and industries to join forces with scientists and make this happen.

Tame Diabetes Before It Gets You

The Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad  recently announced a nationwide screening campaign under which every person above 30 years of age and all pregnant women will be tested for diabetes in a phased manner. In his inaugural address at the India Diabetes Summit, which was jointly organized by The Times of India, Britannia Industries, and National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, New Delhi, he informed that, “Under the first phase, around 10 crore people in 100 districts of 21 states, and urban slums in 33 cities will be screened. This pilot project will cover more people than the population of many countries."

The screening has already been completed in Bangalore and Chennai, and is expected to begin in Delhi in July. In Bangalore, 14% of the people tested were found to be suffering from diabetes, 21% had high blood pressure and 13% persons were having both diabetes and hypertension. The situation was no better in Chennai where the corresponding figures were 17%, 20% and 13%. Around 3% of pregnant women were also found to be diabetic. These figures come as a shock since they would seem to indicate that the prevalence of diabetes is even higher than the current estimates. Another significant point is that most of the affected persons were unaware of their condition of their affliction with diabetes or hypertension.

Once the screening programme ends, the government will reportedly run awareness campaigns through regional media and with the help of health workers.

This indeed is a very positive step, keeping in mind that one person dies due to diabetes every 10 seconds in India and two new persons get the disease in the same time. The number of diabetes patients in the country is estimated to have risen to around 51 million. Worse, many remain untreated due to lack of awareness and die due to complications like heart disease and kidney problems caused by the disease.

A major international study has revealed that the number of adults with diabetes has increased by more than double in the last three decades. The study, the largest of its kind for diabetes, was carried out by an international collaboration of researchers, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and co-led by Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with The World Health Organization and a number of other institutions.

The study has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, from 153 million in 1980. Of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India. The proportion of adults with diabetes rose to 9.8 per cent of men and 9.2 per cent of women in 2008, compared with 8.3 per cent of men and 7.5 per cent of women in 1980.

"Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Our study has shown that diabetes is becoming more common almost everywhere in the world," said Ezzati.

Another reason for concern is the rise of obesity and diabetes amongst teenagers, chiefly due to life style related problems, especially in urban areas. All work and no play is making city students not only dull but fat. City teenagers going on 17 are carrying not only the heavy burden of parental expectations but extra kilos that they gain in their classrooms. Doctors in Hyderabad, and elsewhere too, report that students are becoming more prone to lifestyle health problems. Chasing better grades, they spend long hours in cramped classrooms during and after school hours. The absence of playgrounds and large campuses, or even the scope to indulge in any extracurricular activity is only fuelling the obesity trend amongst students.  

"Adolescent diabetes is on the rise. But what is alarming is the increase in the number of Poly-Cystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD) cases in young girls because of obesity. I see at least five to seven cases of PCOD among girls in their late teens, every month," said Dr Lalitha K, uro-gynaecologist, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad, adding that this trend has been on the rise in the last six to seven years.

Unhealthy food habits are also another contributory factor. "These students may carry their lunch from home, but they binge on junk during their breaks. The high sodium, carbohydrates and cholesterol in this usually greasy fare adds to their weight gain, as it is coupled with a sedentary lifestyle without exercise," said Dr VSV Prasad, chief consultant paediatrician, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).

According to Dr Anoop Misra, Chairman of the National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, school children should be disseminated information on good food habits from 10 years of age. There is a need to develop technology for low-cost diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.
Dr Misra has been doing pioneering work in trying to spread awareness about proper diet and physical exercise in school children through numerous projects carried out in several schools of the country. It is important to sustain these and other efforts to keep the public informed about the disastrous effects of junk food, sedentary life style, and alcohol abuse and tobacco usage. The latter is indeed a slow poison which is proving to be one of the main causes of Non Communicable Diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and chronic pulmonary disease.

A recent study carried out by the Preventive Social Medicine department of a Sion hospital in Mumbai, found an uncanny correlation between malnutrition and diabetes. A survey conducted in the tribal village of Themba, found that most of the adults who had diabetes were malnourished as children. Of the 596 persons above the age of 25 years, who were tested, around 5.6% were found to be suffering from diabetes. Another 1.2% had Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG), meaning they were in a pre-diabetic stage and could become full-blown diabetics. Around 4.4% had a high level of diabetes, with uncontrolled sugar levels.

The study has baffled the doctors as common factors like junk food, lack of physical activity and stress, known to cause diabetes in urban populations, were missing in the village. However, several villagers were found to be addicted to alcohol and tobacco and many of the addicts were diabetes patients. This only reaffirms the correlation between tobacco addiction and NCDs like diabetes.

Endocrinologist Dr Dheeraj Kapoor from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital feels that diabetes could soon become a bigger health issue than malaria and tuberculosis in rural areas. "At some point, even rural lifestyle and food habits are changing," he added.

Recently a three days road show to create awareness on 'Peripheral Arterial Disease' ( PAD ) was organized by doctors, covering  Chennai, Delhi and Pune. Mathias Ulrich, a specialist in angiology who led the show, elaborates that, “Often symptoms such as severe leg pain and burning sensation in the toes are neglected by people suffering from diabetes. But, these could also be symptoms of 'Leg Attack' or PAD. A sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise coupled with smoking puts one at a higher risk of lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension which consequently advances the risk of a leg attack."

The state of Goa has added another first to its kitty (it is the only Indian state to have banned sale of gutkha - chewing tobacco)  by recently launching India's first diabetes registry that would be maintained by the health department with the help of Novo Nordisk Education Foundation (NNEF). Its aim is to monitor this metabolic disease on a regular basis. 

"At present free treatment (medicines and insulin injections) is given to diabetic patients who seek treatment in government hospitals. Once Goans, who are seeking treatment with the private doctors in the state, are registered with the diabetic registry of the health department, we will consider extending free treatment to these patients suffering from diabetes," said Goa’s Health minister Vishwajit Rane.

"There is a need to create awareness and educate people about diabetes. It is important for all concerned parties to get together in delivering diabetes awareness, screening, education and treatment to the common man. The registry is a crucial step towards bridging this fundamental gap".

This is a unique initiative that could be replicated across India in a country which has the high population of diabetics.

So we need a multi pronged strategy to tackle this growing epidemic. Different segments of society will require different approaches. While government efforts, like the ones announced by The Union Health Minister and the state of Goa, are more than welcome, all state governments and the medical fraternity will also have to join forces, in earnest, to spearhead massive awareness campaigns with the help of media to focus attention of the common public on a tobacco free and healthy life style.

The role of parents and teachers is no less important in grooming youngsters from early childhood in developing a liking for healthy and tasty food, staying away from all tobacco products,( especially the misleadingly glamorous versions of it like hookahs, low tar cigarettes, etc), and striking a proper balance between academic work and physical exercise. Only then will we be able to tackle the problem of the growing incidence of obesity, diabetes and other related diseases.

Act Now To Control Diabetes

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) launched its World Diabetes Day campaign 2011, on Monday, 16th May, with the slogan 'Act On Diabetes Now'. One of the poignant messages released by the Federation acknowledges that killing one person every eight seconds and four million per year, diabetes is the number one silent killer that can no longer be ignored.

This year’s campaign marks a milestone for IDF and the diabetes community, as IDF intends to build on the momentum created by the first-ever UN Summit on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), to be attended by world leaders in September.  IDF wants messages and decisions coming out of the Summit to be further cemented by global action on World Diabetes Day, which is expected to reach a global audience of over one billion people.

 Speaking at the Commonwealth meeting for 50 Health Ministers in Geneva over the weekend, Professor Mbanya reiterated the need for heightened awareness and increased action, in particular from decision-makers, on NCDs including diabetes. He said, “We should ask ourselves why it is politically acceptable for a woman to die prematurely from a heart attack or cancer, or a man to die prematurely from diabetes or stroke. Something is badly wrong with our thinking on global health priorities”.

The 2011 campaign is the third year of the International Diabetes Federation’s five-year focus on “Diabetes education and prevention”. To complement this theme, IDF has also launched its first-ever animated campaign video, busting popular diabetes myths and putting the facts in full view. The video spells the urgency for concrete steps to be taken collectively by us, in order to stem the tide of diabetes, as the disease poses the problems of kidney failure, blindness, amputations, heart disease and strokes, killing 4 million people every year, and putting  over 300 million people at a high risk of developing diabetes (impaired glucose tolerance/pre-diabetes).

Poor dietary habits and lack of exercise are the main reasons for spreading this epidemic to such unimaginable extent. The time is to act now. Together we can change this scenario by better urban planning which creates the right environment to make healthy choices. It is high time we started clipping down the branches of high cost of care, disability, poverty and discrimination, adorning the tree of diabetes.

“World Diabetes Day on 14 November provides the ideal opportunity to reinforce the messages and solutions that will be presented in New York” said Jean Claude Mbanya, IDF President.
The campaign will urge all levels of society, in the spirit of the UN Summit, to take action on the diabetes epidemic before it spirals out of control.

Rosslyn Chapel Images

Pope creates new diocese of Sylhet in Bangladesh

Pope Benedict XVI on Friday created a new diocese in Bangladesh appointing a bishop to it. The new diocese of Sylhet in north-east Bangladesh has been created from territories of Dhaka Archdiocese, and Oblate of Mary Immaculate Bishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze of Khulna has been appointed its first bishop. With an area of nearly 15,500 sqkm, the jurisdiction of Sylhet extends over the civil districts of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj and Moulibazar, that are home to 8.2 million people. Some 17,000 Catholics in the 6 parishes of the new diocese are cared for by 21 priests 30 nuns and 95 catechists. The parish church of Lokhipur, 100 km from Sylhet, will temporarily serve as the cathedral of the new diocese.