Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006

January 9, 2007 12:27 PM

Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006 from Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders
posted by kimdog (17 comments total)

Depressing, but thanks for posting this.
posted by homunculus at 1:10 PM on January 9, 2007

Thanks for posting this.

Please remember that just because there are very few comments on a story, doesn't mean that people didn't read it and learn from it!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:01 PM on January 9, 2007

Good reading. The message is underscored by the 200+ comment fpp discussing a new cellphone.
posted by Popular Ethics at 3:30 PM on January 9, 2007

Important reading. Anyway, the number of comments is never a good indication of the quality of a FPP. On the contrary, I'd say that the favorites/comments ratio is a much better indication. I just favorited this...
posted by Skeptic at 4:21 PM on January 9, 2007

Unfourantely, the suffering of the "other half" of the world often goes unnoticed. So thank you for this.
posted by liquorice at 4:23 PM on January 9, 2007

Thanks for posting this... The Somalia article is particularly noteworthy since we (the U.S.) just conducted an airstrike there within the last 48 hours... In our misguided foreign policies there's always plenty of money for punitive measures, but never enough money to help innocent citizens.
posted by amyms at 4:40 PM on January 9, 2007

It reminds me of a new magazine I did a small amount of work for a year and a half ago151;NEED. They're doing some good work; humanitarian stores are oft missing. Thanks for the post.
posted by pedantic at 4:52 PM on January 9, 2007

Good post. Thanks, kimdog.
posted by sveskemus at 5:04 PM on January 9, 2007

I think it can be hard to comment on something like this... it's just so fucking grim. The more I understand about the world beyond my backyard, the more I appreciate what I have. It's not wrong to be excited by the iPhone (cause it is pretty awesome), but I also hope that I can somehow affect change, even at a miniscule level, for these people. I don't have a wealth of time or money, but I give what I can.
posted by kimdog at 6:19 PM on January 9, 2007

I'm pickin up what you're puttin down kimdog...

As I expected, the majority of these stories come from central Africa.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I want to help the Africans. It just seems like no matter how much money and effort and good-will the world pours into that continent, it never seems to do enough good. There's always another political coupe. There's always another warlord or tyrant out to raise hell and get his. And when it's not war, it's poverty that's killing people. And when it's not poverty, it's HIV and other diseases. or flooding. or drought.

And I think about all those little kids, dying every day, never having done a damn thing to deserve it.

I just... it... it makes me want to break down and weep.
posted by Parannoyed at 7:11 PM on January 9, 2007

MSF are good people. They aren't perfect, but they do a lot more good than a lot of other, perhaps more famous charities.
posted by QIbHom at 7:52 PM on January 9, 2007

Thanks for this.
posted by hadjiboy at 8:38 PM on January 9, 2007

In central India's Chhattisgarh state, clashes between Maoist insurgents, Indian security forces and anti-Maoist militias, also known as Salwa Judum, has been occurring for more than 25 years

That is incorrect and misleading.

Salwa Judum came into operation only in 2004, and the militias became "Maoists" only in 2003. In fact, Chattisgarh the state itself came into being only in 2000. The militias were left-leaning before, but they didnt have a single unified command, as it were. Besides, their main theater was further south, in Andhra Pradesh; they didnt venture into the Dandakaranya forests until very recently.

The districts have become "sensitive" (government-speak for the-local-police-cant-do-jackshit-anymore-so-lets-suspend-some-civil-rights-and-go-crazy) only the last three years; there was virtually no _displacement_ of people before that.

From a governance (and I mean, _all_ governance services, including healthcare) perspective, Manipur and Assam are the real underreported stories here, not just Chattisgarh. There's been a genocidal mass-killing a few days back in Assam, a scary prospect for a state that was supposed to be bouncing back to "normalcy".
posted by the cydonian at 10:32 PM on January 9, 2007

The more I hear about MSF, the more I like them.

I wish there were a better adjective for this kind of thing than 'humanitarian', though.
posted by Phanx at 4:48 AM on January 10, 2007

the cydonian: From a governance (and I mean, _all_ governance services, including healthcare) perspective, Manipur and Assam are the real underreported stories here, not just Chattisgarh.

Links here here and here.
posted by hadjiboy at 9:26 AM on January 10, 2007

Parannoyd, I totally agree. I feel like it's just hopeless. No matter what, it's just a mess. I don't see a way out....sort of like the middle east political messes (and not just the US messes.)
posted by aacheson at 9:46 AM on January 10, 2007

God damn.

I already had much respect for MSF, and that's more or less doubled after reading the article. My despair has more or less doubled, too, but these stories are vital to know about.

Thanks kimdog.
posted by cog_nate at 4:55 PM on January 10, 2007