Food for Thought...

Food stabilizes things – I’m convinced of this. If people have a full belly every day then they’re less likely to get angry and to start a riot. This is my own theory…no science. Kenya cannot feed itself despite the presence of outrageously fertile land and many a hand to do the work. Kenya is in fact starving. Thousands and thousands and perhaps millions of Kenyans don’t eat every day. And while the government runs around and blames the climate change and all sorts of other monsters, the truth is Kenyan politicians have somewhere along the way decided that keeping people hungry keeps them a bit edgy. And when people are kept hungry and edgy, then they’re eager to vote for you when you throw a bag of maize at them during an election campaign. And they’ll kill for you when the election doesn’t go so well and you’ve lost. (Again, my theory.) Africa has more fertile land and opportunity for agriculture, despite climate change, than anywhere else in the world. The soil is rich and red and you can stick anything into the ground and it grows...quickly. But Africa is starving itself to death.

Now…climate change is very real. I believe that. I’ve lived through a time in Nairobi when I would sit outside on my balcony and the Nairobi air was very hot and very dusty. The whole damned country was so dry that dust was traveling in from up-country and was covering every thing. It’s as bad as living in Cairo—which is A DESERT. There’s been a huge push of late to evict all “land grabbers” who have illegally settled on forest-land to cultivate. The destruction of the Mau Forest – the largest water catchment area in Kenya has lead to the direct devastation of countless natural areas throughout Kenya. Rivers that are usually fed by the Mau system have gone dry. Crocs and hippos dried up in the sun. Elephants were dropping dead from a lack of water and food…along with other animal groups. And people were dying by the thousands. Old women were being sent out into the bush to die so that young ones could hope to survive off of the meager food and water they could scratch together. Cattle were dropping dead all over the country. Children stopped going to school so that they could spend all of their time and energy trying to find food and water in multiple areas. Kenya watched idly by as their politicians and residents shattered their ecosystems. Political gifts given by old dictators including illegal parcels of land have lead to such deforestation that Nairobi was last year choked by a drought that literally covered in dust. And the government sits idly by. People said it was political suicide when the Prime Minister decided to evict all settlers out of the Mau. They said he would never survive. Kenyans are now supporting him and it could be the shining legacy of his term and the issue that launches him to President in 2012.