| | Is there anything more to say about famine? have we not heard enough in 1990-1991, and indeed for almost two decades regarding the recurrence and inevitability of famine in Africa and elsewhere? There has been a peculiar familiarity in the debates. They have usually focused on the causes of famine, ranging from why the weather is not the sole culprit, to adverse international economic conditions, to the incompetence of African states and farmers. There also the destructive human and financial costs of war; environmental crises linked to desertification: increased population pressure on given areas of land, and regimes intent on squeezing rural dwellers to keep them politically humble. |
