[marron]

What is the cause? Before there was war in Ethiopia, and an irrational Marxist government that was uprooting people and actively destroying the economy. Under those conditions, famine was not surprising.

In the absense of war in Ethiopia, what is happening there to cause this, this time around?

[John H K]

There's a book that argues that literally every single famine in human history has had as it's primary cause war (Somalia), deliberate starvation by the government (Soviet Union in the 1930s, Ethopia in the 1980s), or inadvertent starvation caused by stupid government policies (many socialist countries, the English in the Irish potato famine), rather than drought or environmental conditions.

[Kenton]

Not to sound too terribly callous, but starvation on a large scale is often nothing more than Mother Nature's way of bringing the population back into equilibrium with the carrying capacity of the land.

This is like going to the animal shelter and wanting to take home all the puppies to save them, but ya know you can't. Sorry if that's too blunt for some folks.

[A_perfect_lady]

Marxism strikes again. As Kim du Toit says, "Let Africa Sink." Sorry to be heartless; if Christians want to donate their hard-earned money subsidizing yet another installment of the sick human experiment that is Marxism played out in a country prone to periodic famines, I won't attempt to stop them. But I do wish Bush wouldn't comandeer America's taxes to be poured into the bottomless pit of global monetary redistribution. (And before the Bush bots jump on me, let me say hastily I love the man to death and shall vote for him next year. But I do have a wish list.)

[yankeedame]

In the absense of war in Ethiopia, what is happening there to cause this, this time around?

What else? That old reliable "dought"