Posted on 07/30/2005 9:12:44 PM PDT by Panerai
France blamed a food crisis gripping its former colony Niger on a late response by the entire international community on Saturday, saying it was not the only country responsible for aiding the world's poor.
It said it would triple food aid to 4.6 million euros ($5.6 million) this year for Niger, where starvation threatens the lives of tens of thousands of children and has left millions of adults hungry after drought and locusts destroyed crops.
Aid workers have blamed donor nations -- including France -- for failing to heed appeals from U.N. agencies and the government for food aid since November.
"I'm happy to see that France is the biggest donor, but other countries must do the same," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said after flying in to northern Niger for a brief visit to a mud village where France had sent boxes of medicine.
"There shouldn't just be big declarations made at summits and big concerts with nothing behind them," he said.
Live 8 concerts around the world four weeks ago aimed to put pressure on leaders meeting at a summit of the Group of Eight rich nations into helping Africa.
He said French President Jacques Chirac had been the only head of state to bring up the subject of Niger at the G8 summit in Scotland this month. Douste-Blazy said donor governments had been slow to respond to warnings of an impending crisis in Niger.
"When the international community hears appeals like these, it doesn't react," Douste-Blazy told Reuters at the village of Kalfou, about 500 km (300 miles) northeast of the capital Niamey, where traditional praise-singers banged drums.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I, on the other hand, blame the food crisis on Third World socialist kleptocracy, which is kept alive by aid from First World countries thinking they're being humanitarian.
france out of Africa... UN out of the United States....
France is braying at the moon again. What a shocker.
France ignored the plight of the Iraqi people. Why are they so concerned about these people now? I'm sure they've gotten their share of the African gold mines already.
Why is the left so friendly ? Could it be they know the truth about yellowcake, and if it were to be made public ......Hmmmmm..
They were to busy ripping us off in the Oil For Food scandal. They used some of the stolen money to send to Niger, then tell us we were neglectful in our responsibility!! Let's just invade France and kick their asses!
So, that's where the bulk of our tax money is going - to feed faraway strangers.
Nothing there worth keeping.
Food? Nope.
Navy vessels? Nope.
Women? ummm, Nope.
Wine? Unnngh!
Nothing.
Niger is in about the same condition as one of the other wrecks of a nation -Haiti- that share the distinction of both being former French colonies.
The FRENCH alone should look after their "African children"...
Semper Fi
WOW........ really generous. George Soros gives more to the dems.
"I, on the other hand, blame the food crisis on Third World socialist kleptocracy, which is kept alive by aid from First World countries thinking they're being humanitarian."
You're wrong.
Let them eat yellowcake!
STFU: Shut the France Up. If France thought something should have been done, they should have done it. We didn't need their permission to go into Iraq. They don't need our permission to go into Niger.
Right?
It's my fault. Well, me and George Bush.
It's too bad Africa is such a mess, it has great possibilities. Many of the people are good and deserve a break. The mess in Africa is of their own making.
Any more money there just goes either down the toilet or into Swiss banks.
Niger....yellow cake....Wilson.....Iraq...........
Post of the day.
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