The East African food crisis: Aid agencies aren't exaggerating

A series of headlines have caught my eye recently. Like many people I have been transfixed by the worsening revelations from News International and the phone-hacking scandal. But at the same time this has been a very busy week for aid workers like myself with the development of the East African drought and food crisis.

While the fate of Murdoch has great relevance to public life in Britain, and indeed much of the world, I was also saddened that the suffering and potential starvation of millions of innocent people was overshadowed by the media scandal.

It would have made a striking gesture if the News of the World broke from years of vacuous gossip and dedicated its final front page to the deepening crisis but this was never going to happen.

On Monday morning I saw the following headline in the London Metro newspaper.

“Aid Organisations Defend Dire Warnings of Starvation.”

The tone frustrated me with its implication that aid organisations have been talking up or exaggerating the situation. And this from a free tabloid that regularly leads with the most hysterical and overstated of headlines!

A free press and other news media are essential but are alas notoriously unreliable as sources of information.

Phone hacking did not just begin in the last month. These activities have been going on for several years but it is at this moment that the story is the leading issue across the UK news.

Compare this with the East African food crisis, which has seen a rise in media interest but nothing like on the scale I would have hoped for during a crisis of this magnitude.

This situation has been worsening for some time. The charity I work for, emerge poverty free, launched an appeal on the food crisis back in June and has been warning of the effects of price rises and food in this region for even longer.

But the story has been overshadowed by events at News International. Why is this? Is it because phone-hacking is more important to our lives? Or is it because media rivals and politicians, seeking to unburden themselves of years of murky entanglement with the Murdoch press, are taking the opportunity to reduce the influence of News International?

If, then, the media is such an unreliable source of information where can people look to understand the truth of the world around them? Christians will know that Jesus provided so much clear guidance that a media perspective is completely unnecessary.

“What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on, “
Isaiah 58:6 (The Message)

Influence peddlers and corrupt journalists are not the best examples to follow but Jesus clearly and consistently tells us that we should not be wasting our time in judgement of others. We should instead be helping those in need. This is the antithesis of our shame and blame media culture.

This truth is not only accessible to Christians. God gifted all of us a soul and a conscience, and these are not conditional on our faith. Those looking for an answer to where the truth lies can look within themselves and listen to what they find there, but for Christians the commands are clear and unavoidable.

“Speak up for the people who have no voice,
for the rights of all the down-and-outers.
Speak out for justice!
Stand up for the poor and destitute!”
Proverbs 31:8 (The Message)




Alex Haxton is Chief Executive of emerge poverty free (formerly World Emergency Relief UK). You can donate to help those suffering as a result of the food crisis in Kenya by visiting www.emergepovertyfree.org/donate/hunger-east-africa