I am actually posting from Ethiopia right now. Addis is quite the boomtown these days!
The easy answer is that people are indeed leaving in droves. Go to any developing world capital,'and you’ll see slums that go on for miles filled with people who left the tough life of a farmer to try their luck in the city. The Earth is rapidly urbanizing. But, of course, this presents it’s own set of challenges. Even in the first world with high technology, farming is an economically marginal industry. Everyone is getting away as fast as they can.
The other answer is that famine is rare and not certain to happen, and the challenges of moving to a new place are very much certain. In many places, family is your only safety net, and moving away from them can be deadly much more quickly than a failed rain. Slum conditions are tough, and women, children and the elderly face greater personal security challenges, while gaining fewer opportunities. So lots of young men migrate, but families often stay home where it is safer, cleaner and better connected to the social safety net.
Finally, famine is a political phenomenon, not a natural one. Famines happen when a government uses a bad rain as a tool to screw over a region that hosts pesky political opponents, or as a reason to try their latest resettlement scheme. Food isn’t rare and it’s pretty portable. But politics can use hunger to displace or kill people quickly. And humans in general are pretty optimistic, and bad at identifying political disasters in the making. We suck at fleeing wars and dodging genocides. So when things look bad, most of use think we can wait it out, and we don’t expect things to get deadly.
Addis is nice. It’s very safe, people are genuinely friendly, the food is amazing and there is a youthful, forward looking vibe to the city. There is a rising middle class, and lots of the amenities that come with that- excellent live music (especially jazz), good nightlife, lots of restaurants, etc.
There is a lot of poverty, and nothing makes up for that. But by African standards it’s not the poorest place you can go, and unlike many African capitals it is generally safe, which makes it a lot easier and more pleasant to explore. Addis is experiencing a huge construction boom, and there is building going on everywhere. They are putting in a light rail system, and countless high rises are being built. This makes it seem a but chaotic, but in a hopeful way.
I haven’t gotten out of the city much, but on an easy day trip I visited an in situ Paleolithic dig site, a 12th century rock cut church (that is still active), some unexplained group of 12th century stelae, a former imperial palace and some nice hiking trails. There is just so much to see in the country it’s not even funny- ancient sites, medieval cities, remote communities, natural wonders…but unfortunately my time is limited.
Thanks for sharing that! I have this mental impression of it all being famine poor desert, thanks to late night charity TV commercials that have played off and on in the US since I was a kid in the 70’s.
I looked up some photos. Saw that church. Very cool!
People seem to have an idea that “all those people starving in Ethiopia” were starving because they lived in the desert and there’s no way to grow food in the desert.
But those people didn’t live in the desert. They had been forced off their farms by civil war. And men with guns would have shot them if they’d try to return. And those same men with guns made it extremely dangerous for western aid agencies to try to help the refugees.
These people weren’t victims of crop failures or living in the desert. They were victims of violence. As for your advice to move to somewhere better, well, there was no where better they could walk to. Or rather, there were lots of people who found safe places to live where they wouldn’t starve. Those people weren’t on the news as starving Ethiopians. Millions of others weren’t so lucky. They left their homes with the clothes on their backs and maybe a few possessions.
Farmers who are forced off their farms, or flee their homes out of fear, aren’t able to produce food. If there are just a few there are alternatives–hunting, gathering wild food, collecting bugs. But when millions of hungry people are in the same situation, every idea you have for finding food or work or help is already taken by thousands of other people. And so you have hordes of people starving in the desert because there just isn’t enough for everyone, now that no one can grow food.
Aah, I think I see the misapprehension here. You seem to think that there’s vast empty spaces that these people can move into, or through. This is not, in fact, the case. Africa is full of people (twice as many as North America), outside the actual deserts. There is no moving that first step without stepping on some group’s toes, now.
My point was this: there are very few places on Earth that would be considered “hospitable” if you strip away the essentials, which is exactly what happens when one is desperately poor. When you have to find food, water and shelter on your own with no resources - that’s when heat, cold, starvation and weather become life threatening.
As stated above, the few places that do have mild weather year round and abundant resources don’t want/can’t handle a huge influx of desperately poor.
Yes, that was my impression. So you can see how I was thinking…duh…move!
I knew that was the case with other areas because they actually call them refugees. Maybe they didn’t do that back when I was young, or they did and it was just over my head because I was young.
Anyway, I have been enlightened and I thank you all. Regardless of the reasons, it is a real shame people are in such a situation. I wish there was a simple solution.
I don’t mind if people have body art. It’s the fact that nowadays, it seems to be a requirement for a job, at least one around here. I’m not the only person who’s noticed that.
Someone on another website joked that I should cover myself with temporary tattoos, and then go apply for a job just to see what would happen.
Another thing to mention is that there is a lot of immigration (legal and otherwise) in Africa. Thousands of people make the perilous crossing to Europe across the Sahara and the Mediterranean, a journey that can cost your life savings (and far too often, your life.) Some local borders, such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, are as contentious as the US-Mexico border. South Africa had a huge amount of immigration from Zimbabwe, and has many of the same issues as found in the states. Pastoralists communities have always slowly moved across the continent looking for a good niche. And there are always economic immigrants and adventurers.