Changes

''Dust of the Danakil '' is in a slightly different format because Ian Mathie devotes his epilogue to an indictment of Aid to Africa issues. His comments, based on experience in the field, are worth our attention. ''Relief alone is not enough … it just keeps alive a lot of people who would otherwise have died, to starve next year.'' He argues the need for development aid, educating at ground level in resource management, hygiene, nutrition and smaller families. He points out that change is possible in farming and irrigation methods, with help and encouragement, saying, ''I know; I was there.''

Ian Mathie argues that politically-driven governmental aid is questionable, since it is inevitably tied to loan and trade agreements. Little aid filters down to ground level, due to corruption. He argues for transparency and payments conditional on output in the future, as well as cancellation of Third World Debt at the highest level. In order to escape the downward spiral of repeated famine (the numbers affected in 1974 were two million, whereas today it is twelve million), Africa essentially must become economically viable and attractive to investors, taking control of its own destiny.

[[Aid and Other Dirty Business: How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor by Giles Bolton]] and [[Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Scott Kilman and Roger Thurow]] both give interesting overviews of the problem and possible solutions. You might also enjoy [[Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste]]. We also have a review of Mathie's [[Supper With The President by Ian Mathie|Supper With The President]].