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anonymous
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 12:14 am: | 
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NAIROBI (AFP) - Officials in drought-stricken Kenya recoiled with outrage to a plan by a New Zealand woman to send "dog food" for starving children, even as she said the product was fit for human consumption.
Describing the idea as "absurd," "insulting," "offensive" and "immoral," officials vehemently rejected the donation for children threatened by famine and said they would put measures in place to prevent any similar assistance.
The would-be donor, Christine Drummond, has told the New Zealand media her donation differed from the pet food, though made with the same ingredients, and she and her children eat it.
"It is immoral, it is unacceptable," said Special Programmes Minister John Munyes, who is coordinating the government's response to the drought that has put up to four million people in the east African nation at risk of starvation.
"I am very much offended, it is in bad taste," he told AFP. "It is unacceptable and we should not even be discussing such a demeaning thing."
"Even if we have famine in this corner of the world, it does not reduce us to dogs," said Colonel Shem Amadi, the head of Kenya's National Operations Centre, an emergency response unit in President Mwai Kibaki's office.
"People from that corner of the world have no respect for some of us," he told AFP.
"Oh no, it is horrible, it is terrible," said Khadija Abdalla, head of the Garrisa Provincial Hospital in one of the worst-hit areas of northeast Kenya where at least 40 people have died since December of drought-related causes.
"It is insulting us because we are poor," she told AFP.
"We appreciate when people are willing to help us, but they should be sensitive about our culture,"government spokesman Alfred Mutua.
"Telling us that you are giving us food for dogs in our culture is an insult of the highest order," he told AFP. "Maybe, she was trying to help, but I hope this offer is a result of naivety."
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights condemned the offer as a degrading assault on the dignity of the country's children.
"What message is created when one decides to feed starving children dog food?" it said. "It dehumanizes and degrades the children who are the intended beneficiaries. It makes no allowance for human dignity which revolts at the idea of eating a foodstuff created and intended for animals."
The outcry began when Nairobi's leading Daily Nation picked up a report about the offer of 6,000 packets of powdered dog food from The Press newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand and splashed it across its front page.
Under the headline "For starving children of Kenya, 42 tons of dog food ..." the Nation heaped scorn on the scheme presented to the New Zealand paper by Drummond, the founder of Mighty Mix dog food.
In an interview with Television New Zealand late on Monday, Drummond said the relief, NZ's Raw Dry Nourish, is fit for humans. Both she and her children used it, but she allowed it contains the same ingredients as Mighty Mix dog biscuits.
The Press quoted her as saying she initially thought of sending biscuits to Kenya but decided against it when she discovered the need.
"The first plan was to send dog biscuits and change the vitamins then when I heard there were so many little children I could not send them a bicky," The Press quoted her as saying.
So she created a powdered form of the ingredients -- freeze-dried beef, mutton, pork and chicken, deer velvet, green lip mussel, kelp, garlic, egg, whole grain cereals and cold-pressed flax seed flour -- to mix with water.
"The dogs thrive on it," Mighty Mix agent Gaynor Siviter told The Press. "They have energy, put on weight. It's bizarre but if it's edible and it works for these people then it's a brilliant idea. It beats eating rice."
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anonymous
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 12:16 am: |
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My gut feeling is that when you're starving, you're starving.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4113
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 05:54 am: |
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If and when Kenya can adequately feed its people, it'll have no inclination to be concerned about the type of food other nations send it. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 624
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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What? Kenya can't have standards? |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2742
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 12:48 pm: |
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The first plan was to send dog biscuits and change the vitamins then when I heard there were so many little children I could not send them a bicky," The Press quoted her as saying.
So she created a powdered form of the ingredients -- freeze-dried beef, mutton, pork and chicken, deer velvet, green lip mussel, kelp, garlic, egg, whole grain cereals and cold-pressed flax seed flour -- to mix with water.
"The dogs thrive on it," Mighty Mix agent Gaynor Siviter told The Press. "They have energy, put on weight. It's bizarre but if it's edible and it works for these people then it's a brilliant idea. It beats eating rice."
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Moonsigns
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Moonsigns
Post Number: 878
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 12:49 pm: |
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That's insulting. But, the condition of Kenya is no different than America. There are the rich and the poor. And the poor always suffer the most. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 639
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 01:02 pm: |
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If they can take the time to send dog food, why can't they take the time to send any other food? |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 217
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 - 04:57 pm: |
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NAIROBI (AFP) - Officials in drought-stricken Kenya recoiled with outrage to a plan by a New Zealand woman to send "dog food" for starving children, even as she said the product was fit for human consumption.
Describing the idea as "absurd," "insulting," "offensive" and "immoral," officials vehemently rejected the donation for children threatened by famine and said they would put measures in place to prevent any similar assistance.
The would-be donor, Christine Drummond, has told the New Zealand media her donation differed from the pet food, though made with the same ingredients, and she and her children eat it.
"It is immoral, it is unacceptable," said Special Programmes Minister John Munyes, who is coordinating the government's response to the drought that has put up to four million people in the east African nation at risk of starvation.
"I am very much offended, it is in bad taste," he told AFP. "It is unacceptable and we should not even be discussing such a demeaning thing."
"Even if we have famine in this corner of the world, it does not reduce us to dogs," said Colonel Shem Amadi, the head of Kenya's National Operations Centre, an emergency response unit in President Mwai Kibaki's office.
"People from that corner of the world have no respect for some of us," he told AFP.
"Oh no, it is horrible, it is terrible," said Khadija Abdalla, head of the Garrisa Provincial Hospital in one of the worst-hit areas of northeast Kenya where at least 40 people have died since December of drought-related causes.
"It is insulting us because we are poor," she told AFP.
"We appreciate when people are willing to help us, but they should be sensitive about our culture,"government spokesman Alfred Mutua.
"Telling us that you are giving us food for dogs in our culture is an insult of the highest order," he told AFP. "Maybe, she was trying to help, but I hope this offer is a result of naivety."
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights condemned the offer as a degrading assault on the dignity of the country's children.
"What message is created when one decides to feed starving children dog food?" it said. "It dehumanizes and degrades the children who are the intended beneficiaries. It makes no allowance for human dignity which revolts at the idea of eating a foodstuff created and intended for animals."
The outcry began when Nairobi's leading Daily Nation picked up a report about the offer of 6,000 packets of powdered dog food from The Press newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand and splashed it across its front page.
Under the headline "For starving children of Kenya, 42 tons of dog food ..." the Nation heaped scorn on the scheme presented to the New Zealand paper by Drummond, the founder of Mighty Mix dog food.
In an interview with Television New Zealand late on Monday, Drummond said the relief, NZ's Raw Dry Nourish, is fit for humans. Both she and her children used it, but she allowed it contains the same ingredients as Mighty Mix dog biscuits.
The Press quoted her as saying she initially thought of sending biscuits to Kenya but decided against it when she discovered the need.
"The first plan was to send dog biscuits and change the vitamins then when I heard there were so many little children I could not send them a bicky," The Press quoted her as saying.
So she created a powdered form of the ingredients -- freeze-dried beef, mutton, pork and chicken, deer velvet, green lip mussel, kelp, garlic, egg, whole grain cereals and cold-pressed flax seed flour -- to mix with water.
"The dogs thrive on it," Mighty Mix agent Gaynor Siviter told The Press. "They have energy, put on weight. It's bizarre but if it's edible and it works for these people then it's a brilliant idea. It beats eating rice."
Don't you see what is going on ppl? These Europeans are experimenting with Africans(using them as Guinea Pigs). The same way they did with the H.I.V/A.I.D.S virus. You ppl better wake up before you end up like "Ms. Evers Boys". |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4157
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 03:09 am: |
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Renata & Roxie,
Why can't Kenyans figure out ways to feed their own dayamselves?
Those foks ain't never heard of agriculture and animal husbandry over there?
Africa's gottah STOP begging White foks for the basic life necessessities! |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 651
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 12:29 pm: |
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I agree there, too, ABM. |
Anunaki3600
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 141
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 04:14 am: |
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Kenya just had a bumper harvest of maize (corn). There is lots of food available for those WHO can afford it. Some people are starving because they are POOR and cannot afford to purchase food. There is a drought going on in certain areas of the country mostly inhabited by nomadic cattle rearing folks. They are the ones who are experiencing hunger and have to travel long distances with their herds looking for water. Some of them will starve to death before they slaughter even one of their cows for food. Other areas have experienced crop failure due to the drought thus require food aid. This hunger is mostly created by failure of government in planning and logistics. Kenya has one of the highest class divisions in the world and has no welfare programs for the poor. Just imagine if the USA has no social welfare programs, i.e. food stamps etc. How many would starve????? |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 639
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 05:53 am: |
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ABM,
Point taken. ^-^ |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4180
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 12:05 pm: |
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Anunaki,
It's a gotdayam shame Kenya's government and wealthier classes don't help its less fortunate. Don't they know or care that compelling its poor and starving to receive charity from other nations (especially of the type that's being decried HERE) blights them as a people and the nation of Kenya as a whole? |
Salsassin
First Time Poster
Username: Salsassin
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 11, 2006 - 05:25 am: |
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The food is from a private donor and it is high protein fully fit for human consumption. That she owns a dog food company should be of no concern if it saves childrens lives. |
Zuriburi
Regular Poster
Username: Zuriburi
Post Number: 48
Registered: 11-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 10:06 am: |
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The ole' class hierarchial story again. Humans are nothing but insecure, greedy, insatiable monsters most of the time.
Anunaki, are you aware of any reliable aid organizations who are helping to bring food where needed? |
Anunaki3600
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 142
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 04:48 am: |
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The main problem is not "food" reaching the hungry. It more like families loosing the cattle herds. A story on feb/4/2006 in the local newspaper was like "a high school student went home over the weekend and found out that their family had lost their whole herd of cattle (200 cows)tried to committ suicide". They lost over two million shillings worth of cattle. These nomadic people are loosing their herds because all watering points are dry due the lack of rains for the last six months.
Organizations like World Food Programme (WFP), Red Cross, etc are all active at the moment. |
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