In a recent article on radioaustralia.net, the North Korean food crisis is discussed. Because of recent flooding in many areas due to extremely high rainfall, the necessary crops, such as the maize that is the lifeblood of North Korea, there is an extreme food shortage, the children of North Korea are paying the price. The children are so malnourished that there is a chance they may never recover. These children are suffering from various ailments resulting from their malnutrition such as hyponatremia, kwashiorkor, and various other ailments due to their malnutrition. It is unjust that in this time of crisis, the children of North Korea must pay for the unavoidable natural disasters. According to the World Food Organization, women and children are often the ones who suffer when food becomes scares. The men are all too often the last ones to go hungry when famine becomes a problem; this is an unjust issue. Alert Net was allowed into North Korea for a tightly controlled visit with a camera crew and several nutrition experts who work with Doctors Without Borders. Of the 28 children seen by the various nutritionists, twelve of them were so malnourished that the doctors warned that without proper nutrition and proper treatment of their various other conditions, resulting from their malnutrition and other various factors, they could very well die without treatment. This is an unfortunate natural disaster with unavoidable consequences, but the children of North Korea should not be paying such a steep price for Mother Nature’s cruelty.
A big part of these children not getting enough help is because of the issues with their government and the reception of North Korea by international powers and aid. Since North Korea has very strained relations with many of the countries that pour money into international health aid, it would be hard pressed to find governmental funded organizations to donate. Also, the government of North Korea itself would probably not even allow aid, considering the government kept even the crew of Alert Net under very strict measures. This just goes to show what a large part the political scene plays in international health. Even if people desire to help, and there are people visibly suffering, aid efforts are constricted if their government is unjust and is not interested in the welfare of the people.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem here is not the recent flooding in many areas due to extremely high rainfall, but North Korean government and other powerful nations that have power to help them. North Korea is one of the poorest country in the world and not really open to outside world that it is even hard to get the data about health issues in North Korea. North Korea does not really get aid from other countries because their governments are not open to other countries aid and most importantly many powerful countries have power to help them hesitate to help them because of political issues. However, despite the political issues, for human rights we have to give aid to North Korea.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea is rather unique in that it's possibly the hardest country to bring help into. The famine is a large problem, but there is really very little the international community can do about it if North Korea is uncooperative. This is a case where resources might be better spent trying to improve relations and getting North Korea to open up to help, since the food shortage is affecting children which will suffer health problems throughout their lives if left untreated now. Being able to send aid in the long term might be a better goal than trying to force aid in the short term, since political bickering is already at dangerous levels between North Korea and the world.
ReplyDeleteIt seems, as many others have already commented, that the political situation in this case plays as big a role as the environmental one. The fact that North Korea has strained relations with many countries capable of giving aid only serves to compound the already awful conditions the people of North Korea are subjected to. In this day and age, when international aid is so widespread, it is easy to forget countries like North Korea who are in a vastly different situation than many others. The question is now how best do we help them? It doesn’t seem sensible to forcibly impose our aid on them, nor does it seem right to sit back and do nothing. Perhaps the best thing is to initiate discussions with the North Korea and to discuss, as peaceably as possible, what can be done to mitigate the situation together.
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