While the US media has been narrowly focused on the debt ceiling deal, an extreme humanitarian crisis has developed in Somalia and neighboring countries, where it has not rained in four or five years. From IRIN:
According to the Famine and Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), the drought situation is the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world today and Africa’s worst food security crisis since Somalia’s 1991/1992 famine.
On 20 July, the UN declared famine in Lower Shabelle and southern Bakool regions in southern Somalia, warning that the situation could worsen because the drought had been compounded by insecurity, lack of aid and food price inflation.
The famine has been brought on by an extreme drought, and according to IRIN, rains are not expected until October, meaning a few more seasons of lost crops and livestock.
As we’ve seen in other humanitarian crisis, women and children often bare the brunt of the impact. This is true for the Somalian famine as well, where it is estimated that 80% of refugees are women and children.
Even as the UN announced that famine had spread to more areas in south-central Somalia, reports from the capital, Mogadishu, indicate that the suffering of the drought-displaced, mostly women and children, was increasing, with reports that government forces and Al-Shabab militia were hampering aid distribution in areas under their control.
“The situation is such that most of those reaching Mogadishu are mainly women and children because most of the men have remained in the Al-Shabab-held areas since they fear being arrested by government forces for allegedly being pro-Al Shabab,” Su’di Mohamed Ali, director of administration and finance in the Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs, told IRIN. “Al-Shabab itself often prevents men from going to government-controlled areas.”
The Obama Administration responded to the crisis earlier this week by agreeing not to “prosecute relief agencies for delivering aid to parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, despite concerns that unrestricted aid in the failed state would be diverted to the wrong hands.”
Hopefully the removal of those aid restrictions will improve the dire situation there.
The Feministing Five: Tavi Gevinson
Tavi started blogging about fashion and style at the age of 11. Now 15, she still writes about those things, and in a thoughtful and entirely un-frivolous way, but she’s also begun blogging about gender, and culture, and what it means to be a young woman both inside the fashion world and out. Last month, she reflected on how people’s perception of her has changed – and how, in turn, her self-perception has changed – since she switched from glasses to contact lenses. Reflecting on beauty privilege, something that those who move in the fashion world should be compelled to think about more often, she wrote,
People who are conventionally attractive have the privilege of going through life knowing their appearance will usually not act as a barrier in accomplishing what they want to accomplish. Of course, this is a general statement, but typically, Pretty Woman does not have to worry about missing out on opportunities because of her appearance. (Pretty Woman also gets Richard Gere.) So when some people have to live with being judged based on appearance as well as or instead of merit, it would be really annoying for someone who doesn’t have to worry about that as much to try to say she deals with the same thing.
She then directed her readers to a great feminist explanation of other ways that beauty privilege works. As her writing suggests, as Tavi grows up (she’s heading into her sophomore year of high school now), she is getting deeper into feminism. And, her feminism is clearly influencing her work and choice of projects: she has teamed up with former Sassy editor Jane Pratt to launch a new zine later this year, is working on a book with Feministing Fiver Marisa Meltzer, and she continues to blog and talk about how feminism and fashion interact.
And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with Tavi Gevinson.
Chloe Angyal: What made you start identifying as a feminist, and how does your feminism affect your passion for fashion and style?
Tavi Gevinson: Like many people, I think I was a feminist for a long time before I started calling myself one. But I think it was because I noticed that friends of mine who had fashion blogs identified as feminists and were outspoken about it, which somehow made it cooler to me, since I’d never really seen feminism in the form of like, actually calling it that thought of as cool. Then I read the book Girl Power by Marisa Meltzer and it was like, oh, definitely, duh.
Feminism affects my passion for style in the ways it makes me want to explore less conventional ways of dressing and see the desire to have fun with clothes as creative and in favor of individualism, not as a reinforcement of beauty standards.
CA: Who is your favorite fictional heroine, and who are your heroines in real life?
TG: I love Pippi Longstocking, Enid Coleslaw, Lydia Deetz, Audrey Horne…so many! In real life, my mom, a couple amazing teachers I’ve had…Miranda July really inspires me for never limiting herself to being one thing.
CA: What recent news story made you want to scream?
TG: Well, the 2nd most popular trending topic on Twitter right now is #ReasonsToBeatYourGirlfriend, which elicits both a scream and an eyeroll.
CA: What, in your opinion, is the greatest challenge facing feminism today?
TG: Hefty question! I’m truthfully not sure I’m qualified to answer. I basically see feminism, right now, as a spectrum that’s personal on one end and political on the other. At the moment my passion seems to lie more in exploring the personal side, I think because I’m a teenager and so many aspects of the personal side of the spectrum seem especially prevalent at my age — beauty insecurity, the virgin/whore dichotomy, girl hate and jealousy, and just what it means to find your voice and, as a woman, own and value it even when it’s less welcomed. So it’s things like these I like to explore, and would like to start a conversation about with a site for teen girls I’m launching in September.
CA: You’re going to a desert island, and you’re allowed to take one food, one drink and one feminist. What do you pick?
TG: I would take Fruit Roll Ups, Nesquik, and my best friend.