Dan Rather IT HARDLY seems possible, but the holiday season is almost upon us again. Another year has passed in a series of crises. War and a dangerous world are on our minds, and on our lips. At home, the threat of terrorism and a faltering economy compete for our attentions and anxieties.
Soon, though, Americans will gather together as families, and we will give thanks for our good fortune in doing so. Thanks for the comforts of hearth and home, thanks for our privileged and prosperous place in the family of nations. Thanks for so many things, from those who are fortunate enough to have them.
If we are conscientious in our thanksgiving, we will remember the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving, how Native Americans saved the Plymouth colony from starvation as it faced its first winter. And we might also give some serious and urgent thought to how we can act in that spirit now.
After September 11, so the story goes, Americans once again began looking outward. And it's true: countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, North Korea and Indonesia indeed, the United Nations as a whole have become the subject of intense American focus. There is one spot on the globe, however, that we routinely overlook, and right now it needs help. Badly.
For all too long, poverty, disease and political instability have been the hallmarks of sub-Saharan Africa. Now, with so much of America's and the world's attention focused elsewhere, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the nations of southern Africa face a potentially catastrophic famine.
Remember "We are the World" and Live Aid? Those charitable efforts came in response to the 1984 Ethiopian famine, a crisis that is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. This year, it is estimated that at least six million and as many as 15 million Ethiopians could face starvation if relief doesn't come soon. An equal number are also at risk in southern Africa.
There are a number of reasons for this looming disaster. In the Horn of Africa, severe drought is the culprit. In Angola, the problem is decades of war. In Zimbabwe, the government has engineered its own crisis with a racial policy that kicked some of the most productive farmers off of their land at the height of the growing season. And the Zambian government has actually refused food aid for its people if it comes in the form of genetically engineered crops.
But the surmounting problem in Africa's south is HIV/AIDS. In Swaziland, for example, late, insufficient rains and large numbers of farmers too sick to sow seeds have combined to create a dangerous food shortage. And as the hunger has grown worse, more women have turned to such desperate measures as prostitution, worsening the spread of HIV.
It's a horrifying picture of human misery. And just because we've seen its like before in Africa, does not mean that the world can ignore it now. If there's any good news to be found, it is that, this time, we have some advance warning. International relief organisations are scrambling to address the problem. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have just launched a $15 million appeal for Ethiopia, and similar efforts to help all affected countries are also being undertaken by organisations such as Save the Children, Oxfam and CARE.
There is still a chance to act, but all who know the situation say help must come immediately or it will be too late. Now is the time to remember the spirit of the first Thanksgiving.
Dan Rather is a television news anchor.
