‘Look UN, The Piggy Bank Is Broke!’ Where are you going to go when there is no more?

In The USA  And European Countries Your Asking  To Give Money In Case You Haven’t Noticed We Have Many Of The Same Issues:  War, Drought, Hunger, and Financial  Issues Of Our Own!  shera~

NAIROBI, Kenya – Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine, a U.N. official said Wednesday, and tens of thousands of Somalis have already died in the worst hunger emergency in a generation.

The Horn of Africa is suffering a devastating drought compounded by war, neglect and spiraling prices. Some areas in the region have not had such a low rainfall in 60 years, aid group Oxfam said.

“Desperate” Somalia famine puts 11M at risk

The U.N. needs $300 million in the next two months, said Mark Bowden, the U.N.’s top official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia. The last time conditions were this bad was in 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death. That famine prompted intervention by an international peacekeeping force, but it eventually pulled out after two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.

Hunger in the United States
35.5 million people (including 12.6 million children) experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
This is roughly 10.9 percent of the 301 million people in the U.S. (July 2007 estimate)
4.0 percent of U.S. households (11.1 million people, including 0.43 million children) experience hunger. Some families skip meals, eat too little, or go a whole day without food.
1 out of every 8 households in the United States has reduced the quality of its diet to utilize money elsewhere (rent, clothing, day care).
6.9 percent of U.S. households (24.4 million people, including 12.2 million children) are at risk of hunger.
In 2007, an average of 26.5 million people participated in the Food Stamp Program each month (8.8 percent of the U.S. population).
In 2006, requests for emergency food assistance increased 7 percent. Of those requesting emergency food assistance, 48 percent were members of families with children, and 37 percent of adults requesting assistance were employed.
America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest network of food banks, reported that an estimated 24 to 27 million people turned to its agencies in 2006.

Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years,” Bowden said. “This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives.”

Famine is officially defined as when two adults or four children per 10,000 people die of hunger each day and a third of children are acutely malnourished. In some areas of Somalia, six people are dying a day and more than half of children are acutely malnourished, Bowden said. Prices of staple foods have increased 270 percent over the last year.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. will give another $28 million, on top of the $431 million in assistance it has given to the Horn of Africa this year, which Clinton said was simply “not enough.”

Britain has pledged $145 million in the past two weeks — about 15 percent of what is needed — and the European Union pledged around $8 million, with more expected in coming days. Spain has promised nearly $10 million and Germany around $8.5 million but Oxfam said France has so far not pledged any more money and Denmark and Italy have said no significant new sums are available.

“There is no time to waste if we are to avoid massive loss of life,” Equiza said in a statement. “We must not stand by and watch this tragedy unfold before our eyes. The world has been slow to recognize the severity of this crisis, but there is no longer any excuse for inaction.”

Some donors, like the U.S., have expressed fears that aid might be diverted byIslamist groups.

More at Source