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"The Famine Scam"

months had elapsed. Even BBC had claimed to be har-
though we worked on another dest stricken by the famine.
project in between, it took us They told us that they had
this amount of tiine to comple- heard of no-one dying of hun-
te the documentaiy. ger. This contradicted BBC
reports which stated that
Q: How did you feel when "thousands have died here
nobody could tell you any- during the last weeks and
thing about the famine? months". The BBC report was
made in a village where peo-
First of all, there is no doubt ple told us that no-one had
that the suminer of 2005 was a died-except for those who
hard time for fatmers and the had been crushed in the
great majority of the people queues to receive free food!
living in poverty in Niger.
However, what we question in Q: How do you explain
the film is the use of the term what we were hearing
"famine". The media and the about the "famine"?
large NGOs-in addition to the
In 2005 a BBC reporter explain. {JN-used this term for a When the rainy season starts
made television reports whole year. "Famine" calls for a (normally in early summer)
about a famine in Niger. Q: Could you tell us how certain reaction from the inter- the malaria epidemic increa-
The international humani- your project started? national community, e.g. the ses dramatically in Niger
tarian organizations reac- delivery of large amounts of (mostly due to the increase of
ted quickly with aid. It later When visiting Niger for the free food. According to the sta- mosquitoes in the damp di-
came to light that there fmt tiine in Februaiy 2007, we tistics, the hard time in the sum- mate). Thus, more than a dra-
had never been any fami- realized it might be good jour- mer of 2005 was litkle worse matic lack of food, the pro-
ne. How did this situation nalism to investigate what that than average - ever5r year blem confronting the people
arise? country had experienced in the being a hard year in Niger. of Niger was malaria, wich
srnnmer and autumn of 2005. Given the huge intemational particularly affects small chil-
It was purely by chance We carried out several inter- operation that was set in motion dren. The statistics on child
that Per Christian Magnus views diuing tis first visit. because the word "famine" had deaths in Niger are terrible:
and his colleague Robert That was the start. Upon retur- been used to describe the situa- every year, one in every four
Reinlund came to Niger in ning to Norway we teained up tion, it really was astonisbing to or five children dies before
February 2007. They were, witli an excellent researcher, tneet so many local people reacg the age of 5. And
in fact, following the Anne Marie Groth, who had whose perception of the situa- malaria is the big killer.
Noiwegian Red Cross's considerable experience of tion was totaIly different. However, when free food is
White Truck Project, and research on humanitarian ci'ises the "medicine" prescribed by
the last stop on the trip in Africa. We realized after a Q: You met the loca( popu- the inteinational coininunity,
was Niger. A journalist is wlule that media coverage of lation and even a the NGOs and the {JN, it real-
a(ways a journalist, so the 2005 crisis raised several Norwegian family living in ly does not havc any iznpact
they started to ask people interesting questions about how the supposedly most fami- the real problem. On the
about how they had survi- the international media functio- ne-stricken area. What did contrary, free food hams
ved the awful famine of ned in Africa, as well as how they tell you about the local economic stnictures:
2005. To their astonish- collaboration between NGOs famine? famiers give up their work on
ment, people looked at and the media works. We went the fields to receive food
them curiously and said: back to Niger in September We met fanners and people donations; local markets are
"What famine?" Magnus 2007, travelling for several working in the fields in the wiped out, etc.
and Reinlund were more weeks in the regions that sup- region that the '[JN and the
specific: "Well, the big cri- posedly had been stricken by
sis in 2005 where more the "famine", and talked to
than 3.6 million people more than fifty famiers and
were faced with staiva- "ordinary" people, in addition
tion." The television had to representatives of NGOs and
shown first-hand Niger politicians.
accounts of this terrible
event and Nomegian Q: How long did it take to
humanitarian organiza- make your documentary';'
tions had collected huge
amount of aid. It was the- Between our first visit to Niger
refore strange that nobody in Febiuary 2007 and the time
knew about it We asked the film was broadcast in
Magnus and Reinlund to Norway (A/Iarch 2008) twelve
3 2009 Diva 17

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