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Your e-mails: The crisis in Niger
 The famine left more than 3 million Nigeriens, many of them children, in desparate need of food. RELATED
SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- This summer, millions of people -- many of them children -- have struggled to survive a devastating famine in the land-locked, West African nation of Niger. Humanitarian officials solicited help last fall, but international attention didn't focus on the situation until recently. By that point, tens of thousands of people had died with many more on the brink of starvation. CNN.com invited readers from around the world to comment on the situation, including assessing the developed world's responsibility to help and the overall situation in Africa. These e-mails represent a sampling of this feedback on Niger. If the emaciated faces of the children aren't enough to spur us to demand action from our government, to open our wallets, to volunteer our time, to ask what what we can do to help, let alone tear our hearts apart in our chests, then we, sadly, have no heart. My husband is from [Niger], and sitting next to him as we watched the devastation of these people made my heart cry. ... It is sad to see the children dying daily. How many children have to die before action is taken? I am so lucky to live in the United States, and may I never forget this. I will give whatever it takes to help my husband's people. As cynical as it sounds, starvation is nature's way to reduce the population in an environment that cannot support the number of individuals that currently inhabit the area. Unless the well-meaning intend to support the excess population forever, temporary feeding efforts will only delay the inevitable. Our money would be better spent providing vasectomies and tubal ligations to the folks living in the area. The root problem is overpopulation. There is such an imbalance of wealth. We have [an international] space station and a shuttle, we spend billions in Iraq, we have robots that cut your lawn, but we cannot make more progress with world hunger? ... I do believe the world should help those in need of basic care for survival. More people need to become aware of this tragedy, as well as other tragedies like genocide. We said many times in history, "Never again." We are liars, apparently. Helping Niger is not only a difficult task, but nearly an impossible one. Overpopulation, deforestation, over-cultivation and drought have devastated Niger. This is not the first time Niger has been in crisis. Early 1970s Western relief efforts poured billions of dollars into Africa with little lasting impact. Corruption also makes certain that relief aid will go to line the pockets of the elite and not to those who need it. It is every developed nation's responsibility to help developing nations become self-sufficient before radical ideologies take root in their societies ... If we help them more than the extremists do, then we will finally be winning the war on terrorism in the long run, and all of our children will be better off in the future. Aren't we supposed to always be helping a fellow brother out? Isn't this how we win the war against the death mongers who can misinterpret anything? ... If we do not solve the problem of inequality in the global economy, then someone else will, and we will have fewer and fewer allies until we eventually no longer have much of a voice in geopolitics. We live in a nation of excess, which fosters self-centeredness and a sense of entitlement ... If the young (and not so young) people in this country were exposed to hardships of people living in other countries like Niger, perhaps it would give them perspective on what's truly important ... It is the developed world's responsibility to help, especially the wealthier nations like [the United States]. I still can't get over the fact that movie stars, TV personalities and athletes are paid millions of dollars, while at the same time people all over the world are starving, including people in the United States. I can't help but wonder where the current aid to Africa has gone. It seems that nothing improves in Africa. If I were in charge of African aid, I would tell the African "leaders" to stand aside while the aid -- food, not money; clean water systems, not money; agricultural aid, not F-16 fighters -- is provided. No more cash to be diverted to Swiss bank accounts, spent on military equipment, pounded down the rat hole of waste. I am completely disgusted by the current state of affairs in Africa, and the blame must be shared by all involved. I am appalled at first-world countries, particularly my own, who have not reacted faster to this famine ... The outpouring of individual, corporate and governmental relief after the December 26, 2004, tsunami was so very encouraging. Why is it that tens of thousands of African children will continue to die, because that same response has not happened? Doesn't anyone care about Africa? We have so much and they have nothing.  Helping countries like Niger isn't our responsibility as much as it is our obligation. -- Teresa from Lexington, Kentucky
I find this entire situation absolutely insane in this day and age! Please tell me why these people are not being taught the very simple methods of birth control? If anyone wants to help, this would be top priority in my book. We do not let animals continue to breed when they no longer can take care of their own, let alone people. I do blame the various religions [which oppose contraception] for this continued overpopulation. When these people cannot take care of themselves, why bring more people into a world of starvation? It's inhumane and cruel. It is embarrassing how we flaunt, and even take for granted, our good fortune and abundance. Helping countries like Niger isn't our responsibility as much as it is our obligation, just as it would be if a next-door neighbor were in need. At the same time, the countries of Africa need to straighten [out] their government leaders and hold them accountable, so the people can receive the help given by developed countries. But weeding out governmental corruption is no small task. This is a multifaceted problem with no easy solution. It is the developed world's responsibility to help relieve the famine crisis in Niger and other African humanitarian tragedies. Imagine the human suffering relieved by a fraction of the money that we, in the United States, pour into the Iraqi war daily. Wells dug for these remote villagers would be a sensible place to start. When will we ever learn? And who among our leaders is willing to act? This is just sick. How could we let it get this far? How could there government let it get that far? Children cannot take care of themselves, and yet no one else is taking care of them. How long are we going to continue to let this happen? How long are we going to let children continue to die before we act? We need to do something now before any more children die. One white teenager lost in Aruba receives all the media attention, while thousands of black African men, women and children are dying every minute with little or no media attention. What a shame! I visited Niger in 2000 and left with a love of the people there. They are some of the poorest in the world, but they are strong, warm and generous. Our SUV became stuck in mud in a remote area with no one in sight. Within 30 minutes, more than 20 people from a small nearby village had joined us, one-by-one, as they saw us in need. They worked in the rain for almost an hour until we were free. I am heartbroken to know that those people and their countrymen are suffering and starving. Unless the well-meaning intend to support the excess population forever, temporary feeding efforts will only delay the inevitable. -- Ken Anderson of Richardson, Texas
I am sick of everyone trying to point fingers at who or what caused this situation. The fact is that this is now upon us, and we need to do something about it -- and then figure out a way so that this doesn't happen for future generations. There are innocent lives being lost there daily and, instead, everyone wants to sit around and say, "Oh, America already makes up half the aid to third world countries." Or, "The government over there is so corrupt and that's why money can't get to where it needs to." It doesn't matter. ... We need to get in there and get aid to the people that need it most. The crisis in Niger highlights the failure of both the international community and international organizations such as the United Nations to act pre-emptively in anticipation of wide-scale humanitarian crises. A partial solution to this problem may lie in the development of rapid response units to deal with such issues. The state of Africa in general is deplorable; it is certainly not a legacy we want to leave our children. Unfortunately, we can rest assured that the plight of the "forgotten continent" will not be forgotten by history. In the absence of an effective international response, Western nations need to show some moral leadership and address Africa's deep-rooted, systemic problems. America is probably looked upon as a sort of heaven to those hungry persons who know it exists. Yet America dumps enough food down garbage disposals, our restaurants throw out enough food, and food is wasted in so many other ways that it could feed the whole of Africa. I'm not religious, so I wouldn't call this waste a sin. I suppose the words would be: depraved indifference to suffering fellow human beings. Having served in a hospital in Togo, West Africa, not far from Niger, my heart broke and I cried as I watched the pictures. My own personal struggle with the world's suffering, and my role as a privileged American who has every advantage anyone could want, has nearly consumed me in the last 11 months since my return from Africa. ... Many of my friends are African natives and African missionaries. Whenever we talk, our thoughts and hearts always come around to the same angst: What can we do about Africa? ... There is still hope for Africa. 
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