count your blessings.. i've counted mine

Listening to: Five for Fighting's Superman (It's Not Easy)

red alert (again): check your mailboxes please. for people, who still can't get stuff frm me, let me know. may just post it up here then.

This has been a rather strange week for me. on the day of national day, a "bug" struck me. my friend calls it the "new year bug".. so what does this bug do? well, it's that kind of bug that makes you count your blessings, to ponder about your life..

woke up that morning, feeling strange but blessed. So i decided to tell some of my friends.. say thank you for being my friend. you should try that too.. makes you feel good and definitely, brightens up another person's day. Us Asians are just so shy that we feel uncomfortable just even telling our friends "thank you for being my friend"..and that's one trait we should get rid of.

This morning, read another article that reminded me of the need to count our blessings. Yes, please flip through the saturday special on the biopolis (S&T again!).. that will give you some insight about the progress of Singapore in terms of scientific advancement.

But here's the article i wanted to share specifically:
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Africa in the grip of a vast 'hunger belt'

WASHINGTON - WITH attention on food shortages in Niger, aid agencies say a vast 'hunger belt' is stretching across Africa. All across the continent - from Niger in the centre to Somalia on the Indian Ocean seaboard - people are starving.

Latest reports from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network say more than 20 million people are at risk from food shortages.

The Famine Early Warning network, made up of a variety of aid agencies including the aid arm of the US government, USAid, says no fewer than seven African states face food emergencies.

These are mostly on the fringes of the Sahara desert and stretch from Niger, through Chad and Sudan, to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

One factor unites most of the people at risk across Africa.

They rely overwhelmingly on rain-fed or flood-plain agriculture and have little access to irrigated fields. So, when rains are erratic or fail, it is a disaster.

It is also no coincidence that most of the worst-affected countries are on the edge of the Sahara. The desert is advancing and soils are being eroded.

The only long-term answer to this situation, aid workers say, is massive investment, including the productive harnessing of rivers like the Niger and the Nile. This investment will need to be guaranteed over many years.

The picture is mixed within the countries affected.

The largest number of people at risk in a single state is in Ethiopia, where some 10 million people are said to be facing food shortages. But in some parts of Ethiopia an ambitious government plan to provide a safety net for poor people is beginning to bear fruit.

Within Sudan, the country's south is most at risk. The end of the war there has paradoxically made the situation more difficult, with refugees returning home and putting land under pressure.

The seventh country facing a food emergency, according to the Famine Early Warning network, is Zimbabwe. Aid workers say the recent clearances of urban dwellers have created pressure on rural land as townspeople are forced to settle elsewhere.

The slum clearances came on top of the problems caused by President Robert Mugabe's land reforms.

These illustrate another side of the complex agricultural problems facing Africa. Giving mechanised, irrigated farms to subsistence farmers will not necessarily improve food security because the farmers are still dependent on rainfall if they lack the money to maintain the irrigation systems. -- NEW YORK TIMES