05
JUNK SCIENCE AND INEPT POLITICS COMPOUND NATURE’S WRATH IN ZAMBIA
It makes a very sad reading that the Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa had to declare a national food disaster, appealing for immediate donor help to feed over 1.7 million people left hungry, by crop failures due to drought in 2005 (Reuters, November 22, 2005). The President seems to have acted very reluctantly, putting the onus on the Zambian Parliament, as he told the journalists that ‘Now parliament is the highest law making body in the land and in view of this resolve, I hereby declare the current food shortages a disaster in Zambia and I appeal for donor assistance.’
In July 2002, the Zambian government made international headlines when they ordered the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to take back over 35,000 tones of food aid, even while three million Zambians faced hunger caused by a severe drought, as the package contained ‘potentially unsafe GM maize’ (Panos). The stand of the Zambian government received a standing ovation from the anti-GE groups the world over and this ‘bold decision’ was endlessly praised making the Zambian government the hero (see http://www.gmwatch.org, May 17, 2005, and November 10, 2005, for the latest).