‘Greed a cause of suffering’

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 15

‘Greed a cause of suffering’

PA Wellington The fortunes of tne aeveioping world were falling, and many people of other nations did not want to know about its problems, delegates at the annual Save The Children Fund conference in Wellington were told by Colonel Hugh Mac Kay, director of overseas relief projects for the fund. Mans indifference and greed was one of the main reasons why the last year had been such a bad one for suffering children all over the world, Colonel Mac Kay said in his opening speech.* “We have got to an obscene form of accounting

when a fighter plane and my budget for three years both work out at the same price, more, than $45,000,000. My work gives life and hope to .1.000.000 children a year, whereas this sophisticated electronic equipment is a ghastly tragedy in terms of money wasted/’ he said. Colonel Mac Kay said that in recent, years the S.C.E. had mounted its biggest effort in 60 years in Uganda, where, after former President. Idi Amin's excesses, the country had been left bankrupt. for the. tribal people of the Karamoja area, he said, their only hope now lay with outside help, without which they were dying.

A child was dying every ru t minutes in the area aftei , drought had devastated the • harvest of the Karamojong i people. The people had formerly I been cattle traders and 1 farmers, but now their herds [ were reduced from 600.006 head to 50.000 head, which t were hidden away to protect 1 them from raiders in remote 1 areas. Security was lacking, be- ) cause after the excesses of ’’ Idi Amin's police, people were, distrustful and had f formed their own militia, he • said. , 1 |i Russian high-velocity rifles were cheap. Under the condi-

u tions tne people were living 1 in it was tempting to fight e for food with the knowledge g that otherwise one might not live till the next day, said y Colonel Mac Kay. (J Drunken soldiers had 0 thrown hand grenades into a . children's feeding centre, and two S.C.F. nurses had been „ beaten to a pulp and had their arms broken by soldiers looking for food. :- - 'But we will go on, bef cause no-one else will/’ p - Colonel- Mac Kay comd mended the members of the e conference on their last year's fund-raising efforts, in which they improved on their j 1979 funds bv 43 per cent.

which was an increase of $2 million. “You live here in a beautiful land, whereas the sounds of children dying are far away, but your efforts make you just as much part of our team. “The world's future perhaps lies in agriculture, as the Commonwealth countries are expert in this area. Let the heads of government get together and talk bluntly about, what, they can do to set the balance right in these countries/’ Colonel Mac Kay said, each year They were, set a tougher task, but it was a task which must he met, as the S.C.F. was in the frontline for aid.