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I'm back after a broken arm and a long winter. During the past few months, the news has moved on from hurricanes and earthquakes to.... Actually, we still read a lot about Hurricane Katrina in the news in this country. People are still struggling to put their lives together after their cities and homes were destroyed, and even after families and friends died.
During the past few months, we haven't read nearly as much about the Horn of Africa: Somalia, the Sudan, and Chad. While the big boys and politicians play their little war games in Africa, though, a couple million people are threatened with starvation -- again. Yeah, it sounds familiar. :/ But the people who are starving aren't at fault for this recurring pattern. The people who have caused or failed to prevent the repeated famines in this part of the world over the last quarter century aren't going hungry. The people who are going hungry are depending on the UN, the Red Cross, and a bunch of other international disaster relief organizations to keep them alive while their political masters try to figure things out.
Sadly, it took the President Idriss Deby of Chad's breaking diplomatic relations with the Sudan yesterday, and subsequent threat to cut off oil exports, to get any significant amount of attention in the U.S. and European media. I understand donor fatigue; I'm tired of the recurring famines caused by individuals who put their greed and hunger for power ahead of the survival of their people. As tired as you and I may be of the whole mess, however, we aren't nearly as sick of it as the people caught in the middle of it.
So, on the principle of doing to others as you would have them do to you (whether you believe the Christian or Confucian version of it), please make the conscious effort to find some extra spare cash and donate it to one of the following organizations, or any organization that is feeding hungry people in the Horn of Africa. If you use the SpamBouncer, consider it the payback I don't take in cash. 
The list below contains links to charities and government agencies that are involved in disaster relief in the Horn of Africa, and that need donations or volunteers, or both. PLEASE check the web site to be sure that a charity accepts your kind of donation or needs volunteers before contacting them. These folks are busybusybusy. If you want to send a donation, please use their web site or donations hotline. If you want to volunteer, check the web site first to be sure that they're accepting volunteers with your skills.
Please be careful where you give -- as we anti-spammers know, there are a lot of crooks out there collecting money for themselves, not for the victims. But please don't let that stop you from giving as much as you can afford. I'll consider a donation to them a welcome return for the time I've spent developing and maintaining the SpamBouncer. :)
If any of you would like to recommend another good, reputable charity that is actively involved in relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, please send me email and I'll happily list it as well.