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Show Monday, February 22, 1993 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, - Page Dl rts say many African nations face food crises By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent is an expensive dream in an impoverished land. For now, the farmers are satis-ife- d to have huts to live in. Under a CARE International re- HOOBISHOOLE, Somalia -Sthe humblest of grains, likes it here on the dry, lonely high plain of south Somalia. But these days, even the hardy sorghum is scarce. The fields of chocolate-brow- n earth spreading out for miles around Hoobishoole are more fallow than in full leaf this harvest season. The first grain crop of the "new" Somalia looks thin. The farmers are too weak, too few. orghum, settlement - ., ".. ? . program, Hoobi-shoole- 's 7,600 families are trickling back from refugee camps. They fled in 1991 after government troops, routed in the civil war, rampaged through the area, slaughtering animals, stealing ll crops and tools, wrecking houses. The dusty, silent village, now a scattering of thatch huts among clumps of bush, gets regular deliveries of sacks of corn from CARE. "To recover, we need food for two, three, four months," a somber Sheik Yusuf Sheikhahmed, the local Islamic clergyman, said as he mud-wa- .. it I - , w . - v.- ,- - .W 1 V. r U -- V'K - 4 r-u , cradled his Koran in his lap. "We also need seeds. We need medical help. The people lack nutrition. Then we would try to t produce." Some farmers are already trying, producing a small crop of sorghum. But the corn-lik- e grain, which they mix into a porridge, has developed a "rust" disease, pointing up still broader problems in Somali the shortage of funagriculture The forecast for the Somali peoeven years of ple is for months 1 dependence on food aid. "We farmers lost everything," said village chairman Aden AP Photo Abdi. "We've got to start Hoobishie village chairman Aden Mohamed Abdi rubs his eyes while looking over the partially planted fields surrounding Hoobishie, Somalia. from zero." The Somalia disaster is well known. Civil war conspired with latest clan wars, and its impact can Development Program, a veteran Agronomists, economists, passable roads, lack of irrigation, all agree that chronic drought. in the field of farmers African be found in the continent's perilous agricultural projects. drought to starve a people. An estiThe Hoobishoole area should World countries Third proin "1 1992. mated 350,000 died percent gap." The concerns extend beyond Afnounced own food their or, But Somalia is not alone. An staples grow Since the 1960s, when it was rica. is Somalia's breadbasket. alternatively, develop their econolook at world agriculture in food, with population mies caught up Crops "The soil is good," said Iowa finds that other Somalias are possienough, through agriculture, Africa's exploding population in Asia in recent decades, to Kevin Tobin. an agriculturgrowth farmer American corn, next door in Ethiopia, elseArgentine buy ble has grown an average 3 percent a thanks to the revolution" wheat, New Zealand milk. al specialist with Catholic Relief "green where in Africa, or even beyond d rice and wheat varieyear, while its food production has Services in nearby Baidoa. "It's this continent in lands now considThe challenge is huge, nowhere well irrigated. well grown only 2 percent a year. fertilized, ties, not Iowa, but it's as good as parts ered If harvests continue to trail But scientists lately find these more so than here on the southern Illinois. of Missouri, In its latest early warning bullebirths at that rate, the World Bank yields hitting a ceiling, while plateau 160 miles northwest of That tells me the limiting factor is tin, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Asian populations are not. within 30 years Africa's anwater." Organization lists 20 nations in says, nual "food deficit" will multiply Insisted Hoobishoole farmer has returned A of sorts a the as whole, world, Africa facing food peace Although 15 times to 200 million tons of interAden: "We have water. Hussein led with evU.S. the feed to military enough grain produces emergencies. equal to all the corn now eryone, it doesn't always get to the vention in Somalia, but the coungrain It's underground. We need In half the cases, it blames civil in America. pumps." strife that disrupted food supplies grown North right places. Either poor nations try's underlying agricultural probTobin doubts the reservoir is big its stabilizes if or drove hungry refugees across simply cannot afford food from lems remain: farmers unschooled population "Only enough. But even if it is, sinking borders. But the roots of Africa's can Africa feed itself again," consurplus countries, or food aid is in modern techniques, poor rehundreds of wells in Hoobishoole search, lack of fertilizer, near-ifood problem lie deeper than in the cludes Peter L. Simkin of the U.N. slow, misdirected or stolen. Mo-ham- ed th st sub-Sahar- high-yiel- "food-secure- ." sun-bak- sub-Sahar- -- m gent, you couldn't act that - This is a WASHINGTON story about psychologists and space aliens. A Roper poll has touched off a spirited debate over whether mental health professionals have too quickly dismissed patients' claims that they have been abducted by UFOs. Alien-encount- er stories, once relegated to the realm of Elvis sightings, have become the subject of psychologists' intense bickering since last year's private release of the poll results, which found that in 50 Americans believes he or she may have had one of at least four types of experiences consistent with a "UFO abduc1 tion." least, a small but number of therapists growing now say it is their duty to approach these claims with an open mind. "The abduction stories are so unusual, so outside of reality as we have known it, that psychiatrists, psychologists and others have relegated the matter to the margin of their consciousness," Harvard University psychiatrist John Mack wrote in an introduction to the poll results, which were mailed to nearly 100.000 psychoanalysts around the country last year. The vast numbers of people with abduction stories demand that clinicians "be open to the possibility that something exists or is happening to their clients, which, in our traditional Western framework, cannot, or should not, be." Mack wrote. Some of Mack's colleagues are not heeding his advice to be At the . open-minde- stu- d. Terence Sandbck, a Sacramento. Calif., clinical psychologist, said Mack's comments are proof positive that "even PhDs get sucked into some of the most ludicrous schemes in world." "To go the nearest star is the going to take years and years if you travel at the speed of light, which you can't," Sandbck said. "When you got there, would you talk to a drunken "fisherman from Mississippi, or would you talk to a head of state? If you were that intelli The arguments began after of results from a Roper Organization poll of adult Americans conducted in late 1991. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage the release 5,-9- 47 points. The survey said that 2 per- cent reported having at least four types of experiences consistent with a UFO abduction. The experiences included seeing unusual lights or balls of light, having an hour or more pass without remembering what happened, waking up paralyzed with the sense of a strange figure in the room and finding puzzling or unusual scars on their bodies. The figures were highest for waking up paralyzed with a stranger there. Eighteen per- cent of those polled reported at least one such experience. Thirteen percent reported experiencing a period of "missing time." Of course, the survey also found that 1 adult in 10 had seen a ghost. David Jacobs, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia who helped with the survey and accompanying articles mailed to psychologists, said he was not prepared for what happened after the results were released. He said that more than ,000 mental health professionals sent cards back in expressing interest in learning more about the subject. 1 "What that means, of course, is that there are a lot of therapists who have had people sitting in front of them talking about these experiences, and often the therapists are at a loss as to how to proceed," Jacobs said. "They realize the person is not delusional, and they don't know what to do." Robert Baker, a retired psychology professor from the University of Kentucky, is seeking to publish a paper rebutting claims made by Jacobs. Mack and others. One of Baker's explanations for the stories is that people are experiencing hallucinations called "waking dreams" as they arc drifting off to sleep or waking up. sorghum and millet, traditional crops of semiarid lands, to develop variestill hardier, higher-yieldin- g ties and help countries like Somalia. The Somalis' immediate needs are more basic, however: a hoe, machete, ax and packet of seeds and a the FAO emergency kit in their lasting peace country's factional wars. "How many things are lacking here!" Ahmed Mumin Warfa, a leading Somali agronomist, lamented in Mogadishu. For his relatively uncrowded country, he said, e be a goal. For Africa, it's a fantasy. "There are too many people, too many nomads, too many refugees, from war. from drought. Afis very, very rican long-rang- far off." By TOM COHEN Associated Press Writer pid." Arizona Republic sup- port. Many specialists say agricultural science should focus more on iomalia works on rebuildinq schools Psychologists debate validity of UFO stories By JEFF BARKER gicides and other technical Somalia -MOGADISHU, U.S. Marine Anthony Simmons walked into the unlit classroom where 50 kids sat on the floor. He hushed them with a finger to his lips, then pointed to a blackboard and started the drill. His "two plus two equals four" is followed by a high-pitche- d O cho- rus. It's another Thursday at the An- thony Botello school in Mogadi- shu, named after one of two Marines killed in Operation Restore Hope. Set up by the Marines at a sports complex they use as a base, it is one of the first, tiny steps toward rebuilding an education system in th is devastated nat ion . Most of Somalia's children those who survived war, starvation and disease now face a life without education and the order and discipline of school. Virtually all school buildings were damaged and thoroughly looted in the two years of clan warfare that followed the collapse of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre's government in 1991. On the streets in Mogadishu, ragged boys taunt passing military vehicles and roughhouse in the dust. "These are our students," sighed Sheik Ali Mohamed Ahmed, a former teacher who advised the government on education. "After this, they don't want to learn in schools." Since the U.S. led military coalition arrived in December to restore order and ensure that food reaches the starving, relief agencies and military forces have helped open a few schools. Others funded by foreign countries such as Saudi Arabia operated through the war and remain open. The U.S. presence has been declining, and nearly 3.000 more American soldiers, airmen and Marines will begin going home next week. Marine Col. Fred Peck said Thursday. This will bring the number of U.S. troops down to about 15.000 troops, down from a peak of nearly 25.000 a month -- V - y'V A.' V -- ago. Somalia still lacks a government and must rely on foreign help to restore the education system and get students behind desks. A draft U.N. plan calls for opening schools for 96.000 students this year, but Somalia has more than children. million school-ag- e "Even if we don't have enough schools, we should teach children in every village, in every home, to make them interested in educa- 1 AP Photo Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Simmons of Chicago shakes hands with Somali children Thursday at a school Marines opened in Mogadishu. Simmons teaches math and English at the school. tion." said Jawahir Mahamed Far-a- h. headmistress at the Botello school. Classes are held beneath the stands of an old basketball stadium without desks or lights. But students have books and pencils, sit on tarps and learn lessons off blackboards, all courtesy of the Marines. Fifteen classes of about 50 students each are held every morning and afternoon, and youngsters kick or dribble balls on the court all day long. a lot of them off the Col. Buck Bedard Marine street." said recently. Before the school opened last month, "you couldn't drive to this gate without getting stones thrown at you." he said. The curriculum follows the traditional Somali education, including the Koran. Arabic and English. Most of the teachers are Somali, but Marines help out. "It's gotten Sheik Ali said religious and for: mal education are linked in Islamic culture, with children starting to learn the Koran in their homes before they reach school age. . Even before the civil war, education in Somalia was meager. Most of the population was illiterate, and only 250.000 children in the nation of 7 million people were enrolled in primary and secondary schools in 1985. according to the United Nations. "For the vast majority of children, the last three years have taught them only the skills neces- sary to survive in famine and war," the United Nations said in its plan for rebuilding schools. "Immediate action must ensure that those whose learning was suspended do not lose any more critical time." Educators called for the United Nations to oversee a new education system by building new schools " and helping Somalis run them. "There's no effective administration here, no government," said Mohamed Hussein Mohamed, headmaster of a new school being opened by the Irish relief agency Concern. "It's important to get quality education. You can't just build schools every w here." Simmons, 23. a lance corporal from Chicago, said he realizes the importance of the teaching he does duty shift. come in. all these little kids will be running around. They see me and they sit down," he said. "Discipline is the number one thing. If they have discipline, they can learn anything." the school honors Lance Cpl. Anthony Botello. 21. of Wilbur-toOkla. Botello. hit by sniper Jan. 25. was the second on fire Marine and third American killed in the U.S. famine relief operation in Somalia. after his 12-ho- "When 1 n, |