This morning started off ith an article in one of the local newspapers, followed by a press conference at 10.30 A.M. (GMT+8).

Prior to the press conference, the reporters called Joy Tang to offer her the chance of getting out her version of the story. Joy stated that this whole affair was nothing but a love [...]

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If you happened to miss the Niger famine drama that took place in 2004-05 on International Television, you can now watch the documentary about it, entitled The Famine Scam, on YouTube.

The Famine Scam (2008)
The main protagonists in this story involve 1 - The Media (in particular, the BBC) who claimed that one third of the [...]

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The Famine Scam (2008) - as the outside world remembers Niger in 2005

A documentary broadcast on Swedish public television on Tuesday called into question the reputation of Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC, for filing misleading and inaccurate reports about the severity of a food shortage in Niger in 2005.
The SVT report showcased efforts by a [...]

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The first news agency to write about the Niger Famine Scam (in December 2005) was Der Spiegel. Their article was recently published on the Internet, and what follows is a rough translation. Should you prefer to read the original German version, just click on the image below:

The Desert Garden of Eden
Global Village: In Niger, a [...]

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Based on the IRIN article, Hopebuilding wiki recently published a page about Eden:

Swedish project helps Niger farmers see nature’s answers to food insecurity
For 17 years, the Sweden-based non–profit Eden Foundation has been working with hundreds of farmers in one of Niger’s most arid zones to disprove the reigning logic that the desert is a tough [...]

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During the heat of the crisis, the local Swedish newspaper Hallands Nyheter interviewed me about The Famine Scam and wrote an article about it, which was recently added to the web.

Published on March 5th, the article is entitled Falkenbergare kritiska till bilden av svält i Niger. For all those who do not understand Swedish, here [...]

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For all those into the Famine Scam debate, here’s an article by the Guardian, published on July 1st, entitled:
BBC in dispute with Norway’s TV2

The controversy surrounds BBC refusing Swedish TV4 the rights to show their footage earlier this year.
A few reactions to the Guardian article are:

The battle between public broadcasters - BBC vs. Norway’s TV2
[...]

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The following chronical was originally published in Bergens Tidende on april 28th. Entitled “Apologize, Egeland”, it was my response to Jan Egeland’s dead silence concerning his dealings with the Niger 2005 famine scam, a “famine” he was so involved with that he credited himself for having solved the entire issue. With Egeland having recently visited [...]

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There’s a fresh debate going on in Norway right, touching right into the heart of aid politics. It all started with a chronicle I wrote that was published in Bergens Tidende on April 28th, entitled Be om unnskyldning, Egeland.

Here are a few quotes from the chronicle that translates to ‘Egeland, you owe an apology‘:

…for despite [...]

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The Norwegian documentary Sultbløffen is on the move. It will air on the Swedish channel TV4 on Sunday 7.20 pm. Here is a rough translation of what they write:

Norwegian TV2: ”The famine in Niger exaggerated”
Summer 2005
During the summer of 2005, a tragic drama unfolded on our TV screens. A documentary produced by Norwegian TV2, shows [...]

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One of the people I met in the TV2 Tabloid debate last Tuesday (5th of March) was Petter Eide, Secretary General of the Norwegian People’s Aid.
I had seen him earlier that morning, when he publicly vouched for the professionalism and the good intentions of the large aid organizations.
I was sitting a few rooms away as [...]

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There is a time for everything, and tonight was my time to go out on television and speak up for the poor.

There is a whole debate going on about the aid organizations’ handling of “emergencies”, and the thing is, we can never forget that we are dealing with real human beings here. They may be [...]

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The program has been on air. It was even better the second time.
The Swedish newspaper Expressen contacted me this morning and their article is now available on the web.
Now I have to be off and get some sleep, because I have to be at the studio tomorrow morning at half past six for the Morning [...]

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Norwegien Dagbladet came out with an article about the documentary that will air this evening. This roughly translates to:

Egeland accused of bluffing about starvation
By Cathrien Slaaen
In the documentary The Famine Scam, former UN aid coordinator Jan Egeland, together with the BBC, are accused of informing the world about a famine in Niger that didn’t exist.
During [...]

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On their website, TV2 Norway writes:

Ble påkjørt av en bil
Bildet av ei død ku ble brukt i medienes omtale av sultkatastrofen i Niger i 2005. -Kua ble påkjørt av en bil, sier Johanne Sekkenes i Leger uten grenser.
Johanne Sekkenes jobber i den medisinske nødhjelpsorganisasjonen Leger uten grenser. Hun var en av de sentrale personene som [...]

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