Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Interview With Nicholas Kristof

Aired May 28, 2003 - 15:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Almost two decades ago, rock concerts in London and Philadelphia drew worldwide attention to the plight of starving people in Ethiopia and spurred worldwide action to end the suffering. The Live Aid concerts raised more than $100 million in donations. One of the organizers behind the event was musician Bob Geldof, who is back in Ethiopia this week to raise awareness of yet another looming famine.
According to Nicholas Kristof of "The New York Times," a combination of drought, war, and political corruption has left 40 million West Africans at risk of starvation.

Nicholas Kristof has just returned from the region -- Nick Kristof, how could it be -- you wrote in your column last week, 100,000 children in Ethiopia could die this year of starvation. How could things have gotten so bad without the rest of the world taking notice?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Africa is always on the very fringe of our consciousness, and at a time when we have the war unfolding in Iraq, when we have domestic troubles, it's been pushed completely off the map. And at the same time, a drought has been gathering in the horn of Africa. You've had civil wars erupting in West Africa, and for people who were already just at the fringe of existence, that's been enough to create just heart-wrenching scenes across southern Ethiopia, for example, where at every clinic you have kids dying -- and just looking as if they stepped out of a concentration camp, scenes that are as bad as anything I've ever seen anywhere in the world in 20 years of reporting.

WOODRUFF: The photograph that accompanied your column was of an almost emaciated-looking child photographed from the back. Is there an image that stays with you as you think back on the time that you were there?

KRISTOF: There was one little girl, 16-month-old girl called Londowy (ph) whom I met in a little clinic, and her mother was holding her, and there was no doctor in the area, but there was kind of a nursing student who was the closest thing, and he was trying to help this little girl, and he gave her a couple of injections. Londowy (ph) did not respond at all. Her hair was falling out. Her skin was so discolored it looked as if she had been burned. Her eyes were rolling back, and he said that she probably wasn't going to make it. And just to hold these kids' hands and see this happening in this day and age was just gut wrenching.

WOODRUFF: Bob Geldof, we just mentioned, the music promoter and musician was saying today that the European Union bears a lot of the blame. Is it possible to pinpoint one group of countries or country that is mainly at fault do you think?

KRISTOF: It seems to me that the main problem is the governments of those countries themselves. I think that, in the case of Ethiopia and Eritrea, where I went to, they bear the lion's share of the bulk. Ditto in West Africa. Having said that, I don't think the West has been entirely blame free. Agricultural policies in America and even more in Europe have, by subsidizing farmers in rich countries, have really undermined the farmers in Africa and undermined the possibilities of them trying to get out by trade, rather than always being on the recipient end of aid.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, what must be done in order to save some of these children?

KRISTOF: In the immediate term, we've got to get aid very quickly to Ethiopia. I mean, there are kids dying every day there. In the best of circumstances, 100,000 kids will die in Ethiopia. Unless we send more aid, a lot more will die. In the longer term, we need to move toward debt relief and toward economic development.

WOODRUFF: Nicholas Kristof, who, in the last days has been visiting not only Ethiopia, but also Eritrea, and writing about that as well. Nick Kristof of "The New York Times," thanks very much. Good to see you.

KRISTOF: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 28, 2003 - 15:22   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Almost two decades ago, rock concerts in London and Philadelphia drew worldwide attention to the plight of starving people in Ethiopia and spurred worldwide action to end the suffering. The Live Aid concerts raised more than $100 million in donations. One of the organizers behind the event was musician Bob Geldof, who is back in Ethiopia this week to raise awareness of yet another looming famine.
According to Nicholas Kristof of "The New York Times," a combination of drought, war, and political corruption has left 40 million West Africans at risk of starvation.

Nicholas Kristof has just returned from the region -- Nick Kristof, how could it be -- you wrote in your column last week, 100,000 children in Ethiopia could die this year of starvation. How could things have gotten so bad without the rest of the world taking notice?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Africa is always on the very fringe of our consciousness, and at a time when we have the war unfolding in Iraq, when we have domestic troubles, it's been pushed completely off the map. And at the same time, a drought has been gathering in the horn of Africa. You've had civil wars erupting in West Africa, and for people who were already just at the fringe of existence, that's been enough to create just heart-wrenching scenes across southern Ethiopia, for example, where at every clinic you have kids dying -- and just looking as if they stepped out of a concentration camp, scenes that are as bad as anything I've ever seen anywhere in the world in 20 years of reporting.

WOODRUFF: The photograph that accompanied your column was of an almost emaciated-looking child photographed from the back. Is there an image that stays with you as you think back on the time that you were there?

KRISTOF: There was one little girl, 16-month-old girl called Londowy (ph) whom I met in a little clinic, and her mother was holding her, and there was no doctor in the area, but there was kind of a nursing student who was the closest thing, and he was trying to help this little girl, and he gave her a couple of injections. Londowy (ph) did not respond at all. Her hair was falling out. Her skin was so discolored it looked as if she had been burned. Her eyes were rolling back, and he said that she probably wasn't going to make it. And just to hold these kids' hands and see this happening in this day and age was just gut wrenching.

WOODRUFF: Bob Geldof, we just mentioned, the music promoter and musician was saying today that the European Union bears a lot of the blame. Is it possible to pinpoint one group of countries or country that is mainly at fault do you think?

KRISTOF: It seems to me that the main problem is the governments of those countries themselves. I think that, in the case of Ethiopia and Eritrea, where I went to, they bear the lion's share of the bulk. Ditto in West Africa. Having said that, I don't think the West has been entirely blame free. Agricultural policies in America and even more in Europe have, by subsidizing farmers in rich countries, have really undermined the farmers in Africa and undermined the possibilities of them trying to get out by trade, rather than always being on the recipient end of aid.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, what must be done in order to save some of these children?

KRISTOF: In the immediate term, we've got to get aid very quickly to Ethiopia. I mean, there are kids dying every day there. In the best of circumstances, 100,000 kids will die in Ethiopia. Unless we send more aid, a lot more will die. In the longer term, we need to move toward debt relief and toward economic development.

WOODRUFF: Nicholas Kristof, who, in the last days has been visiting not only Ethiopia, but also Eritrea, and writing about that as well. Nick Kristof of "The New York Times," thanks very much. Good to see you.

KRISTOF: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com