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Poorest of the Poor; The Threat of Global Warming

Aired November 30, 2005 - 13:34   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hunger, poverty and disease stalk much of Southern Africa. Among the poorest of the poor live in South Malawi. Exists is more like it though.
CNN's African correspondent Jeff Koinange introduces us to one family desperately doing whatever it takes to fend off starvation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Macamba family is fighting for survival one day at a time in a land wracked by drought and facing its worst food shortages in decades. There's the elderly father, Condakita (ph), Elizabeth, the divorced mother of seven, and her youngest sister Maureen, who's suckling a newborn with another toddler in tow. The Macambas live in a tiny village in central Malawi, where food aid and government assistance are as unreliable as the rain. They are among Malawi's poorest of the poor. The last time they ate a solid meal, they say, was two weeks ago.

Aid agencies say nearly five million people in Malawi will need donated food to fend off malnutrition until the next harvest in April. In the midst of chronic drought and a failed maize crop, this family is used to feeding off the land, eating bamboo chutes and termites.

Their methods are primitive. Using a piece of cloth attached to the end a stick, they painstakingly try to catch the insects burrowed deep in the ground in an effort to fill this tiny bowl.

An hour of dipping and plucking and Macamba's are tired and exhausted. "If we don't get any assistance soon, we are all going to die," she says.

Despite her exhaustion, Elizabeth knows she has a dozen mouths to feed. She lights the wood fire and places the handful of insects on a flat pan, as if roasting peanuts.

Several minutes of flipping and dinner is ready. The Macambas says that in past droughts they've never had to resort to eating termites.

"it tastes bad. We're eating it because that's all we have," she says.

Next up, bamboo chutes, crushed and pounded into a powder, a huge effort for people already weakened by hunger. The powder is mixed with water into a paste that looked like maize, the stable diet here, but certainly doesn't taste like it. Even so, the Macambas eats as if savoring every morsel, because they have no idea where their next meal is coming from.

(on camera): With their diet of bamboo chutes and termites, the Macamba's are grateful at least they have a meal for this day.

Tomorrow, they say, will have to take care of itself.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Njati Village, in central Malawi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: As you can see, the poverty in Malawi is astounding; 4.5 million people, ore more than a third of the population, need aid right now to survive. And as you just heard, a continuing drought is the biggest factor in that food crisis. Starvation isn't the only menace; 15 percent of Malawis citizens are HIV positive. AIDS is killing many workers in their prime, leaving the very young and old to work in the fields.

Not surprisingly, the hunger and disease are take a dramatic toll. The life expectancy in Malawi is only 37 years.

Jeff Koinange is one of the few journalists who's witnessed the incredible suffering in Malawi. He's on the phone with us now from Johannesburg, South Africa. And I guess, Jeff, tell me how you met these people, you came to this area and decided to do so many reports from there.

KOINANGE: That's right, Kyra. We were actually just traversing the country, going literally from village to village. And what she saw in that package is literally one village. You can just imagine. You mentioned that number, 4.5 million people, that's exactly the situation the country is facing. It is catastrophic, to say the least. These villages haven't seen an aid worker. They haven't seen any food shipment, haven't grown any food in the last four, five years. They're depending on handouts, as does the rest of the country, and the country itself is in such trouble. Aid workers don't know when the next food shipment is going to arrive -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Jeff, what's the government of Malawi doing? And give us some background on the politics there.

KOINANGE: Yes, literally, they're doing very little, if anything. They're so embroiled in political infighting. The president, who stepped down in 2004, handed over to his successor. His successor won the presidency, and then changed parties midstream. And all this has caused a complete political upswing and everyone is fighting each other. And at the end of it, it's the normal man on street, the women, the children, they're the ones who are suffering.

I've give you a quick example, Kyra. There was a food shipment sent to Malawi by a friendly Arab nation, but because it was an Arab nation, that shipload of corn and maize meal was turned around, didn't get to the people, because the government did not want to be associated with this Arab nation. So, at the end of the day, as the politicians wrangle and fight for political footing, it's ordinary people who are suffering, half the population, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So how can people in the United States help, because every time we air something like this, Jeff, you know we get a lot of response and a lot of e-mails and questions.

KOINANGE: Great, and that's a great thing, Kyra, to see people responding. And, you know, if there's a local World Vision or CARE International, those non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, if they sent their money to these organizations, they know that the money will get there.

But here's the deal. The people in Malawi do not want teddy bears and toys and food. They want cash -- cold, hard cash. Why? Because this will enable the NGOs to buy the food, ship it over to Malawi. And even if they do get it here, Kyra, another setback right now is, this is the rainy season.

By the time the food gets to capital, will have to be redistributed, put on trucks, shipped to these very remote locations. And the roads are not tar roads. These are dirt roads, so trucks will have a very hard time getting to the people.

As you well know, air shipments are very expensive. By the time these very people get any food shipments at all, we're talking four, five months from now, and you can imagine how many people will be dead and dying at that time.

PHILLIPS: Jeff Koinange, I know you're going to stay on this story. We'll keep talk to you about it. Thanks for your time, Jeff.

Well, we've all heard about global warming and how it's happening. But could it spark anything like what we've seen in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"? We've got some answers for you from CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Three months after Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore in New Orleans, hundreds of families are still waiting for closure. CNN has learned that the bodies of as many as 200 mothers, fathers, children, spouses -- they're still sitting in morgues waiting to be identified.

The money is there. The problem is, the state has yet to sign a contract with the firm that will do the DNA testing. The city's coroner's is outraged. He says the process should have started weeks ago.

Well, the president of the New Orleans City Council is frustrated as well. He talked about the dilemma with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OLIVER THOMAS, PRES., NOLA CITY COUNCIL: I'm just glad that you guys uncovered this story. So maybe they are watching -- whoever is responsible is watching, they can start swabbing and testing and matching DNA right now. Because how much more pain do the people -- you know, we already have Katrina and Rita pain, FEMA pain, Corps pain, Congressional pain. I guess now we have DNA pain.

So, you know, how many more storms are going to hit the people in this region before people realize we're Americans here? You know, you guys did a good job last night talking about how we go back for our own, even if they're dead. We don't leave them on the battlefield. Well, guess what? They're left on the stormfield right now. They're just laying there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And of course you can catch "AMERICAN MORNING" every weekday starting at 6:00 a.m. Eastern now, only here on CNN.

The president of the New Orleans City Council is frustrated, as you could well see, as are many people that have been talking about the issue of DNA testing. We're going to stay on that story and hopefully talk with the coroner in the next couple of days.

And let's check in now with Chad Myers for an update on Epsilon. I was looking back here at my notes, Chad. I'm sorry. Tropical Storm Epsilon -- I was trying to remember the name -- for an update on what's happening. Sorry about that, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, could we see our weather change in a way similar to what was depicted in that movie, you remember, "The Day After Tomorrow"? The film shows New York City getting slammed by a huge wave and then buried under 60 feet of ice in a matter of days.

Well, today, the journal "Nature" is presenting what some scientists say could be the first sign of a tamer version of that scenario. The common link is something known as the atlantic conveyer. Some insight now from meteorologist Rob Marciano. So what to you think? Could we see something like the movie?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What I think ...

PHILLIPS: Yes, what you think.

MARCIANO: You know, I listen to these guy. They do the research.

PHILLIPS: What did they think? And then you repeat.

MARCIANO: Well, they never want to really totally commit to any one thing so they throw a lot of science techno jargon at you. But it's compelling nonetheless. They did a bunch of research, lined the ocean with buoys and took a bunch of measurements. And Harry Bryden was one of the researchers who completed some of this research. And they took measurements now, or in 2004, and they compared them with years past, going back 50 years, and they saw some remarkable changes. Listen to what the scientists had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY BRYDEN, OCEANOGRAPHER: What we found is that there's been a change. There's a switch. More of these Gulfstream waters are recirculating southward in the subtropical gyre and less are extending northwards into high latitudes. This warm ocean current brings reasonably warm waters all the way along the coast of the United Kingdom and up into -- off the coast of Norway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: All right, so basically what he's saying, is that the ocean currents -- we have another sound bite that we're going to put up against that? Anyway, that graphic we just showed, blue hours, red hours, blue means cold, warm means hot.

PHILLIPS: Right.

MARCIANO: And the ocean, you know -- it tries to mix itself up in order to make sure that not one spot is too cold, not one spot too hot. And what he's saying is that the warm current, the Gulfstream that goes over towards Europe and warms it is slowing down, and so it could start to cool more, maybe even grow some ice on there, and Europe would become drastically cooler.

PHILLIPS: And, of course, a lot of people are saying this all because of global warming. Is it that easy?

MARCIANO: Well, they certainly said that in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." And one of the reasons that this current can change is because you change the salinity of the ocean up there. And, you know, the ice caps are melting. So that releases a bunch of fresh water into the ocean. That changes the salinity or the density. And that could slow this current down.

They won't go and say it's because of global warming. They're not really looking at the cause. They're just saying this is happening and this could be the result. But the ice sheets are melting. And that is certainly releasing some fresh water into the ocean. It's fascinating topic. We're working on the piece. And we're going to have it in full form later tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

PHILLIPS: Sounds good. All right. That's right. You can watch more about the changing weather patterns on that show. And that's, of course, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Well, still ahead on LIVE FROM, who could forget these faces? Two abused little cheetah cubs found by U.S. troops. We've got an update on where these little guys are right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, must be like going from hell to heaven for two cheetah cubs in Ethiopia. We first told you about them last week after U.S. troops stumbled upon the clubs behind a restaurant. The owner had them tied up and fighting for the amusement of customers.

Well, those cubs are far away from the place, rescued by a government veterinarian. They've been given to a sanctuary at the National Palace Park, also home to lions, monkeys and peacocks. And you won't want to miss this: exclusive new pictures of the cubs, next hour right here on LIVE FROM.

Well, most thieves will take anything that isn't nailed down, but a light pole? That's the problem plaguing Baltimore police. Our Jason Carroll has the story of the pilfered poles in the next hour of LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: From CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. This is LIVE FROM. Here's what's ahead.

Winning a war. The president lays out his strategy. Was it clear enough for critics and for American troops fighting in Iraq?

Abortion arguments. The court takes up the tricky issue for the first time with new Chief Justice John Roberts.

And saving face. A medical breakthrough. Doctors perform the world's first partial face transplant. That and much more, straight ahead.

This hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

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