“That is not the reality that I have seen,” Esther Garvi (The Famine Scam) The Norwegian documentary The Famine Scam recently received the top Norwegian journalism award for its “extensive research” and “critique of power”. Here is a translation of the article entitled “Critique of Power”, published by Journalisten on May 6th 2009. Award for [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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As most of you already know by now, Mirriah is one of my favourite places in Niger. It is an old village with an ancient heritage, rich in century old Baobab trees and known for its vegetable gardens. Situated 20km from Zinder, it is a place I love to go to for a Sunday excursion, [...]

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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 – [...]

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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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Yesterday’s post about the Niger 2004-05 Famine Scam debate going in Norway has been updated with the following link: Norwegian People’s Aid goes self-critical, published in Bergens Tidende on May 3rd, 2008 It is an interview with Petter Eide, the secretary general of the Norwegian People’s Aid whom after the Tabloid debate that followed the [...]

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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‘: [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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I slept one hour last night, but I’m doing well. Had to be up at half past five, in order to appear live at quarter past seven this morning on God morgen Norge. It was a nice brief chat with Signe Tynning and Nils Gunnar Lie and I am left wondering what Norway is thinking. [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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