Erica’s news note: A mixed bag
Erica Hill
360° Correspondent
I promised you I’d continue to update the food crisis; I wish I had better news. Twenty-two countries are facing the most sever threat, according the the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, because they already suffer from chronic hunger and must import both food and fuel. The high costs of those imports won't be going down anytime soon, which means the threat to theses nations won’t be lessening.
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Wow…talk about bad neighbor relations. Can you imagine your son or daughter accidentally hits a ball over the neighbor’s fence, and when you go to get it, the neighbor calls the police? One Nebraska man says the iciness from next-door has now led to half a tree in his front yard.
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I never thought I’d read about 6,000 tons fish being saved from a volcano…
but there’s a first time for everything. The people and the pets were saved first, but then the rescuers went back for the salmon. Six-hundred-thousand salmon, to be exact. All being moved from a fish farm eight miles from the volcano that began erupting at the beginning of May.
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Lots of buzz around NYC today about last night’s Sex and the City premiere. I LOVE this show, loved watching it with my girlfriends (even if we did so long-distance on the phone), and can’t wait for a girls’ night out to see the new movie. Here are some highlights from last night’s pink carpet interviews.
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Filed under: Erica Hill |
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Anderson and Erica,
Further clarification on previous e-mail...WON BY ONE means this...I repeatedly hear this question, "What is America doing about the hunger crisis?" The obvious answer is not enough. Again as my e-mail box fills with this question daily, the answer is this..."You are America and YOU can do something! WON BY ONE..." I coined this phrase as my heartprint solution to cover a seemingly unattainable goal. Whether it is hunger or homelessness or violence or "fill in the blank", when we look at any travisty it seems overwhelming & we can be lulled into doing nothing until we break it down into bite-size pieces.. & then the choice is ours...do SOMETHING OR DO NO-THING...I have chosen to do some-thing, even as minute as that some-thing may seem, it does make a difference and we must make that difference realizing that maybe by doing so we may encourage others to do so along the way. Everywhere we go we leave fingerprints and everywhere we go we have the opportunity to also leave a huge heartprint! God bless and thanks for the chance to share...
Bren Rohrbaugh
Atlanta, GA
Erica: It is always heartwarming to read about how officials did the right thing and took the time to save the pets and livestock as well as the salmon farm. They are often the forgotten ones during evacuations. That's what I call a heroic act! Thanks for sharing.
Jolene, St. Joseph, MI
The food crisis is the most important topic in the blog for me tonight. We could use Africa alone as our strawman to analyze this, more specifically the "forgotten war" in DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 5.4 million dead since Rwanda...4 out of every 10 children will not live to see their 5th bday. I call it the forgotten war, because the press, however rightfully so has turned their eyes to Darfur...but we cannot forget the ongoing war in DRC. I would give anything for a national forum to educate our nation on a "won by one" attitude. It is overwhelming to think of such a vast number of helpless individuals, but if we would all adopt just one or one family, we could wipe out hunger..provide mosquito nets which would help wipe out malaria and menigitis...clean water, safe shelters, alternative fire fuels so women wouldn't have to leave camps. Each of us is our brother's keepers. Not only in our own nation but in the world. Our children are our future...what if that African child holds that cure for cancer we're discussing today and you were the one to save him or her..?? Also we need to research where our $$ goes, to safe NGO's, responsible and accountable not only w/our $$ but that they protect the IDPs (internally displaced persons) from sexual abuses recently reported in other orgs.
Just "Food" for thought...BTW...I loved your book Anderson...it helped me alot...
Ms. Bren Rohrbaugh
Atlanta, GA
I don't mind if a kid wants to get a ball from my yard. I have never had a bad neighbor, just crazy ones! LOL
I miss Sex and The City, Six Feet Under and the Sopranos. Sunday nights are not as much fun anymore. I love the fact that they moved the fish, but it was probably for food. I always think that every time I help a turtle across the street or stop for an animal, that something will help me later in life. No one talks about the food shortage anymore. Maybe if it was more prominent in the news, more people would help. I always worry that the money will be wasted and the food will never be delivered.
Erica, where in the world do you find all of these random little stories? I always wonder that! The cheese roll contest you talked about the other night had me cracking up and wondering where you do your research! Salmon being saved from a volcano? I'm trying to get a mental picture of that! Ha! It's good to hear about these things in the midst of a world food crisis, natural disasters, presidential campaigns. . .Please keep it up for our sake!
I'm glad I don't have a neighbor like that – its so much easier to get along and cheaper too when you consider the court costs. Half a tree – that's the first time I've heard about anything that drastic with a neighbor.
The food crisis and the rising cost of food is terrible. For those who are short of food to begin with it only makes their life more miserable. I hope something can be figured out so they have enough food and the food prices don't soar out of our reach as well.
Annie Kate
Birmingham AL
Hello Erica!
Can you imagine your son or daughter accidentally hits a ball over the neighbor’s fence, and when you go to get it, the neighbor calls the police?
When I was little, my family lived across an elderly lady who was much like that. She did not call the police but if the ball landed in her yard – she would keep it. That was so annoying.
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You know I've never seen that Sex in the City show. My brain just loves the Law & Order type shows. I also try to watch House – which is hysterical.
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Twenty-two countries are facing the most sever threat, according the the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, because they already suffer from chronic hunger and must import both food and fuel. The high costs of those imports won’t be going down anytime soon, which means the threat to theses nations won’t be lessening.
America is very lucky in that regard. I know that there are still millions living in poverty in the US – but it in no way compares to the type of famine and despair in certain countries in Africa & Asia. They can only dream of food stamps or food banks. They can't even ask for help as there is no where to go for most of them. Here – if we end up in that deeply unfortunate situation – at least we can scream and yell about it in the hopes to find some kind of aid.
Erica, that was cool of them to rescue the animals in Chill the fish was a given but the dogs & cats..cool. see you tonight.
Events in our neck of the woods:
About 75,000 of 180,000 young fall-run Chinook salmon being hauled in tanker trucks from the Coleman National Fish Hatchery in Anderson to San Pablo Bay near Vallejo Monday died. “We are kind of in the stages of trying to figure out what went wrong,” Scott Hamelberg, the hatchery’s manager, said early Monday afternoon. “It’s part of the risk of trucking fish.”
About 41 percent of the smolts being trucked Monday died. Scientists plan to perform necropsies — animal autopsies — on some of the dead smolts to determine their cause of death, said Alexandra Pitts, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento. “They are going to see what they can see in them, which can tell them a lot more of what happened,” she said.
Populations up and down the West Coast are under siege from water diversions, dams, predators and habitat loss. And scientists keep citing mysterious “ocean conditions” (possibly related to climate change) as imperiling salmon food supplies in the ocean.
San Francisco, Ca
Hi Erica,
Well, sounds like it's not a lovely day in the neighborhood for one family. Bickering over birch, pine and basketballs. What a relaxing state of mind for all concerned. Treeless and crabby on Elm Street.
It gives new meaning to Neighborhood Watch..
6,000 tons of Salmon? Saved from a volcano? I hope they will be spared from the oven after all that work..
Let's hope, we in the world community, can solve this food shortage. No one should go hungry. No one.
We all can do better to help each other. Now if half tree in Nebraska could take a deep breath and donate the fees it took to hack the tree in half? It might just feed a family. We humans, are so smart at being so dumb.
Lorie Ann, Buellton, Calif.
wow.......that guy that has to now look at a shaved side of a pine tree is really uptight. It's sad he has nothing better to do than harrass his neighbor over that tree. Foolishness.......man, there are so many other things that deserve attention than to be trapped in that guys little world of hating your neighbor because of a tree. As Dr. Phil says," there's more to this story".
Hello Erica, as for the food crisis what is the US doing about it or are we doing anything? And as for the mean neighbor, Im in a good mood so I will give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe it wasn't the first time this happened? And yes, I too am excited about "Sex and the City". Movies just never seem to be quite worth the $12 bucks, so when a good one comes around I get thrilled. Was satisfied with Indiana Jones last weekend, so heres hoping for 2 good movies in a row.
Hi Erica, lots to talk about today.
Those 22 countries...they were hurting before and they’re hurting even more so now. I wonder if these countries are getting more notice now that the food crisis is also felt by developed, industrialized countries like the U.S. In that case, I’m glad, but I also wish that they received this kind of attention before the food crisis hit global.
Bizarre neighbor story...I’m glad my neighbors aren’t as quirky. But hey, anything to keep the peace, right?
I’m glad all that salmon is saved. It’s valuable food source that they can’t afford to waste.
See you tonight,
Lilibeth
Edmonds, Washington
Sadly, this hunger situation probably will only get worse and hit other countries who didn't make the list but have citizens who suffer all the same. It just means we'll have to start giving more to those who truly don't have anything. People are supposed to help each other in times of crisis. Let's see how generous we really are.
As for the "Sex and the City" hoopla, I never could get into the series. Most of my friends couldn't either. It came off as too much of a ditzy fluff girl show for us. I know women and men who loved it. We never got the hype. It's just not something I'd waste money on and probably won't even be a movie I'll watch when it comes on basic cable a couple of years from now.
Hey Erica, That's so funny! We are also planning a "Girls night Out" to see the Sex in the City movie. We plan to see it sometime this weekend. Should be really fun! See you later.