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Monday, November 19, 2007
Hungry for solutions
We're a long way from solving the world-hunger problem, and even the most perceptive analyst will have difficulty providing solutions in a 375-word column.
Neverthess, my regular debating partner, Mary Woo Sims, and I tackled the world-hunger issue in our latest Face to Face column in the Tri-City News. Mary Woo's take on the issue seems to centre on her belief that some sort of massive pan-governmental mobilization needs to take place to solve the problem. My analysis, on the other hand, sees government policy as the problem (from starvation caused by collectivism to trade barriers enacted by protectionist leaders).
Significantly, though, neither of us advances the deep-green, Malthusian idea that the world is over-populated and is incapable of producing enough food for all humanity.
Posted by Terry O'Neill on November 19, 2007 in International Affairs | Permalink
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Comments
Growing food to keep one's own family fed is one of the lowest cost endavours on the planet. There are more than enough land and marine resources to accomplish this as well as simple solutions to recruit marginal lands into the productive land and marine base.
Trust governments, especially corrupt African governments (like that moron Mugabe) to even screw this up.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 10:53:52 AM
epsi ~
Exactly! There is NO shortage of food in this world. But there is an excess of Mugabes and Chavezes and Castros who ensure that too many will starve so they can maintain their power.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 11:52:48 AM
Epsi and obc ... your comments on global hunger are glib and do no justice to the millions of malnourished children all over the world.
And blame some socialist leaders for it??? ... very strange. Go ahead and be critical of Castro and Chavez for their politics, but to assume that the global problem of malnutrition is their fault is blindly bizarre.
If you want to begin investigating the causes of starvation look to the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and IMF. I have been and seen places in Ethiopia and Kenya where corporate agrobusiness stockpiles produce from their massive farms to ship to European wholesalers ... and then traveled 3 kilometres to a small village where there is no clean water and little food. A scenario that is repeated over and over again throughout Africa.
Have you ever seen a starving child or seen the anguish of a mother who cannot provide food for their child? ... precisely because they have to no access to resources to buy or even grow their own. It is messed up ... and it is so easy to sit here in Canada and glibly blame an ideology for the problem.
Have a heart.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 12:33:56 PM
Don't tug on heartstrings in defending Chavez, Mugabe & Castro. Venezuela had no shortages of bread, eggs and milk 5 years ago like they do today.
Mugabe's Zimbabwe used to EXPORT food to the rest of Africa under Rhodesia's PM Smith. Today, they cannot feed themselves.
Castro feeds himself and his favourites while the average Cuban lives on rations of beans and rice.
North Korea's army eats well while its citizens starve to death.
SOCIALISM is the proximate cause of world starvation - PERIOD!
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 12:44:14 PM
Holographic nonsense.
It is the people who make it the way it is through their inability to govern themselves.
You socialists say we cannot have our system the way we have it as though our ability to provide better than Chavez and Castro does not speak volumes--while the fact that Chavez and Castro cannot provide (besides the fact that they are both impotent men who rate as louts and not gentlemen) no matter what volume their microphones are set at.
Their systems are set at providing the minimum for the minimum inout--where those who decide to work more, and better, than others, cannot and should not be rewarded for their efforts.
Their systems do not work.
It is not the fault of a World Monetary System (WB and IMF) that people fail to govern themselves properly. Money--after all--is just currency. The real goods are decided by people, who actually rape and pillage their own people, and remove the power from those who are in the most vulnerable positions. You must look a little closer, and where ever you see the worst attrocities, it is because of their inhumanity to eachother.
The formula to resolve the situation is really quite simple. It is called freedom and liberty--living by democracy. That is why we in Canada have what we have, and can do what we do, because we support these principles. It is not glibness, it is because for decades, on the backs of families--people who believed, we worked to get to where we are today.
If Chavez and Castro applied the same principles, they would not be crying on eachother's sholders--while waving their war planes at the free nations of the world.
Chavez is a runt of a man--who is lower than the low. He is building an Army and is an up and coming threat to the free world--so much for his so-called socialist intentions--he's a Stalin and a Hitler looking for people to murder. It wan't be long--you will see his name up and next to some of the other brutal mass killers of the world. He has already threatened--it is simply a matter or time.
And who are his bedpartners?
"Iran so far away" -- go to youtube and you'll see his favorite mannigator.
Posted by: Lady | 2007-11-19 12:46:16 PM
I tend to agree with Epsi and OBC on this one.
Wherever you see poverty, it is usually the fault of an unstable government or a socialist
dictatorship. The Mugabes, Castros et al are depriving their people of the opportunity to survive properly through their collectivist mindset. Take a look at the Soviet Union for example. The collectives always underperformed and food was scarce. When people were allowed a small plot of land to grow a vegetable garden,suddenly there was enough produce to allow the sale of it at local markets.
Posted by: atric | 2007-11-19 12:51:03 PM
In your hollow soul only obc ... only in the echo chamber of your paranoid delusional mind.
I was not defending Chavez, Castro and Mugabe ... We have to be as critical of them and hold them to account as much as any other world leader ...
I was saying that to gloss over a devastating humanitarian problem by blaming an ideology is rather strange ... and certainly not helpful ... unless it is to know that radical lunatics marginalise themselves (and are not marginalised) and whose sole purpose is to demonstrate the dangers of a really dangerous way of thinking to the rational people who actually care about other people.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 12:55:37 PM
atric ~
. . . and before Stalin, the Ukraine was Europe's breadbasket - exporting grain all over. Then he killed 7 million kulaks to show them who was Boss. They have never recovered since that time.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 12:56:03 PM
Holographic - you are full of it. You talk of Epsi's and obc's comments as being glib as though you are just so enlightened. Really.
I actually lived in Africa and can confirm their comments. In the majority of situations hunger is caused by politics. Very little of the so-called aid reaches the people you need it. Furthermore when the people there are allowed the freedom to grow and produce their own food, they usually manage very well without outside help. It is the outside interference that prevents them from doing so, and in the worst cases the people are driven from their land and forced into being refugees.
The bottom line is that there is no food shortage but there is a problem with access to the food.
Speaking of international aid concerning food production I find it makes matters worse for the local populations. We tend to export machinery, herbicides and pesticides and seed that they do not need. They certainly do need to become dependent on others for their seed sources, etc. Some private organisations however actually send volunteers to live and work with the people to teach them how to improve their livestock and crops through improved breeding and how to improve things using the local resources.
The biggest problem however is corrupt politics from the hard Left to the Right.
Posted by: Alain | 2007-11-19 12:57:32 PM
The old socialist/commie cry of "we care about people and you don't" won't wash here. Not with all this evidence of how the LEFT does NOT care about anything except their command of power and control of people's lives - even if millions have to die for their "cause".
125 million people died since Communism came to power - a world record they should be ashamed of, but aren't.
You sound like the teenager who killed his parents, then begged the judge for mercy because he was an orphan.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:00:38 PM
atric ... please share with us a little story about where you have seen poverty around the world recently ... especially extreme poverty if you have been so (un)fortunate to experience it.
... and please explain to me Lady obc and atric why you consistently reduce the human condition to an ideology. A discussion cannot go anywhere if you lock ideas into limited framework ... unless it is your objective intention to maintain an idyllic discourse so you do not have to deal with rational people.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:05:47 PM
Assemble 10 people. Procure 1 or 2 shovels, 1 or 2 pails and 1 length of rope. Dig well.
Done.
Assemble 1 or 2 people. Dig row in dirt. Drop seeds (these should be literally dirt cheap) in rows.
Done.
Water when dry.
Harvest.
THEY DONT NEED MY HELP TO DO THIS!
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 1:07:21 PM
Alain ... I do not see the disjoint between what you said and what I said. The problem is certainly political ... it is also economic, cultural and historical. As you point out the situation is complex with diverse challenges. However, solutions will not come by reducing the argument to a Eurocentric closed-minded ideology.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:13:46 PM
"solutions will not come by reducing the argument to a Eurocentric closed-minded ideology."
What university-fed tripe!
The solution will come when these dictators are treated like Romania's Ceaucescu.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:16:21 PM
very poor effort Epsi ... an F on that last comment. A very uninformed and patronising comment.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:16:25 PM
19th century
* 1800-1801 famine in Ireland
* 1811-1812 famine devastated Madrid, taking nearly 20,000 lives
* 1815 eruption Tambora, Indonesia. Tens of thousands died of subsequent famine
* 1816-1817 famine in Europe (Year Without a Summer)
* 1830 famine killed almost half the population of Cape Verde
* 1830s Tenpo famine (Japan)
* 1835 famine in Egypt killed 200,000
* 1845-1849 Great Irish Famine killed more than 1 million people[26]
* 1846 famine led to the peasant revolt known as “Maria da Fonte” in the north of Portugal
* 1846-1857 Highland Potato Famine in Scotland
* 1866 famine in India (Bengal and Orissa); one million perished
* 1866-1868 Famine in Finland. About 15% of the entire population died
* 1869 famine in Rajputana; one million and a half perished
* 1870-1871 famine in Persia is believed to have caused the death of 2 million persons[27]
* 1873-1874 famine in Anatolia
* 1879 Famine in Ireland
* 1876-1879 Famine in India, China, Brazil, Northern Africa (and other countries). Famine in northern China killed 10 million people
* 1888 famine in Sudan
* 1888-1892 Ethiopian Great famine. Conditions worsen with cholera outbreaks (1889-92), a typhus epidemic, and a major smallpox epidemic (1889-90).
* 1891-1892 famine in Russia caused 375,000 to 500,000 deaths[28]
* 1896-1897 famine in northern China
* 1896-1902 famine in India
[edit] 20th century
* 1907 famine in east-central China
* 1914-1918 Mount Lebanon famine during World War I which killed about a third of the population
* 1914-1918 famine in Belgium
* 1916-1917 famine caused by the British blockade of Germany in WWI; up to 750,000 Germans starved to death[29]
* 1916-1917 winter famine in Russia
* 1917-1919 famine in Persia. As much as 1/4 of the population living in the north of Iran died in the famine[30]
* 1917-1921 a series of famines in Turkestan at the time of the Bolshevik revolution killed about a sixth of the population[31]
* 1921 famine in Russia killed 5 million[32]
* 1921-1922 Famine in Tatarstan
* 1921-1922 famine in Volga German colonies in Russia. One-third of the entire population perished[33]
* 1928-1929 famine in northern China. The drought resulted in 3 million deaths
* 1928-1929 famine in Ruanda-Burundi, causing large migrations to the Congo
* 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine (Holodomor), some parts of Russia[34] and North Caucasus area.[35] As many as 10 million people may have died[36]
* 1932-1933 famine in Kazakhstan killed 1.2-1.5 million[37]
* 1936 famine in China, with an estimated 5 million fatalities[38]
* 1940-1943 famine in Warsaw Ghetto
* 1941-44 Leningrad famine caused by a 900-day blockade by Nazi and Finnish troops. About one million Leningrad residents starved, froze, or were bombed to death in the winter of 1941-42, when supply routes to the city were cut off and temperatures dropped to -40 degrees.
* 1941-1942 famine in Greece caused by Nazi occupation.[39] An estimated 300,000 people perished
* 1942-1943 famine killed one million in China
* 1943 famine in Bengal
* 1943 famine in Ruanda-Urundi, causing migrations to the Congo
* 1944 famine in the Netherlands during World War II, more than 20,000 deaths
* 1945 famine in Vietnam
* 1946-1947 famine in Soviet Union
* 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward / The Great Chinese Famine (China). The official statistic is 20 million deaths, as given by Hu Yaobang
* 1967-1970 Biafran famine caused by Nigerian blockade
* 1968-1972 Sahel drought
* 1973 famine in Ethiopia; failure of the government to handle this crisis led to fall of Haile Selassie and to Derg rule
* 1974 famine in Bangladesh
* 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge. An estimated 2 million Cambodians lost their lives to murder, forced labor and famine
* 1980 famine in Karamoja, Uganda
* 1984 famine in Ethiopia
* 1996 North Korean famine [1] [2]
* 1998 famine in Sudan caused by war and drought
* 1991-1993 Somalian famine
* 1998-2000 famine in Ethiopia. The situation worsened by Eritrean-Ethiopian War
* 1998-2004 Second Congo War. 3.8 million people died, mostly from starvation and disease
* 2000-2007 Zimbabwe's food crisis caused by Mugabe's land reform policies[40]
Famine, it appears, has multiple causes, including natural disasters.
Posted by: DJ | 2007-11-19 1:17:21 PM
obc ... on your terms EVERYTHING is to the left of you ... you are so far gone there is no left or right ... just you and your fantasies ... just a blithering rhetorician.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:19:03 PM
Great come-back, Holy. I guess you win. Definitely college edjumicated - with a fancy degree, to boot, no doubt.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:21:26 PM
DJ ... and those are only the famines you mention. There is also extreme malnutrition in places where food is available, it is just that the people are excluded from accessing even the most meagre supplies ,,, and these problems certainly do have multiple causes like Famines.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:25:21 PM
Hollow,
So tell me what is the problem with my analysis?
I have been nothing but literate and practical in my statements. While you have been patronizing and emotional.
Give me a reasonable answer and we will give you your due here.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 1:25:47 PM
--- Holographic -
Maybe you should change your handle to Hallucinagenic.
The willful blindness you communist apologisers have towards the utter failure of your ideaology is dumbfounding.
Hopefully one day you'll grow up. (but I doubt it)
Posted by: robert | 2007-11-19 1:28:32 PM
epsi ~
Hollow has been fed this garbage in university by Leftoid profs and a CBC media. Don't expect him to concede on anything because he'd then have to admit he wasted years in school and paid good money for his brainwashing.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:28:35 PM
The NY Slime's William Duranty did the same as Hollow in the 1930's - whitewashing Stalin's genocide in the Ukraine.
And he won a Pulitzer for his fabrications - one the Slimes still displays proudly!
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:31:35 PM
That might be "Walter Duranty" - I didn't bother checking that commie's pedigree.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:33:12 PM
Exactly obc,
Hollow deliberately tries to make solutions complex so that he can produce a well paid complex solution that is useless in a land that is based in a simple economy and can therefore only afford simple solutions. This, therefore, completely debases his existence.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 1:34:21 PM
So tell me what is the problem with my analysis?
Posted by: Epsilon | 19-Nov-07 1:25:47 PM
As I said Epsi ... F, particularly for effort.
The causes as DJ notes are diverse
1. No access to land
2. No seeds
3. War.
4. AIDS, malaria etc. Imagine if your husband was dead your two sisters and five kids all have AIDS, you spend a great deal of time walking to and staying in decrepid hospitals
4. drought
5. destruction of the cultural fabric
6. all of the above
I have read your economic analyses Epsi, something you have put your mind and emotions into ... and your therefore have something to say. But your response to global hunger on this thread has been, well, what I said glib and patronising (not to me but to the gravity of this humanitarian problem. Humanitarian in that the problem is human caused and requires human-made solutions. Unless of course you do not care and think the solution will arise through some sort of Darwinian cleanse.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:36:15 PM
"the problem is human caused and requires human-made solutions."
Absolutely correct. Get rid of the humans (dictators) that are causing it - and world hunger will disappear - because there IS enough food for everyone if the (Commie) Dictators would allow it to reach the hungry.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:40:04 PM
Holographic - so what is your definition of Eurocentric closed-mind ideology?
The point I stand by is that remove the government interference and grant the people wherever they are the freedom to raise and produce their own food, and there will be no famine. In cases where there is a natural disaster, again stop all the interference and allow private groups/organisations to come to their aid. You can label the political interference however you like, it does not matter for the result is the same. Yet the truth is that communism killed far more people through forced starvation than any other.
I do get sick of all the so-called international aid which is never effective other than to line the pockets of local despots. I have not given my government the mandate to dispense my tax dollars across the globe in this way. I must prefer to donate to certain private organisations that I know are effective.
Posted by: Alain | 2007-11-19 1:46:12 PM
Epsi ... I think you are right when you say complex solutions (that did not work) have worsened the problem. No doubt. Bad theories make bad policy. This should not stop us from recognising that that the problem is complex ... leading back to my main point in this thread that reducing the argument to threats against leaders who have no connections to the complex problem is USELESS ... except to stroke a delusional fantasy.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 1:47:40 PM
Your comments do nothing but reinforce my point.
1. There is abundant land and if my family is starving I will utilize it.
2. Seeds are cheap and can be reserved from the provious year's harvest rather than consumed. Traditional and heritage native crops can also be recruited from the wild which is the logical crop to grow anyway.
3. African wars are caused by leftist governments.
4. Everyone in AFrica knows by now how to prevent AIDS. We cannot protect people from their own stupidity. See above.
4. As for drought please see my instructions on how to build a well.
5. I do not buy this destruction of the cultural fabric BS. Eating is a basic human need and growing food is a fundamental human activity. This is not an excuse and if you would stop using it as an excuse, maybe people could get on with growing their own damn food.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 1:47:42 PM
epsi ~
Hollow has been taught that white Europeans are responsible for all the world's ills. Nothing we say will alter his theology.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 1:50:28 PM
What the naivists refuse to understand is that there are no superior races but there are superior cultures, ideologies and civilizations.
The naivists wrongly assume that a successful culture implies a superior race. This is why it is the naivists that are the racists and it is why they are so mislead about successful cultures like Judeo-Christian civilizations and their antecedents.
Epsi
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 1:59:08 PM
Alain ... thanks for raising the bar on this thread.
Most of Canada's aid dollar does go to private organisations (albeit not for profit). NGOs get the cash and work on their pet projects. Some of which are noble and have achieved great things, and others that yes, sadly, line corrupt pockets. That said, the state or some sort of formal organisation of people with common geography and goals has to play a role. How else do you manage and develop public goods, the things that improve society but the individual has no incentive to create? Solutions have to have a mix of private and public input ... and there is no grand solution (something Eurocentric ideologies claim to have like Liberalism, Capitalism and Socialism ... they are all equally weak at solving the most dire problems) Every place has its own context and challenges. Knowledge about these conditions is power here ... so I urge you not to gloss over them with an ideology, but use knowledge to develop your political and economic inclinations so you know where to them put to good use in the right places.
Posted by: Hologrpahic | 2007-11-19 2:01:02 PM
Holographic Nonsense,
What you are describing is inhumanity.
The response to poverty is not to study and analyse more poverty but to apply wealth development.
We applied wealth development here in Canada--and are still applying wealth development here in Canada--anough insomuch as you view all of Canada as so rich and the other nations as all poor.
Well, I learnt a thing or two about poor people--while looking them right in the eye--and that is that if they were given a descent education, and the right principles and values, they could grow a nation of nothing into a nation of something.
But if they are given the wrong ideas and if they go on the wrong values--nothing works--no matter how much money they are given.
Look at all the corruption in the Arab world--where there has been a very very long time of civilization, and now after all they have had and all they have developed, they still have some of the poorest people living within their borders. Why workers in Dubai--the so called prettiest City in the world--with literally Billions, and Billions of wealth--pays teir workers only $4 an hour.
Why?
Because it is within their values to do that. Yet the workers are happy and willing to work for that much because the Islamic nations where they come from will not pay them half that.
And that is not wealth development--that is not democracy--that is not a thriving situation--that is not freedom and liberty.
And that has nothing to do with the IMF or the WF--it is by their design that way due to their principles--their values--and their dreams and aspirations.
So, what are you going to do about it?
All you can do is look at the countries who are doing well and complain at the countries that have the right stuff-that it is our fault.
Well, that is nothing but Holographic Nonsense!
Posted by: Lady | 2007-11-19 2:02:30 PM
Alain,
He said it all in his first line--"Most of Canada's aid dollar does go to private organisations (albeit not for profit)."
I think that the real problem lies in the fact that the solution has been trusted to communists.
If we had freedom, Liberty and democracy throughout--there would simply be no more poverty created through useless not-for-prohit organizations that provide ban-aid solutions that last only as long as the organization is there.
Posted by: Lady | 2007-11-19 2:05:42 PM
Hollow,
What a rational person calls a proven system for producing wealth and surplus you dismiss as "an ideology".
Like all naivists you want nothing more than to "raise the bar" on poverty. The more poor people there are, the more power you have.
Whereas the rest of us know that the more power you give, the more success you reap.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 2:06:22 PM
If you cannot feed your children, stop having them.
Don't tell me about their cultural tradition of large families. The French Catholics in Quebec used to have that tradition as well, but even they smartened up after awhile and tossed the church.
It is the bullying of some people within a nation that impoverishes the people. Socialism and totalitarianism do this as matter course.
It is a classic bait and switch every time. The elites play on the fears and insecurities of the population, promising them that their needs will be met by the government for free and then the hammer comes down.
We have seen it time and again in Cuba, the Soviet Union etc etc. We have been seeing in Canada since Trudeau. Fortunately, there are enough of use ready willing and able to fight to keep those bastards at bay.
And stop with this 'have a heart' bullshit. I will tell you this. When you help someone ... they will always remember you ... the next time they need help.
Having a head is better than having a heart. Think about with works and what is the right thing and forget you ever heard of Disney.
Posted by: John | 2007-11-19 2:07:18 PM
Epsi ... you talk about naivists in a derogatory way, but your perspective on global poverty goes beyond naive ... and be careful how you talk because it wont be long until your superiority complex about Judeo-Christian civillisation is taken up by a crazed university professor, labeled as socially deviant, turned into a governmental commission and made illegal ...
... Uh Oh, I have been hanging around this space too long. I am getting paranoid delusional too.
Posted by: Holographci | 2007-11-19 2:09:29 PM
Epsi ... you talk about naivists in a derogatory way, but your perspective on global poverty goes beyond naive ... and be careful how you talk because it wont be long until your superiority complex about Judeo-Christian civillisation is taken up by a crazed university professor, labeled as socially deviant, turned into a governmental commission and made illegal ...
... Uh Oh, I have been hanging around this space too long. I am getting paranoid delusional too.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 2:09:44 PM
John ... as much as you might hate to admit it ... you do have both a head and a heart ... both ideas and emotions. Balance the two of them and you have a balanced mind and spirit. Prioritise one and exclude the other and you end up either full of hate and/or depressed.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 2:13:12 PM
You naivists like to create these pretend little threats don't you. You say "be careful how you talk". WoW! This is they tired old ploy about being afraid to talk about things that are perceived to be politically incorrect.
Well, we are not afraid to shine the light on anything that needs it. And don't use thinly veiled threats. It only encourages us!
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 2:13:19 PM
epsi ~
Your "Judeo-Christian civilisation" reference drives Leftoids like Hollow nuts.
Be careful and kind to poor souls like him whose ideology is stuck in a pothole without a clue as to how to extricate themselves.
And like all Leftoids, they "care" more than the rest of us is all they have in their impoverished portfolio.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 2:14:20 PM
Go ahead keep on talking Epsi ... you provide a nice example of where our society should not go ... thanks for being the barometre.
Posted by: Holographic | 2007-11-19 2:21:31 PM
And in the meantime people starve to death. Because these people are more worried about so called ideology that helping people truly and permanently get back on their feet.
In a sense, these people are truly evil. It is disgusting.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 2:22:38 PM
"In a sense, these people are truly evil. It is disgusting."
. . . which is how 125 million could be killed by them without batting an eyelash.
Posted by: obc | 2007-11-19 2:25:48 PM
Halo,
We are not duty bound to look after our fellow man. We all come here equipped to look after ourselves. All we require is the freedom to proceed. It is governments that stand in the way.
The heart can be used for caring for family as it was intended. That is in our genes. We are not liable for others.
You may not that our government is working 24-7 to destroy the family so that the state can play the caring role for us. So far they are having success. But trying to get me to have a heart for what is Africa is simply stupid.
I have a heart and a head and both are in the right place. You must be young and full of compassion for humanity. Once you have been on the planet long enough, you will find that humanity is not worth what you think. I am not full of hate, just reality and logic. I do however, get depressed whenever I read your type of pap.
Posted by: John | 2007-11-19 2:26:22 PM
To reinforce my commetns above directed at Hollow, it reminds me of a story about the relief effort post Katrina.
Federal rescue workers prior to heading off in releif boats to rescue people trapped on rooftops had to endure a compulsory course on "social relations" or some such nonsense tht delayed and complicated the rescue efforts by many hours.
In this time, many people succombed to drowning, exposure and other health conditions.
This is the world of the naivists.
Hollow, you are so profoundly evil. This is a strong word and you will deny it with exxtreme outrage. You think you are doing good but all you are doing is compounding people's misery and wasting resources.
You need to completely rethink your career. I would hate to be you at the age of 60 wondering whether my life's energy really mattered.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 2007-11-19 2:30:46 PM
Irish Potato Famine
Abundant land, seeds from last year's crop and Christian values, yet still they starved.
Posted by: DJ | 2007-11-19 2:31:32 PM
What are you doing to help Epsi? ... other than promote an ideology that says do nothing about global hunger ... just let the market work it out. (not that I disparage markets entirely, they of course have a significant place in development.) Do you feel all warm and fuzzy because you ideology says do nothing, so you do nothing and feel like you are curing humanity's ills?
I have been in the dirt helping on my own dime and time, and will continue to do so ... so I do not feel bad calling you out on the ideological vacuum of your mind.
Posted by: holographic | 2007-11-19 2:32:17 PM
"The heart can be used for caring for family as it was intended. That is in our genes. We are not liable for others."
Evolution, contrary to this claim, enhanced altruism outside the family, because it enhanced survival.
Posted by: DJ | 2007-11-19 2:37:07 PM
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