What are your thoughts on this? Why don't our governments get it?
The U.S. and other "First World" countries send millions of tons of food to starving nations, as a gesture of humanitarian aid. The problem is with any species is that more food & resources = increased reproduction and population. Supplemental food isn't a solution at all, in my eyes.
Sure, people starving is a bummer, and if our population weren't so HUGE we may not be starving as much.
In my community the farmers are selling out for cash and letting the developers plow over the orchards for homes. We're eliminating food, and bringing in more people at the same time. I guess the assumption is that somewhere else, people are racing in to farming to help feed us.
Yuck.
The U.S. and other "First World" countries send millions of tons of food to starving nations, as a gesture of humanitarian aid. The problem is with any species is that more food & resources = increased reproduction and population. Supplemental food isn't a solution at all, in my eyes.
Sure, people starving is a bummer, and if our population weren't so HUGE we may not be starving as much.
In my community the farmers are selling out for cash and letting the developers plow over the orchards for homes. We're eliminating food, and bringing in more people at the same time. I guess the assumption is that somewhere else, people are racing in to farming to help feed us.
Yuck.
posted by:
|
SF Bay Area
|
-
Unsu...
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sat, April 23, 2005 - 12:09 PMNot quite sure where you are coming from with this one. My view of the situation you describe is this: Many developing nations have a stronger reliance on the structure of the family and they need to ensure that they have more children in order to help each other out (social welfare, decent paying jobs, pensions etc often being non- existent). Giving them free food is useless because it is a short term solution. Helping build their infrastructures and abolishing the debts which they have already paid back over and over again is part of the answer. I know where you are coming from when you talk about what is happening in your community. The trend is scary. As Bill Hicks (see photo on this tribe) once pointed out, we are becoming a third world consumer plantation. The 'developing' nations provide us, increasingly with just about everything, perpetuating the cycle of rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. We consume, they produce - It's a like a giant fucking insect colony. In the context of No New Humans I have a lot of problems with judging the over population in developing nations because the conditions they are forced to live under are quite different. -
-
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sat, April 23, 2005 - 12:46 PMExcellent point. I agree with you on this, actually, so I may have been vague. I've been spending a lot of time pondering the parallels between our planet and a closed aquarium, and the shifting of resources, and the injection of resources into other areas. I believe the building an effective infrastructure in developing nations is key. -
-
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sat, April 23, 2005 - 2:31 PMPersonally I consider it a crime to send food aid and not do something to help those nations come to grips with their problems such as birth control and treatment and rights of women, two major issues in population size. -
-
Unsu...
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sat, April 23, 2005 - 5:26 PMI totally agree with you... I've always found that infuriating. When there's oil or profit involved us 'Democracies' have no qualms about 'helping' the nation in question.. but when there's nothing (Rwanda has No oil whatsoever) and the only gain is one of a purely humanitarian nature, our leaders turn a blind eye.
-
-
Unsu...
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sat, April 23, 2005 - 7:51 PMThanks for that post Spencer... and thanks for joining! -
-
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Sun, April 24, 2005 - 4:06 AMIt is sad but true, yet there are other answers.
We are a people with more choice in many ways than any others before us yet so few actually use that power.
Far too many are lulled by the comfort of the american way of life and rarely, if ever, examine the basic premises and actions they live with every day.
The fact is that too many americans expect our government to do the things we think should be done when in reality it is better and usually much more efficient for like minded people to band together to actually make the changes needed.
Amnesty international started with just a few motivated people and so have many other useful groups and projects.
The issue is to get people motivate and to find goals they deem worthy then to knuckle down and make the commitment and necessary sacrifices to make it happen.
There is no one to blame in the final analysis but ourselves. It is long past due for people to put their time and money where their mouth is and MAKE the changes happen instead of running around paying lip service and going to their feel good fluff events. -
-
Unsu...
Re: Supplemental feeding of starving nations?
Mon, April 25, 2005 - 8:23 PMHear hear! Or should I say, Here Here!
-
-
-
-
