[quote]Mikeyali wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
Mikeyali wrote:
Wow, I should have gotten in on this thread sooner. For starters, that net thing is retarded. This sounds harsh but I don’t care. I don’t want to send them nets. I want them to die or adapt. If I have to send them money for nets they’ll live, which means I will have to send them money for food. After that I’m going to have to send them money for AIDS relief.
Holy shit, you sound like one cruel motherfucker. That “net thing” could prevent hundreds of thousands of children dying from malaria each year. You admit that nets might allow those children to live - yet the “net thing is retarded”?? You would rather they “die” if they can’t “adapt”??
Fine if you don’t want to send nets. kudos to you for micro-loaning. But your “die or adapt” posture is morally abhorrent & seriously wanting in compassion. I hope you’re kidding, but somehow I don’t think so.
laugh I’m actually a softie. Wife says I’m a bleeding heart lib. It isn’t that I don’t feel bad for the situation. It’s simply that there’s no reason to continue a system that isn’t working. If you could somehow give the kids nets, food, etc, until they can fend for themselves then I could get behind that. But this isn’t about supporting them; it’s about supporting the entire system of continual dependency. This increases suffering.
I take a utilitarian view of this. If all those that couldn’t cut it died tomorrow then it would be a tragedy. But several times that are going to die with the continued suffering of each passing generation. I’m convinced microloans work. They’ll help all of Africa support itself over time. Throwing nets at starving, AIDs ridden people only succeed in making you feel better about yourself, which you shouldn’t because you only bring forth more children who will suffer.
mike [/quote]
I think you chose your wording poorly in your original post, but I kind of agree with your point.
I honestly get the feeling that the majority of aid money donated to Africa is given in order to soothe the consciences of those in Western countries.
Making large numbers of uneducated Africans dependent on Western aid does not seem to be fixing anything.
Perhaps the focus of aid money given to Africa should be switched more towards investments in education, microcredit schemes etc.
I wonder what my own country would currently be like if during Australia’s early development rich foreigners had attempted to fix our problems for us. When my ancestors arrived in Australia hundreds of years ago, the living conditions were very shitty for the majority. Hypothetically, if at that point in history there were countries around that were as advanced as the US, Canada, Britain etc currently are now, providing aid to Australia could have been easily morally justified.
It would have been very easy for those in the more advanced countries to argue that attempting to make sure that no Australians starve to death or die of preventable diseases would be morally the right thing to do. If this really was the case though and food and medical aid was provided to the early European settlers, they could have easily become dependent on this. Perhaps if this were actually the case, Australia would not have quickly become self sufficient and gone on to develop many highly profitable industries.
The same could also be said for the US.
I feel that it is entirely possible that at least some of the humanitarian aid sent to Africa has actually made the situation even worse.
