Jump to content
mollydooker

Food for what ???

Recommended Posts

mollydooker
 
 
 An Irishman's insight on Africa.
 
 
 

 Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, having previously been a columnist for the Irish Independent and a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly. Until 2005, he wrote for the UK Sunday Telegraph.
His articles criticize left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbole, sarcasm and parody.
This essay appeared in The Somalia is not a humanitarian disaster; it is an evolutionary disaster. The current drought is not the worst in 50 years, as the BBC and all the aid organizations claim.
It is nothing compared to the droughts in 1960/61 or 73/74.  And there are continuing droughts every 5 years or so.
It's just that there are now four times the population; having been kept alive by famine relief, supplied by aid organizations, over the past 50 years.
So, of course, the effects of any drought now, is a famine. They cannot even feed themselves in a normal rainfall year.

Worst yet, the effects of these droughts, and poor nutrition in the first 3 years of the a child's life, have a lasting effect on the development of the infant brain, so that if they survive, they will never achieve a normal IQ .
Consequently, they are selectively breeding a population who cannot be educated, let alone one that is not being educated; a recipe for disaster

We are seeing this impact now, and it can only exacerbate, to the detriment of their neighbors, and their environment as well. This scenario can only end in an even worse disaster; with even worse suffering, for those benighted people, and their descendants.
 Eventually, some mechanism will intervene, be it war, disease or starvation.

So what do we do? Let them starve?
What a dilemma for our Judeo/Christian/Islamic Ethos; as well as Hindu/Buddhist morality.  And this is beginning to happen in Kenya, Ethiopia and other countries in Asia, like Pakistan.  Is this the beginning of the end of civilization?

AFRICA is giving nothing to anyone outside Africa -- apart from AIDS and new diseases. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilization in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us out of Africa, yet again.
It is nearly 25 years since the famous Feed The World campaign began in Ethiopia, and in that time Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million to 78+ million today.

So, why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country?
Where is the logic? There is none. Now they want to move to other countries to continue to breed and commit crime.

To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count.  One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing,
yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of children starving.

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially.  Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there.
  The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a low IQ, AK 47-bearing moron, siring children whenever the whim takes him and blaming the world because he is uneducated, poor and left behind.  There is no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic,  social and sexual system but I do not know what it is.  There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this.
It will win no friends and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous hand wringing, letter writing wrathful individuals; a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously.

So be it.

But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Irish Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison!
Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30%. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules plane, Ethiopia's population has more than doubled.

Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, AK 47-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts and housing pirates of the ocean.  Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive, illiterate indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world or allowances by the semi-communist Governments they voted for, money supplied by borrowing it from the World Bank!

This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or common sense.
Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against AIDS infection.  Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.

Broad brush-strokes, to be sure.
But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters.
Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have
 endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa. They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast Savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.

Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources and causing catastrophic ecological degradation.
By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million; the equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly Protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.  So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country?

How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them?

Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity!

But that is not good enough.
For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.
It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade.

It is inspiring Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating. If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts.

Oh good: then what? I know, let them all come here (to Ireland). Germany and the rest of Europe is already inundated and there are literally millions queuing up who want a hand out, taking in refugees because you feel sorry for them will end in the demise of those countries taking part.


You will note that; No Gulf State is taking any refugees, and the head of the human rights commission is Saudi Arabian!

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
angbumabasa

According to Matthew White’s estimate on the page Worldwide Statistics of Casualties, Massacres, Disasters and Atrocities., a total of about 123 million people died in all wars of the 20th Century, thereof 37 million military deaths, 27 million collateral civilian deaths, 41 million victims of "democide" (genocide and other mass murder) and 18 million victims of non-democidal famine.

 

Maybe mankind is in need of another world wide disaster. No joke. We're becoming 'peopled' out. :itsokay:

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
dicey eye

Not to come off cynical but for the impoverished with absolutely no entertainment options besides sex, the populations in destitute countries are surely going to continue to explode. 

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Parrothead
3 hours ago, dicey eye said:

Not to come off cynical but for the impoverished with absolutely no entertainment options besides sex, the populations in destitute countries are surely going to continue to explode. 

 

True that. Take a look at many countries on the Continent of Africa, as the OP stated. Absolutely too much.

 

 

Edited by Parrothead

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Oz Jon

It seems to me that a programme right now, to provide free condoms (and maybe establish local condom production and distribution) would be a far better, long-term solution to African problems.

 

Supplying food aid is a short-term, band-aid, non-solution.....supply more again next year  ... and the year after .... forever after!

 

These countries simply cannot support such high population numbers.

They have neither the leadership nor the resources to fix that problem any time soon (maybe never?).

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
dicey eye
On 7/30/2018 at 10:33 AM, Oz Jon said:

It seems to me that a programme right now, to provide free condoms (and maybe establish local condom production and distribution) would be a far better, long-term solution to African problems. 

Clever thought, except the vast majority guys prefer NOT to wear rubbers - they say the condom diminishes the feeling.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Oz Jon
On 7/31/2018 at 8:23 PM, dicey eye said:

Clever thought, except the vast majority guys prefer NOT to wear rubbers - they say the condom diminishes the feeling.

 

Maybe so, but death from starvation (even seeing others die) isn't a great feeling either.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Parrothead
24 minutes ago, Oz Jon said:

Maybe so, but death from starvation (even seeing others die) isn't a great feeling either.

 

I'd wager that those points NEVER cross their minds. 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • If you would like to join to begin posting and become an active member, feel free to click on THIS LINK, to register. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the Forum Operations / Issues forum. If you register, but then are unable to log in, please feel free to post concerns in the Having Problems Logging In? forum. We will address any and all questions, comments, or concerns, as quickly as possible. Welcome to the Living In Cambodia Forums! 

    Welcome to the forum!

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use & Guidelines. Here is our Privacy Policy.