Yeah, I know I’m right about saving lives beyong disease prevention. Many will call me arrogant, and I’m okay with that. Someone elses failure to look at all of the facts available and then make a judgement call isn’t on me. That responsibility rests soley on them. …moving on though. You’ve stated that getting a job even after advanced education can be difficult. I don’t find that hard to believe at all. Education does one no good besides self betterment unless there is a market to put those skills to use with. Sadly, those markets are limited. That’s not a fault of the educational system. I think I’ll just sum up the money aspect of this quickly: You’ve stated agreeance with concern to having to go beyond disease prevention and through education and into the job market. These are all things that One.org is pushing for more money for. Since you’ve stated that there is a problem with the job market there where higher educated people cannot gain reasonable employment based on their training, is it really worth it to funnel more forgein aid money into an educational system that produces educated people that cannot gain employment in their respective fields? What about feeding and clothing them? That isn’t helping them up. That’s giving them a handout. Curing sickness, while humane, remains only so based on the ability to deliver aid to those that will now need food, shelter, etc., etc. instead of dying. I realize how cold that is, but it’s a fact. All of these things require vast sums of money. This type of approach to fixing stuff is known as “shotgunning it”. It’s the concept of fixing everything a little bit at a time. It doesn’t work. The impact isn’t big enough on the grand scale. It just eats money. Why? Because it isn’t being driven by actual economic changes. Socialism works just well enough to keep people living to make money for the government, provided the government is willing to put forth the money to keep it’s economic engine alive, I.E., it’s populace. Unfortunately, they don’t, and the progress that’s made by what little money is actually delivered to the people that need it is swallowed up by either a form of socialism, corruption, or both. This is why you need to remove and replace a government first. Unless of they just up and decide to change one day, though highly unlikely. Given this: Why would One.org feel that this is the right thing to do? Simply this; something must be done. Unfortunately, that’s not really true. Nothing really has to be done, they’ve just chosen to do somelthing half baked. They lack the ability to see how their actions affect those around them. Sad but true. One.org, while well intentioned, bites the economic hand that feeds.

I’ll have to finish this over the next few days. My net time today is drawing to a close. I’d like to know what you know about Africa’s history. When you think about the political aspects that Africa was and is and will become, it’s really interesting stuff. ….so, how much do you know about African history?

You are right about going beyond saving lives thru disease prevention. There is still the need to feed, clothe, educate them, and then the issue facing them, as is facing us here, is employment. Education in Kenya is expensive. If memory serves, primary education is free, but money is still needed for books and uniforms. Secondary education is not free, and usually involves boarding school, and my friend Sarah said they just raised the annual tuition from about 24000 ksh to 36000 ksh (about 75 ksh to 1 USD) so she couldnt afford to send her son to his 3rd of 4 years of secondary school. Many finish secondary school and even university at great cost to their parents and cannot find jobs (2 of Sarah’s children have been in that situation). That puts parents in the difficult position of deciding if the education is worth their sacrifice.

I only spent 2 wks in Kenya, I will not pretend to be all that knowledgeable. But I do understand your recommendation of a revolution. However, those who come into power are not always any better. A while ago, I watched the video of this young man, a former boy soldier from the DRC, who spoke at Borders, a booksigning event for his book. I am not sure I have the stomach to read his book, but he made some interesting observations. His family had been slaughtered and he was forcibly enlisted. He spoke of the slippery slope of fighting “for good” (I am paraphrasing here). He said the fighting, the war, the revolution, starts out for a “good” cause, but as it unfolds it becomes simply about survival. Note the current conflict in the DRC. I read that Laurent Nkunda claims to only be defending his people against Hutu militias that had fled Rwanda and joined up with the DRC military. Laurent claims to be a born again Christian and his boys wear “Rebels for CHrist” buttons. The UN is not sure who is friend or enemy (probably most are enemies from what I’ve seen) but meanwhile the people are driven into refugee camps to starve and die of disease. Forgive me if I mix up Hutu and Tutsi, I think I have it right. It’s been awhile since I read about Mugabe, but if memory serves he was a very good leader back when and really brought Zimbabwe to higher ground, but then well, the power got to him.

But what if Africa finds her Mao Ze Dung, and becomes a great industrial power? Can we as a planet absorb the CO2? That, of course, is a whole other debate.

Here is something that provokes thought but does not necessarily reflect my position. I was shocked when one of my new Kenyan friends spoke of South Africa, and how good the infrastructure was there, and how the colonials had done so much to bring the country to the level of civility it now enjoyed. I have never been to S Africa and I had only heard of the cruelty of apartheid, so that was not something I was expecting to hear from a native African. Was colonization more of a good thing or a bad thing? The “correct” thing to say, of course, is that colonization by its very nature is racist and exploitative and so it must be bad. So now we have foreign aid, NGO’s. UN peacekeepers. Foreign missionaries/volunteers. Is that trying to give them the benefits of colonization without the bad?

Thing is that we realize that this is a very complex and difficult issue, and one that can bring about eye opening and mindboggling debate.

I want to address your last question, simply due to it’s importance in the pecking order.

–”the question i have is how best to help those who are without doubt suffering and if we are willing to accept that there will be inefficiencies in the delivery of that aid.”–

I don’t believe that the first part of this question actually has a “right” answer. I believe there’s a “best” option, but when I tell you what I think it is, you probably won’t like it, even if you do understand it. With that given knowledge, most will likely feel compelled to continue to do as they are do to it being conceptionally frightening. That aside, what I do know is that pumping money at poverty only eases the pain like a drug. Soon, the supply is gone, and the pain begins anew. Building an infastructure to support the people requires resources. Time, people, food, water, construction materials, equipment, …they all cost money. Hold on to this thought. I’ll be back for it in a minute.

Disease. Simple, treatable, preventable diseases that cannot be addressed in time kill in large numbers. It’s a fact. Preventative methods and treatments for disease, while cheap, are extremely costly when applied under the scope of the intent of organizations like One.org. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that we cure disease to the extent that it’s death toll drops to or below an acceptable level. We now have to feed and cloth all of these people. We also have to build a sustainable infastructure for them.

Let’s go back to the 1st paragraph and pick up on that thought that I asked you to hold onto. Money. We know that it’s going to cost a LOT of money to get these projects done. What you don’t realize is that One.org is attempting use money to remedy the symptoms of the people of Africa and not the actual problems. I can’t see the common sense in that. Symptoms will always be there until you fix the problem. Hunger, disease, and no infastructure aren’t the problem. The forgein governments are the problem. Fix them and then you can fill the money vacuum or don’t and see how fast that corrupt forgein government comes in like a thief in the night to steal all your hard work away, leaving you with a sick, unclothed and destitute people.

As much as the reality of it sucks, the cure for the people in Africa is a revolution. They need to overthrow their governments and install new ones. Painful? Yes. Lots of death? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. I can hear the cries on the board now…

“Steve, you’re a hateful, mean spirited war monger.” “I just can’t believe that there isn’t a way to do this that doesn’t involve violence.” The history of the nations bears the truth folks. Governments that are fit aren’t overthrown. Unfit ones are overthrown violently. Dictators, brutal regimes, and oppressive governments are in power because they are feared. Stand up to the fear and get the job done.

The last part of your question shows a statement of belief that aid money is delivered inefficiently. Is it really being delivered inefficiently or is there a failure of delivery? Other than that, I don’t know if we ought to speak about aid money. I have a feeling that you know my thoughts on the matter.

“You are a modern day Sir Isaac Newton.”

Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week.

What Bill Gates wrote in some magazine has no relevance. We aren’t the developed world. We are however, The United States of America, a country that has a current economic crisis. That 5 Trillion that you mentioned also has no relevance. We don’t have that kind of money in reserve. You show me an excess amount of money in the governments coffers and I’ll show you money that should be used for paying our bills, like the resonable, responsible country that we ought to be. It’s also a poor backing for socializing our tax dollars. The real issue here isn’t that there is money in the world that isn’t being distributed to poorer nations but instead that the nations of the people whom you are trying to feed/cloth/cure more often than not don’t care about them and thusly, don’t do much to help their own people. This seems to be little publicized knowledge that isn’t disseminated by One.org. There’s your human rights for ‘ya. Also why instead do they think that running for the governments piggybank so that a forgein third world government can abuse the forgein aid funding is the way to go? I’m left standing here wondering if people that support One.org don’t understand that forgein aid money isn’t getting used properly. It also makes me wonder if people that support One.org have some type of compunction about giving away U.S. tax dollars to a forgein government for them to spend all willy-nilly, though that money was intended on this end to help those in need.

I’m not posting about life saving humanitarian efforts, I’m posting about where the funding is coming from, how it is collected and redistributed, and then written off, all with the knowledge that One.org only wants to increase the amount of forgein aid in set increments over time. There will be no compensation. In this case, the shame truly doesn’t belong to me and is indeed, misplaced. Had you really read any of my posts and taken the time to try and understand what I was actually saying instead of looking for an excuse to be so easily offended, you would have caught the parts (yes Virgina, multiple times) where I mentioned that I was angry that our government was bailing out banks and companies. I am well aware of what we are spending on this garbage. I am even more incensed that One.org and it’s members can’t see that until we get our country out of debt and back on the right track, that what they are proposing is what you clame to hate and what I do hate. More pork.

Let’s face it. It’s not about clean water to one child or one net out in “BFE”. It’s about nets and water and school and infastructure for everyone. If it were, there wouldn’t be a website for it. That bed would have been paid for, the water payed for. Plumbing payed for. That stuff is cheap. One.org is going after the wealthiest nations in the world. For money. Lots and lots of money. Oceans of money, because that’s how big the problem is. And your are correct sir. I’m going to tell you that we don’t have the money. We don’t have the money because our government is busy bailing out people and tacking on pork projects to garbage legislation. We have debt. We have out of control government spending. We pay off the debt and kill the “what the hell are they thinking????” spending and then we can talk about helping people.

I also respect your right to express your opinion and I share the belief that it’s one of the things that makes our country great. I do seperate my rhetoric from the reality of the situation. I believe that you see that there are people with dire needs in Africa and that we can and should help them. I believe that their governments should be held accountable first and foremost, that their governments need need to set up basic services. If they choose socialism or capitalism or some other “ism”, after they are on their feet, I really don’t care. As requested, I’ve refrained from alluding to a NIN song. Should you feel so inclined to reply, please do likewise and refrain from the standard One.org “it’s just a little” monetary rhetoric. I advocate fiscal responsibility. Thank you.

@Karen:

I’m okay with it being borderline offensive Karen. If you find it ridiculous, then I have to suppose that you don’t understand what was being said. I find that dangerous that you advocate for causes that need money. For the sake of fairness, I’ll assume that you know that money is a hard master and that you read something else into it. I’m amused by your argument for giving forgein aid though. “Who’s to say…” Nobody says. I sure haven’t. That message is pinned on the hope that if we give them money, they might do something good. Karen, of course they will. They are people living in poverty. First they will get out of poverty and work their butts off toward something better. Eventually, they progress from better to corrupt. My proof is this: Show me a people not corrupt.

@Wendy Martin:

You’ve written a nice feel good piece, or…maybe in this instance it’s actually a feel both good and bad piece. You’ve told me a touch of what it would like to be there. One can never really understand until going, living, and doing. Congrats to you. You’ve done something admirable and I commend you for it.

What you’ve also plainly stated that orphanages receive no government assistance. How much assistance to these poor people actually get from their governments? Keep in mind that I’m not asking a question. I’m stating a problem. Many of these governments have some of the worst human rights records on the planet. Shoveling money at them makes them love you. It does not, however, get that money to the people that actually need it.

AS ONE, debbie
http://www.mpwn-uganda.org

Anyway, although the master/slave thing is ridiculous (not to mention borderline offensive), who is to say that Africans becoming more self-sufficient and taking a greater leadership role in the world is a bad thing? They might ultimately do a better job than the U.S.

Bill Gates recently wrote in TIME Magazine how the developing world has about 5 trillion dollars of untapped purchasing power. With improved heath and education systems, there is an opportunity for the world’s poorest people to join in our global economy – a good thing for everyone.

Do you cry “socialism” when the State Police and emergency services of a state are working on a car wreck? What if it the car has out of state plates?

Do you cry “socialism” when you find out that people with small shoes are subsidizing people with big shoes?

Do you cry “socialism” when the guy ahead of you at McDonald’s gets an extra ketchup packet?

These are trival questions, especially when we are talking about life and death issues for millions of people around the world. I do not mean to be rude, but how many people do you know that died from malaria last month…or ever? Or died from hunger or TB or AIDS?

And your postings here about life saving humanitarian efforts is shameful in my opinion, especially when you look at what the government has been doing with wall street and every other poorly run industry. We are spending over a trillion dollar to bailout people that made poor decisions and ran capitolism off a cliff! I am mad about my government spending my money to pay for greed and failure for the world’s richest people! NO BAILOUTS! I work everyday of my life but I am not getting a bailout and I am not blaming a hungry child for it!

Of all the money our government spends, of all the bridges to nowhere, of all the pork and bailouts, I am proud of spending a little bit of money to get clean water to a child, or get a simple bed net out in rural Africa. Are you telling me that we don’t have this money? Or worse, that we do have this money but we should not save a life out of some blind ideology? Come on!

I respect your right to express your opinion. I think that it what makes this country great. But please think where you are sitting right now and seperate your rhetoric from the on the ground reality of the situation. And if you do respond, with all due respect, please do not point to another Nine Inch Nails song. I am a fan of their music and it makes no sense to say that Trent has the answers to sustainable economic development.

Remember that you are creating your master. Are you so blind that you cannot see what how your future master will treat you?