Europeans in general %26amp; Americans in particular have always been big on helping others. Until recently the idea was to help them by forcing our culture %26amp; religions on them... as we considered our way as superior to those of other cultures %26amp; something leading to peace %26amp; prosparity.
Recently we've determined that to be successful we need to help them develop an economic engine so they can help themselves. However telling a starving man to plant corn or rice doesn't work, because he will be long dead by harvest time. The current challenge is to keep them alive while they learn to fight disease %26amp; starvation in the future. That is much more of a challenge than feeding them for several years. I hope this is not just a fad, because if it is, all hell will break loose in Africa.
A big problem in Africa is their culture of corruption... common in most 3rd World countries. If we can get past that, maybe they have a chance.This whole ';Save Africa'; campaign a lot of white Americans have taken up is just a short term fad, am I right?
help, hell. A lot of the problems they have in Africa result directly or indirectly to misguided goody-two-shoes efforts on the part of the West. Feed two people today so fifty can starve tomorrow.
It's buttheaded feelgood nonsense that helps nothing in the long term.
Fly,
It's white guilt for slavery. GET OVER IT!!! We haven't slaves here for 140 years. I certainly didn't contribute to the slave issue here. My family didn't arrive here until the early 1900s, 40 years after slavery ended. I feel no guilt!!
There are a number of on-going charity and relief efforts. They're been in place for many years. This time of year you'll get flyer's in the mail or see ';Save the Children'; TV ads.
Periodically there's a disaster, famine, war, drought etc that makes the news. This if followed by relief efforts and you see the ';Save Africa'; push that you mentioned. Perhaps less a fad then a response to a crisis.
Agreed, ';Save Africa' may be pushed off the headlines by ';Save Bangladesh'; or ';Save the victims of the Tsunami '; where you again see relief efforts and called for monetary support. You may term it a fad but I'd prefer to call Paris Hilton's promise to go to Africa a ';fad.';
A note of caution. Investigate relief agencies before donating. Some give little money to what they collect for, spending more on money raising and salaries.
Blacks have always been at the bottom of everyone's list and if the efforts made by those of the Caucasian race is a fad then I shall accept that phase with a great appreciation. Because those who do nothing but criticize changes nothing.
I hope you are not correct, in saying it is a short term fad. I feel that there are a lot of ( all colors) American people,who would give or share the last of thier food, with any starving person,especialy a child. It doesn't matter what country,It is Save Africa,because of the number of starving children there.How can a person set down to a meal, and enjoy it, knowing, a childs life could be saved with just the scraps thrown away.
If it's a fad or not, I don't care. There are people that need help, and if we can give it to them, we should. Is it really that bad to be humanitarian? If it takes a fad to make more people help others, I'm all for it.
Yup, I think you're right. Our economics are pretty good right now, and statistics prove that's when Americans worry the most about poverty here and over seas. As soon as there is a hint of a recession, all that concern disappears.
If you will look at history you will see that in the late 60's there was a war on poverty in this country. There were people living like the 3rd world here. It has gotten better but there wasn't really a homeless problem then and now there is. I know there was Save the Children or something like in the 70s which helped children all over the world. A lot of the wealth in this country has come from wealthy people from all over world moving here. Americans are so diverse that you can't say that we are just a few groups. The only thing that most of us have in common is love for this country.
No comments:
Post a Comment