Directly from the Template

December 15th, 2007 | by Craig |

Global Warming Continues: Poor, Women Hardest Hit.

  1. 10 Responses to “Directly from the Template”

  2. By Mark T on Dec 15, 2007 | Reply

    That’s hilarious. 1) Global warming is a natural phenomenon caused by sunspots and cured by fluorescent light bulbs, and 2) The “poor” are not poor – they are just delayed success stories in the global marketplace, and you’re merely taking a snapshot of woman at a certain point in time on their own ladder to economic success.

    Am I talkin’ the talk? Or do I just have the words, but not the music?

  3. By GeeGuy on Dec 15, 2007 | Reply

    Obfuscate! Avoid! Attack!

  4. By Dan Traeger on Dec 15, 2007 | Reply

    I can see it now: Sally Struthers (looking disturbingly like Peter Lorre), sporting a white tuxedo, walking through a parched Ethiopian village, being fanned by two stunted, malnourished children carrying giant palm fronds. Cue voice over: “Global warming has taken a heavy toll on these poor, starving native children, but for just two dollars a day you can reduce your carbon emission footprint and help one of them live to see one more day. Won’t you please send money now.”

    The reason these people are so impoverished and have no food is because they live in the freakin’ desert. If the U.S. really wanted to help, we’d engineer them an opportunity to relocate to water. Instead, we waste billions of dollars supporting an infrastructure that drop- ships tiny amounts of foodstuffs that might make it to the people for which it’s intended.

    And don’t even get me started on India’s “gender issues.”

    I find it maddeningly ironic that the underlying message in these two “news” stories is “We want money!”

  5. By Mark T on Dec 15, 2007 | Reply

    “The reason these people are so impoverished and have no food is because they live in the freakin’ desert.” You might ask “Why”, but then we’d be getting into issues of land reform and the like, and I’m sure you don’t want to go there.

    DO you really think people live there because better land is available? You sound suspiciously like a comfortable white American.

  6. By Craig on Dec 16, 2007 | Reply

    Dan was channeling Sam Kinison there, I think.

    Long story short, I think his point is that mostly they’re being given fish; and not taught to fish.

    Dan, of course, can correct me if I am wrong.

  7. By Mark T on Dec 16, 2007 | Reply

    Something about the presumption that they don’t know how to fish … some … thing ….

  8. By Craig on Dec 16, 2007 | Reply

    I know what you are saying. Dropping food shipments instead of building infrastructure is racist.

    Yes, it makes perfect sense.

  9. By Dan Traeger on Dec 17, 2007 | Reply

    Okay, here’s the thing. I’ve been to Darfur and several regions in Ethiopia. (as well as several cities and outlying places in India, but I’m still not touching that one.) In the case of Darfur their problem is almost all political, and it’s something the U.S. still hasn’t quite learned it needs to stay out of.

    In the case of Ethiopia though… a lot of the country is quite fertile growing area. The places that need the most help get hammered with alternating seasons of flooding and drought. Sure the people there know how to deal with a lot of this cycle, but they do need help. The government has repeatedly asked for help from the U.S. and the United Nations, and instead of building dams and irrigation, teaching them crop rotation, and helping them set up the infrastructure that would actually help them, we send them big drop shipments of foodstuffs that are tantamount to a band-aid for a gaping wound.

    I was channeling San Kinison there a bit. His U-haul plan is certainly better than anything that’s ever come out of CARE or UNICEF. ;)

    I’m not sure I’d consider food drops racist, so much as just stupid.

    Man… if I keep this up I’m going to have to turn in my Communista Club Card.

  10. By Mark T on Dec 17, 2007 | Reply

    Share what we know with them – water is at the center of it all. But please, drop the paternalism. It’s positively colonial.

  11. By Dan Traeger on Dec 18, 2007 | Reply

    Mark, before I retort, is it my paternalism that’s colonial, or does the colonialism stem from the fact that the U.S. is involved with “humanitarian aid” in this region?

Post a Comment