The Glade 4.0

I was flipping channels last night and saw a documentary on people starving in Africa. People with distended bellies, children and babies with literally nothing but skin and bones, too weak to swat away flies....and then I flip to another channel and its an ad for kitty litter...made of whole kernel corn. They even showed the lady putting some of the kitty litter into her mouth and eating it.

Makes me feel ashamed to complain about anything in my life when we live in a country where our cats can **** in food and we throw it away while there are babies dying by the thousands simply because they have nothing to eat.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Its not human food. Its Cow Food.

Also, Africa is a shithole. We send the food and relief supplies... and the Warlords in the areas hoard it and enrich themselves.

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Holy shitsnacks!

This. We send more money and aid than anyone in the world if I'm not mistaken but the Warlords get it all.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... QD9GGBF2O0

Good news... and bad news.

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Holy shitsnacks!

This explains some I think http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4139174.stm but still....cattle food or not, that kitty litter could keep someone from dying. Not that I'm saying we should start exporting kitty litter, but I'm just saying I still don't understand why in this day and age there are babies and small children dying from starvation and malnutrition.
All I've seen so far is political squabbles on both sides that are hindering food from getting to the people who need it, not "warlords." I'll keep looking though.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Warlords? I thought it was Sally Struthers?

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Why in this day and age are people having children that the parents/environment cannot support? Why is your assumption the problem lies with lack of food redistribution?

People make kitty litter out of corn because they can sell it for money. What would be their motivation to give it away?

And as far as that goes, who's to say the people making the corny kitty litter aren't exceptionally philanthropic, and donate tons of cash and goods to the hungry African (warlords)... ?

I don't mean to offend, but Africa is none of our concern. We shouldn't even be giving them money.

Most of their people will eventually die off. It's nature.

The poor will always be with us (at least in this age). It's a sad truth. In a good year North America has enough surplus output to feed all of Africa. It's just not feasable to get it into the right hands logistically and you can't force (and shouldn't try to force) people to be cheritable with it.

Also likely the kind of corn they are using isn't the kind that's fit for human consumption. It's edible like the comerical says, but that's not the same as digestible.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Considering what turds look like after eating corn, I'd argue its not digestible at all. heheh

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The Dude abides.

Because "this day and age" isn't this day and age in the entire world. Just because there's a ton of food available in the Western world, such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia and other places doesn't mean it's easy to move it to a place like Niger or distribute it.

Niger is a landlocked country in the middle of West Africa. Moving food aid there is an enormously complex enterprise just in terms of the physical reources needed to move it. Flying it is hugely inefficient. The best method would be to load it onto trains at a neighboring nations' seaport, or failing that, trucks. The requires procuring the appropriate transportation.

Then of course there's the problem of distributing it in an equitable and effective fashion in country. That's more logistics.

All that doesn't begin to address the problems surrounding doing that. What else has to be loaded on trains and how does that affect availability? How about trucks; how many are available, and how many drivers? What are road conditions like and what facilities are there to fuel them? How about bandits; what if they attack the truck or train? If air is going to be used, where will the aircraft and pilots come from? How about parts and fuel and what is the state of navigational aids? How many runways of what length, width, and bearing strength are available?

I know you know other countries are poorer, but think about the implications of that. Sure, we can load a bunch of food on a ship; that's easy. What has to happen after that? What can go wrong? Most importantly, in a place like Africa, who wants it to not happen? Those "political squabbles" you mentioned? They're quite real, and their pettiness does not lessen their impact a bit.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The immediate problem may lie in lack of food distribution. Long term, yes, the problem may lie in something as simple as birth control...but that's a huge debate in and of itself as to why that has not worked in Africa due to primitive and uneducated beliefs...which could mean that the problem really lies in lack of education.

I just think it really sucks that babies are dying from starvation and I can't do a damn thing about it.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

LK, I really empathize with you on this; I can't even watch the "Feed the Children" commercials without feeling physically ill.
That said, there are two main reasons for the continuation of this problem:
1) The very people who are making babies they know they can't feed on their own. I mean, really, if you had a reasonable suspicion (not to mention concrete knowledge) that you wouldn't be able to feed another mouth would you be ****'? Would any self-respecting human? That leads to the second point.
2) The very people trying to help. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but sending food to people who live in places where they will never be able to support existing population by local production only causes them to become reliant on that aid. When the next month's food shipment gets delayed (or just doesn't show up) because of some war/political stand-off people who have become dependent on that aid shipment will starve.

The continued "relief efforts" have created a class of tens (hundreds?) of millions of people who have no other means of srvival but to wait for the next food dump to occur. These people are at the mercy of everything and everyone around them, but they don't see any way out because they are inextricably linked to that food coming in. The horrible, horrible truth is that in the decades this has gone on many times more babies and children have died terrible deaths than would have if their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had starved in the initial waves of unrest and food shortages instead of being propped up by artificial means perpetually - and they still make more babies knowing they can't feed them.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I'm sure many of the pregnancies aren't by choice, what with all the rampant raping and all.

Somebody chose to do it.
In any event, I'm sure that the number of babies created by rape pales in comparison to the rest.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I don't believe that's the problem in Niger. It may be a problem in other places, but even then I don't think that pregnancies due to rape are a major overall contributor.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'm positive he knows that - hell, everybody knows that. It's just easier to throw out a minuscule deviation than acknowledge the real issues. In light of the fact that these occurrences are symptomatic rather than causal, it's obviously a point that had no real thought put into it.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

No real thought at all.

Thanks for your honesty.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

In the words of Sam Kennison: MOVE OUT OF THE **** DESERT.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

It costs money and effort to prevent a pregnancy.

It costs nothing to become pregnant.

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

SG, it costs the same to get pregnant as it does not to, and if you don't get pregnant there's no baby around to starve to death. Personal responsibility.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

This thread requires more Robert Thomas Malthus.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Depending on whether you believe the stats, and whether you care about absolute numbers, per capita numbers, or as % of GDP, that is ,or is not, true ;-p

GoogleFu says:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930884.html
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/stats/200 ... 0501a.html