Thread 600,000 Children about to die

OzSTEEZ

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Nov 11, 2008
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http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/...en-are-on-the-brink-of-starvation/?hpt=ac_mid
(Video in link)

600,000 children are on the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations. 600,000 children. That should be a headline in every paper, every newscast, every day as long as this famine lasts. It won't be of course, because we've come to accept these catastrophes as somehow inevitable events that we can't do anything about until it's too late. That's not true of course, but it's the way many perceive it. It isn't until we see pictures of dying children that we feel compelled to take action. Sadly those pictures aren't hard to find in Somalia today.




http://www.pri.org/stories/world/africa/hedge-funds-buy-massive-tracts-of-farm-land-5343.html
Hedge funds buying massive tracts of African farmland


Western hedge funds have begun buying up vast parcels of land all over Africa. According to a series of new reports by the Oakland Institute, over 148 million acres in the last three years alone have been purchased -- that's an area larger than California.



The reports say the purchased land is often used to produce export commodities -- including biofuels, cut flowers and specialized foods -- and are displacing millions of Africans from fertile farmland.


Researchers say they reviewed the contracts and found clauses that allow foreign companies to keep exporting as much as 80 percent of what is grown on the acquired land, even if the host country is experiencing food shortages.


Lead researcher Anuradha Mittal told Here and Now's Robin Young, "The companies boast they can make a profit even without growing anything on the land," because of the way the contracts are written.


"With the collapse of the housing market, there is a drive for the new commodity to invest in,

Mittal said. "These hedge funds are promising returns of 25 to 40 percent." Mittal called this the new investment bubble.



We are really shitty human beings.
 
can you personally do anything about it? neither can I. phew, that's a relief

The ol' "I can do it myself, so I should just forget about it" mentality. Exactly why we are shitty human beings.



Why aren't western countries giving a shit about this?
 
Why aren't western countries giving a shit about this?

African countries don't give a shit about this either.

Seriously, if it's own neighbors can't, or won't do anything, why should we be expected too?

Why aren't Eastern Countries, many of who have just as good an economy to do something about it, giving a shit about this? China? Australia? Russia?

I didn't see China pledge much to help out Japan. The US did send a lot of relief to Haiti. Most of it wasted because the island nation is as corrupt as it is backwards and stone aged.

We can't even help our own people right now. And every time we have tried to help in Africa, we have gotten slapped by the locals and the global community. Plus, if America had this issue, I guarantee you that not a fuck would be given by African nations.
 
African countries don't give a shit about this either.

Seriously, if it's own neighbors can't, or won't do anything, why should we be expected too?

Are you serious? So because some poor countries who happen to be logistically closer to this catastrophe can't or just aren't doing anything, we shouldn't either? Where's the logic in that?

Why aren't Eastern Countries, many of who have just as good an economy to do something about it, giving a shit about this? China? Australia? Russia?

Australia is an Eastern country? :lol: :lol: :lol:

I didn't see China pledge much to help out Japan. The US did send a lot of relief to Haiti. Most of it wasted because the island nation is as corrupt as it is backwards and stone aged.

US sent relief to Haiti only to get their Levi's factories back up and running. Haiti itself is still in just as shit condition as it was the right after the earth quake.

And China did help Japan.

We can't even help our own people right now. And every time we have tried to help in Africa, we have gotten slapped by the locals and the global community. Plus, if America had this issue, I guarantee you that not a fuck would be given by African nations.

It's not like you need to sell off half the country in order to afford to help out. They are looking for 1 Billion dollars which I'm sure Western leaders could put together for this. Regardless if these people would do the same for us. That is not how we should benchmark ourselves. We know what is right, and that's what we should aim for regardless if it comes around full circle or not.
 
arguing semantics when there are children dying?

helen-lovejoy-pic.jpg
 
Fuck the starving kids, we gotta pretend like we're saving the environment with this failed ethonal stuff instead of using the corn for food or something crazy.
 
If China is an eastern country, and Japan is an eastern country, how is Australia not considered the same?

Have you really never heard of this before?

Europe was the first west, logistically. Then European countries settled countries in the "New World" (USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, etc). All of Europe and the countries they settled are know as the western world.
 
Fuck the starving kids, we gotta pretend like we're saving the environment with this failed ethonal stuff instead of using the corn for food or something crazy.

We have more corn that we know what to do with. And still tax dollars are being used to fund the production of more.
 
One billion to feed 600k? gonna take them all to outback steakhouse? Or is halliburton providing the food?

well, it's not like one meal is going to set them for life. think $5 day/child, it's 900 million for less than a year. plus the food has to actually be shipped and distributed so there's a lot of logistics and personnel costs that need to be factored in
 
Not to mention, almost all of it will be hijacked by local warlords and will never get to the people who actually need it. And NATO/UN forces are 100% powerless to do anything about it.