Real World Event Discussions

If we spent some of the magical Bail-Out money feeding the hungry peeps of the planet, would making a better world buy us any street cred?

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Thursday, October 8, 2009 03:41
VIEWED: 7088
PAGE 6 of 13

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Friday, October 2, 2009 1:49 AM

GEEZER

Friday, October 2, 2009 2:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
“(Americans) are regularly told by politicians and the media, that America is the world's most generous nation..."

As usual, cites would be nice. Not only of the quote, but of the figures noted in the quote.

edit to add:

Quote:
You may have noticed that the context of every defense of capitalism is: well, if they weren't motivated by starvation they wouldn't work (for us).

While we're at it, a cite for this as "every defense of capitalism" would be nice.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

DREAMTROVE

Friday, October 2, 2009 3:05 AM

Quote:

There are hungry folks in parts of the EU, despite local surpluses, and the EU bans most GM food. The same EU politicians who did this would oppose distributing GM foods to the third world; both to be consistant with the EU ban and to avoid having to ban imports if the third world countries ever produced enough to export. If I were going to look for better crops for third world countries, I'd probably look at the hybrids developed over the last 30 years, which have a lot less opposition.

This is a flawed argument: Policy in the EU is set by an unofficial unelected council in Brussels, where there is no food shortage. Brussels loves creating crises in the far corners of its empire to cause nations to come crawling on their hands and knees to them.

Your other points are valid.

DREAMTROVE

Friday, October 2, 2009 3:06 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER has a point, whatever a gurgler is

KWICKO

Friday, October 2, 2009 3:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
As usual, cites would be nice. Not only of the quote, but of the figures noted in the quote.

Not my post, but a quick little look at the Googler brought up this Princeton study, whose results are roughly analogous to Rue's figures.

http://www.princeton.edu/~soapbox/vol2no4/24noveck.html#2

By the way, the Google keywords I used were just the first two sentences of Rue's quoted text. Enter it, hit enter, and voila! Easy as quiche, n'est-ce pas?

GINOBIFFARONI

Friday, October 2, 2009 3:33 AM

I wonder what the numbers would be like if you eliminated the aid to Israel...

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

KWICKO

Friday, October 2, 2009 4:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:
I wonder what the numbers would be like if you eliminated the aid to Israel...

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

Banish the thought! That was HUMANITARIAN AID!!!

How else do you explain sending them one TV dinner and 3400 metric tonnes of C4 with which to heat it up?

Mike

The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means;
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams

GEEZER

Friday, October 2, 2009 12:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Policy in the EU is set by an unofficial unelected council in Brussels, where there is no food shortage. Brussels loves creating crises in the far corners of its empire to cause nations to come crawling on their hands and knees to them.

Whether the EU really doesn't trust GM foods or just wants to lord it over the poor nations, the point remains that they have the hook of existing policy on which to hang their opposition to GM food for the Third World. Hybrid grains have been around for 40 years or so, since the Green Revolution, and are used everywhere in the EU. They'd be a much easier sell, or at least make it easier to expose the EU's imperial pretentions if they are acting as you say.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

GEEZER

Friday, October 2, 2009 1:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Not my post, but a quick little look at the Googler brought up this Princeton study, whose results are roughly analogous to Rue's figures.

http://www.princeton.edu/~soapbox/vol2no4/24noveck.html#2

By the way, the Google keywords I used were just the first two sentences of Rue's quoted text. Enter it, hit enter, and voila! Easy as quiche, n'est-ce pas?

Yeah, I know. Providing cites for the stuff you quote is just a courtesy to the folk reading your post. Googling often gives you the same text in 20 different reposts of the same article, making it time-consuming to find the original source, which can help provide context for the content. It's also nice to be able to go to the original article to see if quotes have been edited or taken out of context.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

DREAMTROVE

Friday, October 2, 2009 1:27 PM

I figure I have the EU's number at least as much as everyone has Israel's number. They're pretty fucking obvious about it.