A Very Sad Story (and Thread)

[Nelson Atwell]

This makes our little problems seem pretty petty.

 

[EddieS'04]

It is sad and teribly wrong. Africa is a nation with massive natural resources. Why does this have to happen.Very few of Those in control of their nations have no heart for their own people.

I still have problem with pumping the money and recsource into some areas that never reach those in need.

I still remember Somalia. Those we were trying to help kicked our A$$!!!:angry:

 

[Robert Barker]

Yeah it is VERY frustrating to see our Tax dollars end up in the hands of the greedy when we really just want to help the needy.



Trac N Tennessee

 

[Don Edwards]

Bad governments continue to receive money from countries and none of it gets to the real people that need it.



Don

 

[Thomas Rogers]

A young girl in our church did missions work in Haiti for 2 years. Her job was a project manager, going from town to town to help build wells. She had no formal training in this type of work, but was more than qualified to do it when compared to the local populus.



She said that unless an armed, military escort would accompany donated food and clothing supplies from the airport to the remote towns, you could rest assure the donated items would be stolen along the way.



That is, the items that didn't get taken off the top from the corrupt govt officials at the airport.



TJR

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Geez, I guess I TOTALLY missed the point of this article. Thanks for educating me. :blink:

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Some days, when I feel frustrated, or angry because I could not go somewhere or buy something, I think about those that have much less than I do, those that are confined to a wheelchair or o hospital bed, or lost their vision or the use of a body part, and I kick myself because I should be counting my blessings instead.



I'm not diminishing any of those persons, and I know they're braver than I am by facing adversity, as I said I do reflect on what I have and how can one be misled to think we're unhappy...



Drink wine, it's what remains of the harvest of youth -

the season of roses and wine and drunken friends.

Be happy for a moment, that moment's your life.

-- Omar Khayyam

 

[Johnny O]

Freedom, private property rights, and fair legal systems will go a long way to solving a lot of the third world's problems.

 

[Gypsy me]

it always goes back to politics ...doesnt' it...:huh:

 

[Nelson Atwell]

...and here I thought the news story was trying to open people's eyes to the problem of hunger in Niger, and how the rich nations were turning a blind eye as over 100,000 people starve to death for lack of food in the World's second poorest country.



I guess I understand the problem a little more now. It isn't actually only the Governments of these rich nations that don't care, but also the people.



I find it odd that people opened their checkbooks to help out the tsunami victims in nations much richer than Niger last year, and then this year the same people don't even care that even more people are dying of starvation.



By the way, Africa is not a country -- it is a continent. Read some of the sad facts about Niger's lack of resources at the link below.

 

[Johnny O]

I mean no offense, but the western world has been throwing money and food at the third world since the end of WWII, and the same problems are still there. I think it's a structure problem within those nations and not simply a matter of us not giving them enough stuff.

If I thought sending some food and such over there to help them out for a year or two with a drought would help, I'd say go for it. But, their problems run much deeper.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I agree. This is probably one of the most important facts from the CIA factbook on Niger:



Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 17.6%

male: 25.8%

female: 9.7% (2003 est.)



With education, they may be able to figure out their own solutions to their problems, but right now they are more concerned about their next meal. The government, with it's $300 million annual budget (half of this is donated from other organizations) cannot hope to set up enough schools to educate its population, so this will probably go on for at least another generation.