In article
<5fea22ea-53e6-4639-b2cc-a0d8240c40e7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
beebs <dbbeeebs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On May 6, 1:43 pm, Enough Already <enough_alre...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > Why is food getting more expensive and causing new hunger crises?
> > Because oil demand is exceeding supply and was foolishly taken for
> > granted as part of the global trans****t system.
> snip
> > http://enough_already.tripod.com/
>
> The world is dumping billions of dollars
> into "food aid" which does nothing but
> make it impossible for local farmers to
> compete in the marketplace.
Exactly. Good to see others recognizing this.
For example, when international aid started arriving in large amounts
in Somalia in the mid-90s, the "free grain" wiped out local farmers.
Their farms were unsustainable with the "competition" and were
abandoned. Then the farms just dried up and blew away. (And a lot of
the unemployed farmers just joined gangs, as a way to survive. Driving
around in a Toyota truck stealing to survive beats dying of
starvation.)
Anytime the First World gives subsidized food, computers, whatever to
Third Worlders, it undercuts local progress. The Third Worlders then
become dependent on handouts.
Like feeding pigeons.
Even worse than the situation in Somalia is the situation in Darfur,
where all the liberals cluck that the First World must do even _more_.
Well, we already wrecked the Darfur economy. The First World set up
food distribution centers and alerted the population to "Come and get
it!"
Peasants from 200 miles away heard the ringing of the dinner bell and
packed up their children and what they could carry and headed for the
free food. And the farms they left behind just dried up and turned to
dust.
Now a few hundred thousand peasants are living in refugee camps,
getting their U.N./George Clooney/Sean Penn daily cups of rice and
milk.
Guess what? Their farms are now essentially lost (it would take much
money to get them restarted...the crops are gone, the irrigation has
broken down, etc.).
Thirty years from now there are going to be 3 times as many permanent
refugees living in these squalid handout camps. Just as with the
Palestinians in permanent refugee camps, 60 years later.
And the liberals will be screaming that tax rates in Europe and the
U.S. need to be raised still higher so that more food aid can be sent
to Africa.
Which will only make things worse.
Time to just let the burnoff of useless eaters happen.
--Tim May
--Tim May
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