Hate to be a voice of negativity BUT.....

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Excluding your immediate family?

I love how a mod is allowed to launch personal attacks against posters. It's so professional and mature. Especially when all I did was talk about the UN...

 

[Red Dawn]

Exactly right. I love how people complain about the U.S. when in fact Americans are the most compassionate generous nation on Earth, and usually the first to provide aid, rescue relief, and help during worldwide disasters. On top of that, watch how much Americans will donate to charities for Haiti.

Perhaps going forward, we should not donate a dime to anything other than our own country for a year or two. That might teach all the ingrates out there who take our country for granted to appreciate the U.S. a little bit more.

So are you suggesting that we do nothing to help releave the suffering in Haiti caused by the quake?

 

[feralkid]

I love how a mod is allowed to launch personal attacks against posters. It's so professional and mature. Especially when all I did was talk about the UN...

Waaaaaah! I sprayed an entire thread with demagoguery and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!

 

[theevilsharpie]

Come on...this one is easy. The UN! It's nothing but a cabal of brutal dictatorships and corrupt bureaucracies scheming up ways to steal more from the "evil and unfairly wealthy" US.

Never has there been a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The UN is simply a diplomatic organization composed of various nations, with Western nations like the US being by far the most influential. If the UN is not achieving its goals, we are partly to blame.

With that said, I was not referring to aid organizations like the UN. Do you have any examples of nations receiving foreign aid that have not expressed (legitimate) gratitude?

 

[daishi5]

Oh, what I meant was that for the wealthy nations giving a small amount more to them, it has a big benefit for the poor. Many don't realize that and tune out the issue as a 'bottomless pit'.

I posted this just a few days ago in response to one of your posts, but maybe you missed it

Michael Clemens, Steven Radelet, Rikhil Bhavnani from the Center for Global Development found that when aid is over 8% of a countries total GDP it is harmful to that countries economic growth.

We are above that level on the average in most "thirld world" countries. There are several other studies that find no long term benefit of aid if you would like them. I doubt there is no long term benefit, but at the same time, I think every study found that short term, aid works. Haiti is a good form of short term aid, and an outpouring of aid should help.

 

[rudder]

The amount of suffering that goes on in the world DAILY in Africa, South East Asia, South America, and elsewhere make disasters like this seem small. I'm not trying to play down the horrors that are going on in Haiti here. 25,000 people die on average every day world wide due to hunger and many more due to other disease and neglect. If Haiti's death toll reaches 100,000 that's equal to only 5 DAYS of average deaths due to hunger.

The global need is so staggering but the solutions are so cheap and affective on a per capita basis that it's mind numbing that people (especially the rich) aren't willing to do more on a consistent basis. We are talking about dollars and pennis a day to save peoples lives.

Haiti is impoverished likely because of the Duvaliers that looted and ruled Haiti with an iron thumb for decades. The one thing the OP does not consider is the governments in charge of the populations that are suffering. Any aid is likely to go to those governments rather than the people. Remember Myanmar? The suffered a horrible typhoon and the ruling junta used much of the aid for themselves. Somalia? thousands starve. How do you get aid to them? There is no government. Short of invading them and building a new government what do you propose we do?

 

[K1052]

Haiti is impoverished likely because of the Duvaliers that looted and ruled Haiti with an iron thumb for decades. The one thing the OP does not consider is the governments in charge of the populations that are suffering. Any aid is likely to go to those governments rather than the people. Remember Myanmar? The suffered a horrible typhoon and the ruling junta used much of the aid for themselves. Somalia? thousands starve. How do you get aid to them? There is no government. Short of invading them and building a new government what do you propose we do?

Somebody else in the thread suggested that we forcibly annex Haiti. Maybe that isn't such a terrible idea. We've been pouring aid into the place for decades with no result, we have had to intervene numerous times militarily already, and the native government is beyond corrupt.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I love how a mod is allowed to launch personal attacks against posters. It's so professional and mature. Especially when all I did was talk about the UN...

You know what your an arrogant fool!!!
Red Dawn was NOT posting as a Mod...you just screwed the pooch dude!!

 

[Locut0s]

You know what your an arrogant fool!!!
Red Dawn was NOT posting as a Mod...you just screwed the pooch dude!!

True. Rules are a mod can't get involved in a thread that he/she decides to moderate.

 

[Carmen813]

Failed states like Haiti didn't end up that way by accident. Decades of dictatorships and violent power struggles have scared away any sort of foreign investment, and general social and political instability have prevented domestic industry from forming in any significant capacity. The US along with many other nations give generous amounts of aid to Haiti, so much so that foreign aid makes up most of Haiti's income.

It's funny that you bemoan the US's military spending when discussing Haiti. Since the current circumstances in Haiti (especially after the earthquake) prevent the Haitian people from forming a functional government, the most humane course of action that I can think of would be to overthrow what's left of their government/military and govern it as a US territory. The stability of US governance would open the door to foreign investment and would give the Haitian people the opportunities they need to lift themselves out of abject poverty.

While we're at it we should conquer Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. After all, Americans know best right?

 

[MotF Bane]

While we're at it we should conquer Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. After all, Americans know best right?

 

[theevilsharpie]

While we're at it we should conquer Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. After all, Americans know best right?

 

[spacejamz]

Doing something about the horrible global suffering of poverty, the wealthy nations giving a small amount that is a huge benefit. Hear, hear.

yup...donating money so that it (or supplies/food/water/etc bought with it) can be stolen by one of the most corrupt governments on earth for its own benefit while their OWN people continue to suffer horribly is a noble cause...

isn't that against your mantra of the wealthy continuing to oppress the poor???

 

[boomerang]

While we're at it we should conquer Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. After all, Americans know best right?

What's your plan for Haiti?

What form of help for Haiti will soothe your liberal sensitivities?