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climate change
September 2009 
The Myth of Western "Aid".
Zet White
One military gunship costs the taxpayer over 15 million dollars. This is what the west sends to “problematic” countries. To give help.
I just realised that if all the money the US (et al.) have spent in a single war was collected and given to someone with an open mind and loving heart, the whole of Africa could be taken out of poverty in a few years time.
I don’t believe in the good intentions of western aid. It is more concerned with dumping the excess of its own production onto the third world, or plainly just making a profit. Excess food production and even GM crops are given as help, instead of tools and resources for poor countries to develop their own food production infrastructure. Medicines with questionable properties are given massively to people whom nobody will miss (in the west), instead of actually providing training, facilities and resources for those countries to develop their own medicines, doctors and healers. Multinational corporations are moving in to exploit the cheap local labour and taking all profit out of the country, rather than helping a development of the poor country’s own industry. And if they have their own industry, it will be bought and corrupted to once again exploit the population and produce cheaply so we can have a relatively comfy lifestyle here in the west. Even charities mostly donate food, clothes and medicines, fuelling the problem indirectly rather than dealing with the roots of it. Moreover, the west and the demilitarised east dump their weaponry onto third world countries, fuelling all those local wars and civil bloodshed. Go to any African country and find an armed faction: we sold them those Kalashnikovs, in return for that faction giving back to us their gold and diamonds for our shiny trinkets, amongst other stuff. And if the faction decides to stop giving, we just sell to the opposing faction, resulting in even more bloodshed.
We are such a greedy, ignorant, selfish race.
It’s a f*cking disgrace.
Access: Public
We are such a greedy, ignorant, selfish race.
As a whole, yes we are. The USA represents about 6% of the globl population and consumes about 20% of it's resources. We are a huge bad example for the rest of the world. We have an unquenchable thirst for everything and we waste oh so much.
4 billion out of the 6 billion people that live on Earth, live in poverty. That's the most horrible crime I can imagine. The remainder of my days on earth will be devoted to ending poverty and suffering where I find it. Anyone in the Zaadz community care to join me?
I think most people on Zaadz have already joined you on this, at least in some way. :)
While on the one hand I totally agree with you Zet - my sense is to keep remembering that companies, countries, aid organisations, charities etc are made up of individuals.
While I do suspect that many individuals are ruthlessly focused on profit and plunder – I'm not sure that it's possible to generalise or rather, I think it's not helpful to generalise. And I also feel it's helpful to recognize and include those organisations and people who are attempting to redress the 'wrongs' of western aid and so on ( eg micro lending ). Have you come across Kiva, for example? (or the Blessed Unrest video I put in a recent blog).
But back to the individual vs organisation — I once worked for a bank - the biggest bank in Canada. I was a website/intranet project manager for head office corporate communications. Now this was very strange 'job' for me as my family is socialist/activist and I am fundamentally an artist and all my life avoided 'proper' jobs.
Anyway: I assumed everyone in this bank was going to be the stereotype 'business person' - money/career orientated. Of course there were some like this, but many were not, many (including the CEO) were actively engaged in doing their best to support individuals and people in ways that were inconsistent with my 'idea' of big banking methods,
This experience made me realise not to assume that such organisations are driven by mindless cold hearted “Borg” like groups of people. And, yes, these organisations are part of a 'system' that has done much damage in the world imo.
It's a bit like all the consipiracy theories – while on the one hand I think there is something to be said for them – I suspect that the overall 'shape' of what is happening is not because groups of 'lizards' or whatever are getting together to take all the money in the world, but because of an incremental and minute and ongoing lack of awareness, honesty and personal reflection which we all participate in - to some level or another. So for me conspiracy theories are mythic – and very real for that: they speak to something that is apparent in the zeitgeist of humanity; and yet the more we speak to individuals, the more we bring our attention to ourselves in this picture, the more likely there will be 'change'.
Love,
Sandra
Yes Sandra, I agree with you here. This is why I posted like this, not exactly my style: to stress on this contrast of individual and structural. And yes, I know of Kiva, I'm a lender and applied to be a volunteer translator for Russian/Ukrainian (no reply yet). I think Kiva is a good idea. There are many good ideas. And good people.
I took a “global” picture here. The main problem, as I see, is us, humans, forgetting who we are. We don't see the big picture, so we are fooled. Fooled by our parents, by politicians and corporations, by the media. I am watching the parliamentary debates in Ukraine live and see that some people just lie. Blatantly and shamelessly. Yes they have their own agenda, but people buy this **** that is voiced. Almost half of the population voted for lies. And in the west, it's worse. There are more lies. It's become a usual thing to lie. Or to leave out the important bits. But people can't feel that. We can't KNOW that we hear a lie. It's a dream world, and this is disappointing. I know, for example, that people in the WHO are doing a great job, they are helping many people survive. Yet what I am noticing here is that the good is often strongly linked to what is profitable. Highly profitable to someone. This is often the case for major western initiatives.
The small, individual initiatives, are different. I believe the change in this world will grow (is growing) from the individual beginnings and initiatives, that are already growing.
And then we, overall, will stop being a greedy, ignorant, selfish race…
And no longer a disgrace from a general outlook.
It helps to be positive. We can help with spending our money with companies that are ethical, and not funding wars, don't invest with the greedy big companies or buy their goods, buy locally. and with companies you trust. Aid charities that do provide the poor with the means to educate and support themselves.