Posted by Nickengland on September 3, 2005, at 7:30:51
In reply to Re: will anyone help?, posted by alexandra_k on September 2, 2005, at 16:03:20
Hi Alexandra,
I understand what you're saying...
I think off the top off my head there are 57 countries in Africa, some being poorer than others. Daily life out there in some of those countries throughout the year, given just an average day and anytime of the year, so you could consider this normal life for them ~ someone dies every 20 seconds of starvation.
The figures of that are absolutely massive. Especially if you look at one population of one of those 57 African countries which is about 144 million people. (thats well over double of the population of the UK) (and about 36 times more people than New Zealand!) Basically it gives you an idea of the scale upon how many people are dieing out in Africa daily.
By the time you finish reading this no doubtly some people in Africa would have died of starvation...
We also know that those countries in Africa, where there is no water, full of disease, no food, no doctors, and the biggest AIDS crisis in the world, are amongst the poorest countries world. They also have corrupt leaders in some of those countries, which in some respects can be considered as wicked a Saddam Hussien.
Speaking of Suddam Hussien, there is one thing those poor African countries do not have in common with the Middle East and that is Oil which does equate to the huge $ as Saudi Arabia is a pretty wealthy nation because of its oil.
You have to ask the question, would Bush have more of an interest in those poor African countries if there was oil there? vs his attention if there wasn't any in the middle east.
Anyway, so Africa puts up with what is truely shocking, on a daily basis but this is considered normal and they are the poorest people in the world, who when they go shopping for food, it might consist of waiting in a line for 10 hours to get bag of rice for their child, who if there is not enough food in the most extream circumstances, may die that day. But again, this could be considered normal-day-to-day living in one of those African countries.
On a similar level, of human suffering brought by this hurricane to those affected ~ the main difference here, is that it has not happened in one of the poorest contries in the world, it has happened in the worlds richest most powerful country of all.
You could ask a question of how much $ has the Iraq war cost the Americans to date, and so what would that figure be compared to how much it will take to repair the damage of this hurricane to the people and city and further more what is more important, from the cost of Mr Bush's money bank. Many questions and comparisons could be put forward.
Apparently if the Iraq war lasts five more years it will cost America nearly 1.4 Trillion dollars. (I just googled that out of curosity)
The human disaster of people losing their lives is the same whether it be in Africa or in America and people feel sorrow equally for those affected. The difference is the money available to rebuild the disaster. America is fortunate that it can afford to repair such a disaster, I think it can, if it can spend all that money in Iraq.
In the mean time of course people will donate from around the world to the people affected by this hurricane.
I did not know whether to write this post, as I don't want to come aross like i'm putting Americans down, with comparing what goes on in Africa to what has happened in New Orleans, but I thought and hope I have worded it okay.
I predict that America is fortunate enough to have enough money to be able to repair, over time, what has happened from this hurricane. Unfortnately what has been going on in Africa continues to rise and has been going on for many years.
Its sad that the world cannot pull together as whole, by that I mean the UK for example isnt a poor country and many of the other european countries are not. If they worked together with other parts of the world with the same force that others will be to get people back their luxuries from this hurricane, then Africa would not live in the state it does ~ unfortnately it has never had those luxuries to full back on.
At one point the United Kingdom (when it was one) owned 3 quarters of the worlds land surface, incuding some of those African countries. I could ask the question if we could manage to do that all those years back, why can't we stop the starvation in those African countries. How have some of over the 50 countries in Europe who have hundreds upon hundreds of years of civilised human history, let the African people below them get to the state they are in now?
Many questions, to which In the political world I guess sometimes you have to draw your own answers.
Wow that was a long post!
Kind regards
Nick
poster:Nickengland
thread:548858
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050728/msgs/550274.html