[FlyersFan2009]

While I feel charities are noble and serve a valuable purpose, I'm left feeling uncertain why the world should free a country of debt and continue to pour money into it when they can't even control the following:

1. How aid money is accounted for and spent
2. Spread of disease
3. Government corruption
4. Control of sexual crimes against children

Yet we have people like Bono and Bob Geldoff using pressure and guilt to help this continent and the countries within in.

I'm not trying to sound callus but what the heck, read the article I've attached and you'll learn that children are sexually active at age 10. Yet, the world is responsible to this????

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20050710123619850C495299

[Jeep 2C]

Poverty will never be wiped out... ever.

That isn't to say that we shouldn't work towards helping other less fortunate, but anyone who thinks we will wipe poverty out in our lifetime (as Bono & Geldoff have stated) are complete morons.

[01grander]

Economists will almost always agree that giving them money is a bad idea, only temp good effects. What was it.....give them food theyll eat for a month tell the how to farm and theyll be fed for life or something like that. Everyone hates the US taking over diff countries but a lot of those governments are corrupt and will never help them and if not the US someone should step in. Poverty will never be gone and i HATE those artists that are doing that campain (DMB) b/c its pointless.

[CoriolisSTORM]

I had a cousin that just got back from over there, and the nuts ran onto the bus and demanded money. What the heck? I thought they were over there to help you guys, so why are you DEMANDING anything from them? Poverty will never be wiped out. I've been to Honduras (Central America) to help out as much as I can, and well, the girls by the time they are twelve have had a few babies and the like. Down there, the men find a woman they like, have a baby by her and then leave to find another woman. And sadly, most of the women have no idea that a baby comes from having sex.

[wm69]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html

[01grander]

Its time someone did something though b/c the way AIDs is spreading over there its begining to effect us and will become a global concern. I dont give a darn once that happens we need to get these people under control. I know people will hate the idea but im not wanting to risk future generations just to be nice to other people. Everyone needs to know that once something that was a right starts effecting other people it isnt your right anymore and i would expect the same standard here as well as any other country.

[wm69]

Originally Posted by 01grander

Its time someone did something though b/c the way AIDs is spreading over there its begining to effect us and will become a global concern. I dont give a darn once that happens we need to get these people under control. I know people will hate the idea but im not wanting to risk future generations just to be nice to other people. Everyone needs to know that once something that was a right starts effecting other people it isnt your right anymore and i would expect the same standard here as well as any other country.

Read my link in the post above yours. This guy is FROM Africa and says the AIDS epidemic is WAY overstated. As far as I'm concerned, if you get AIDS by having unprotected sex it's your own fault. I'm tired of seeing my tax dollars pay to treat these people with self-inflicted medical problems.

[Windsor]

I'd love to hear Daniel Carver's opinion of all of this.

[Jeep 2C]

Originally Posted by wm69

Read my link in the post above yours. This guy is FROM Africa and says the AIDS epidemic is WAY overstated. As far as I'm concerned, if you get AIDS by having unprotected sex it's your own fault. I'm tired of seeing my tax dollars pay to treat these people with self-inflicted medical problems.

I was going to post that article too.

We've all heard the new tag line (courtesy of Bono)... "poverty in Africa can be wiped out in our generation".

While I personally believe that statement is pure crap, unsupported by any economics, completely unsupported by history, and will never happen, I'd like to see some other opinions on this. If statements like that are what Bono had hoped to accomplish if he were running the World Bank, it's plainly clear that he is well underqualified for the position.

Basically, giving aid to Africans removes any reason/ability they once had to support themselves. It destroys their farming, their manufacturing, and any other industry they had going. How can a farming region emerge when free food is being delivered? How can infrastructure be desired when it's presence signifies the government will soon do without it's largest source of income?

In my opinion, if we want to help Africa we would fairly drastically cut aid to the continent. Use the aid we stop distributing to help forgive the debt that is crippling any future growth, and where possible forgive the debt all together. We could help to spur infrastructure by providing intrest free loans (or perhaps grants) to developers with requirements on their employment and production.

I've lost the figure, but since the 1980s Africa has recieved somewhere around $400 Billion in aid. With all that aid dispensed, things have only worsened. Their political situation is lightyears worse, and any chance the people would have to support themselves is smashed by handouts.

Aside from actually having Africa learn to support itself, the only other option to even begin to change the country is to implement complete communism and split all aid evenly between all peoples there.

While that solves the problem of 'poverty' (or at least makes everyone there equally as poor) it does nothing to improve anything other than eating habits.

[chris_doing]

Originally Posted by Jeep 2C

IWe've all heard the new tag line (courtesy of Bono)... "poverty in Africa can be wiped out in our generation".

A real noble cause but I can think of poverty in places much closer to home that I would rather see wiped out before we go solving the woes of other nations.

[scottcha]

Originally Posted by Jon Kopczyk

While I feel charities are noble and serve a valuable purpose, I'm left feeling uncertain why the world should free a country of debt and continue to pour money into it when they can't even control the following:

1. How aid money is accounted for and spent
2. Spread of disease
3. Government corruption
4. Control of sexual crimes against children

]

Don't forget the genocides, a few different ones. The white (European-Africans) genocide is South Africa since the apartheid government was disbanded and a subsequent famine due to lack of agricultural skills. And the black (African-Africans) geocides in Sudan and also in the Congo.

[Rob99]

If I'm poor and homeless and I owe you $100 and you say, forget the $100 don't worry about it. I'm still poor and homeless.....

[scottcha]

Originally Posted by Rob99

If I'm poor and homeless and I owe you $100 and you say, forget the $100 don't worry about it. I'm still poor and homeless.....

But at least you are out of debt, look on the bright side.

[DrunkPenguin]

The government over there is causing all the poverty, not the people. Can you really blame them for acting the way they do? Imagine living in their world, never knowing where your next meal will come from, if it even comes at all. When someone becomes hungry long enough they get desperate and desperate people make bad choices. Nobody in the U.S. can understand what those people are going through as even the homeless here have it made compared to them. I think people should help other people. If your neighbors kids were starving wouldn't you try to help them out? Why should it be any different becaus Africa is further away?




John

[01grander]

BECUASE AID DOESNT HELP! It is simply putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. Sure it helps temp but im sick and tired of my money taken from me to help people that arent changing and their situation wont improve under these conditions. Ask any economist and they will likely tell you the same thing. What they really need is a new government run by the people like a democracy. As much as people hate the US pushing their form of government, its a lot better than dictators doing what they want so that they can get money for themselves. At least w/ a dem the people can play some role and have a say in their future.