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July 28, 2005

Comments

Dear Brian,

I did not see the show on Niger. I have been following the coverage on BBC's website. At some point I had to turn away for the sake of my own sanity. I see an unbearably thin child and I see my own daughter - I can imagine all too easily what it must be like for their parents, watching their children waste away and not a goddamn thing they can do about it.

And more money isn't going to fix the problem. Like so many catastrophes, it's a complex issue. Politicians and the MSM don't see images of starving children as newsworthy - we've been turning our backs on our own starving people for so long that a whole population on the other side of the planet is hardly an issue.

Genocide by means of neglect.

I want a paradigm shift in this world, and I want it NOW. We have got to stop thinking in such narrow tracks. The children in Niger and Ethopia and Darfur and Rwanda are MY children, they are your children, and they are George Bush's children, too. But it's pretty clear to me that the ruling class here doesn't think that way.

It's our job to protest. It's our job to talk to other people and help them understand, if they can, that issues are global, not just national, and that simple solutions aren't going to work.

And it's our job not to shut our eyes and our hearts, no matter how often we're accused of being overly emotional and therefore irrational. Feeling is not necessarily mutually exclusive to thinking. You can, despite the myth, do both at the same time.

Plain and simple: Worry about ourselves (U.S.A)first. We (U.S.A)have enough to worry about. Screw Iraq, Africa, N.Korea; bring home our soldiers to protect us (U.S.A citizens)from those whom want to harm us.

Hi Brian, I totally agree with you. The only way we can help these neglected people is by doing something about their government!

All of the problems that have arrisen in Afica are because of other countries. slavery, debt, unfair trade... we caused all of these problems. and we're still causing more.
by sending food to the contenant, we are putting the African farmers out of business. who would buy goods grown near them when they can buy the same goods for half the price? The U.S.A and Europe need to send equipment and emergeny aid, but sending food all year round only does harm in the long run.
everybody in privalidged countries likes to think that they do their best to help people unfortunate enough to be born into these conditions, but how many of us would actually go there for a few months, spend time with the locals, do what they do- without taking along afew of our own luxuries.
people like to be idealistic, but the world is not perfect (and at this rate never will be).

P.S. i am fourteen years old and have a typically optamistic, teenage veiw of the world... but at least i know that what needs to happen just isn't.

Support a charity. you can donate as much or as little as you want to one of many chariteries:-
Oxfam
Save the children
Unicef
the choices are endless.
make a difference today.
you could help to save a child, a whole family.
reach for the stars and eventually you'll get there.

I'm a college student in Kansas. That's right. I live in the middle of no where and you know what I think of people who say screw the other nations? I think they are just being heartless. People talk all the time about world peace, but who does anything about it? No. World starvation is just another problem. I agree that this century and those past have the "don't-give-a-damn-'cause it's not me or my family" additude. It is SAD that people are so selfish. To be honest. I am ASHAMED because of people like that when they should really be the ones ashamed. Yes, the U.S. has problems, but who doesn't? This entire PLANET has problems from the richest person to the poorest.

I hate it when people use that as an excuse. So they have problems. BIG deal. There are millions of people who HELP and they have problems too. They somehow manage to scrape up the time, energy and money to GET things done. Too bad there are more people who procrastinate using those lame excuses then those who actually do something. Me, I participate in the 30 hr famine every year. I take time out of my busy schedule to go from door to door out in the country to ask people for donotations for the starving people. I also ring the bell for veterns every x-mas. I'm a FULL TIME college student who has to look after her grandfather, who has chores to do, friends and almost virtually no time to play around most days and SOMEHOW I manage to do my part in helping those in need. Everyone else who opens their mouth to say "I can't because..." is just making excuses.

It seems mankind as a whole is GREAT at making excuses. Reasons to do or not do something. I remember reading about a time when starvation wasn't because someone was poor, but because a whole village was suffering from the crops. Yeah, I'm talking about the times when America didn't even exist. Times where people truly cared for one another and didn't turn away strangers when they asked to work for a simple meal a day and a place to sleep. It's become clear that generation after generation has only gotten worse and worse as we start to become suspicious of others. A person can't even walk by an elementary school anymore without being suspected of being up to something devious. Honestly. What has this world come to where just WALKING in a neighborhood has become almost a crime? Pathetic... pathetic indeed.

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