08.04.08
A Couple More Things on My Mind
Reading articles on the current world and local affairs have at times been a bit depressing to me. The facts that all these wars, starvation, and disease have been a continual part of our world since recorded history have often left me wondering if we are fighting a losing battle. King Solomon rightly wrote that, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It doesn’t take much reading of history to see that the cause of much wars and starvations and even diseases have been a result of greed and desire for control and power. Oftentimes those with any sort of power will take from those with less power be it through force or deceit. Many times those who lead wars gather their followers and supporters by preaching that they are fighting for a “good” cause such as to eliminate the oppression of the poor from their evil rulers. But when we look a bit more closely, we can see that those same “leaders,” if they are successful at reaching their goal, ends up much like the leader they originally set out to overthrow. As such, there have always been oppressors and those who have been oppressed since time immemorial.
Knowing that oppression will likely continue, I realize that regardless of whether we can see and end or not, the fact remains that there are people in need, and thus those of us who can, must just help when and where we can, no matter how small. I have often wondered why are the poor poor? So when I stumbled across a 60 Minutes segment on the distribution of “Plumpy’nut” to starving children in Niger, my curiosity was once again piqued as to “why” are there so many poor and starving people? Sure I’ve read and heard of many excuses or explanations of why they starve, etc., but I did find the discussion board below the 60 Minutes presentation very interesting. There were actually some very good points made in reply to some very commonly (and questionably, in my opinion) suggested solutions.
Some of the very common solutions we hear is that birth control should be enforced be it condoms or sterilization in those starving countries because they are just too overpopulated. Other people blame them for having too many babies, and that if they are not able to grow crops there, then they should move to where they can grow crops. Yet others complain that they need to be educated so that they can break the cycle of poverty, etc. But like some good people pointed out, who is to chose who can and cannot have children? And in cultures such as in farming communities, large families are considered a blessing as the more children there are, the more hands can help with farming the land. That is not a concept that is unique to Africa as it has also been accepted in parts of Europe and Asia throughout history. Other valid points raised were that when you can’t even afford food, how can you even think of purchasing condoms or worrying about birth control? Not to mention that many women are commonly raped even at very young ages. As far as moving, where can they go? One poster ridiculed the poor by stating something to the effect that, “What are those poor people thinking that they continue to live in a desert? They should just get up and move.” Well, people throughout centuries have lived very well in deserts. What do they think California is or Arizona or many other successfully populated cities are? People live in deserts. And besides that, where can they move to and be welcomed? Education? The point was raised that much effort to educate has been expended in Africa to teach farming techniques and even seeds have been given to start the crops. What has happened to that? Good question, and I did not see a clear answer to that, but rather speculations. Speculations such as corrupt governments seem to get involved such as lots of government aid gets confiscated by the military and used for their forces instead. For example grains and other food staples sent through government channels are confiscated by either their governments or rebel forces and either used by the military or sold for profit to by more guns and weapons. Thus much of the help intended for the poor never reach them and end up as a means to help arm the military. What that shows me is that non-government help is needed. Organizations who do not have government involvement would be more able to avoid pilfering from so called government departments and employees. There was even mention of planned famine or starvation as a means to control the people. The reasoning goes that people who are too busy trying to meet basic needs don’t have time to rebel against their leaders.
There were about 487 comments discussing Plumpy’nut and the starvation problem in Africa, and because of my very slow computer and lack of time, I wasn’t able to read the whole discussion. And certainly in one post, I’m not able to discuss all the points that I read. So I don’t know if it was covered or not, but one thing that I didn’t see addressed was the regular cycle of harvest and how there tends to be half of the year when starvation is greatest. Lean harvests and times of famine are not a new concept. Just take a look in the Bible and see that preparing for times of famine is a prudent move. Take a look in Chinese history and famine is commonplace. So what makes a difference? My “guess” is planning and development is lacking in those starving areas. For one, a good irrigation system and overall water supply system needs to be designed, built, and implemented. Los Angeles, a population of over 3 million in just the immediate city and 8 million in combined LA counties, would not be able to support the population if water is not managed and directed to flow into our cities. I wonder what the water management situation is like in those starving parts of Africa? And why don’t we hear about it? Who is managing it? Australia also has very dry climates and some very clever people there have devised special techniques to direct what little water they do get to water their crops by digging channels in certain ways that collect and direct the flow of any bit of water they get from the heavens. Why is that method not taught in drought prone areas in Africa? Or do we just not hear about it?
While I do appreciate that some good does come out of government assistance to the poor, I am discouraged by the corruption in governments and other organizations, which enrich themselves from stealing from what should go to the poor and needy. I have to admit, I have become a bit cynical at times, so when I read of other people who are making what I think may be real progress, I am encouraged and uplifted and inspired to blog about it. I read of two articles, one was actually in my local paper regarding a woman who has helped to raise about $1.4 million for the Jewish World Watch (JWW) project, who in turn have helped thousand of Darfurian refugee women and girls. Rachel Andres is the director of the Solar Cooker Project. Since the holocaust, there have been 30 genocides. When it was witnessed in Sudan, JWW was formed with a coalition of 60-area synagogues, according to Andres. Here’s a little excerpt from the article I read:
“About 250,000 Darfurian refugees have fled Sudan for Chad, where about 39,000 refugees live relatively safe in two camps. But women and girls, traditionally the wood gatherers, were being raped and beaten when they left to search for firewood to cook the family meals.
“Under Andres the project has grown to include two manufacturing plants distributing 15,000 cookers. Trips to collect wood (which had been disappearing at an alrming rate) have been cut by 86 percent.
“The project has also brought some financial stability to the region, where refugees are trained to make the cardboard-and foil portable cookers.”
Now, that article was inspiring to me. For more information on it, their website can be viewed at www.solarcookerproject.org
The second article that I found encouraging this morning was from MIT News. The article is called, “‘Major Discovery’ primed to unleash solar revolution.”
In light of our energy crisis I was encouraged when I read this article. I know that the electric car was already stomped out of regular use, but now with the oil crisis and pollution issues perhaps there might be a revival or reconsideration. As a boost with MIT’s new bit of news regarding clean, reliable, and inexpensive solar power, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to go off to war to wrestle more oil from other countries to support our lifestyles. It may still be a dream, but for the moment looks like it may be a reality one day soon. I much prefer this to the idea of solar energy to nuclear energy that I admit McCain scares me with his support for nuclear energy. Here’s a clip from MIT:
“Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
Okay, I think that’s enough of my rambling today. Off to try to make myself useful.
Marlakins
