"That the problem with Africa is Africans and that aid won't cure it is a truth that almost everyone skates around. One Compassionate Irish columnist has finally had enough of the prevarications, however, and has spoken out." Hibernia Girl
I have a rather dicey editorial I would like you to read and I would enjoy and encourage your comments.
The writer is Kevin Myers, a well published Irish journalist, currently writing for the Irish Independent. Kevin talks about his experiences in Africa and his thoughts of Africa's future. Kevin is well traveled in Africa, including trips during the famine years in the 80'tys when Bob Geldof was active with the Feed The World campaign. The population of Ethiopia has doubled because of that effort,, and they are still starving. And that is what Kevin talks about...
Kevin's ideas about World population growth are real, they need vocalization. It's a problem we need to get the World to address, because population growth is not just an isolated African problem. Pick any news source in the world and read about immigration "reform" and social welfare..
Warning: The topic(s) as discussed by Kevin may be offensive to those with: Conservative Religious Convictions, Left Leaning Socialist Ideologies, and most anyone with who think their fellow man is not the problem. The rest of us can start to contemplate the inevitable..
Comment: I did not "correct" any of the European spelling.
From Kevin's wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Myers
STYLE: Myers' Irish Times articles were often in contrast to its editorial
position, which led to some conflict with his editors. In early January
2005, the Irish Times refused to publish a column in which he accused the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) of responsibility for the Northern
Bank robbery. The column was later published by the Daily Telegraph. He
often advocates support for the United States, though he is sometimes
critical of the foreign policies of the Bush administration. He ultimately
endorsed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has praised George W. Bush, but has
also described him as 'mad'. He is frequently critical of anti-war
activists. Myers is skeptical of the viability of multiculturalism and
favours limits on immigration to prevent the growth of racial tension in
Ireland. He has criticised the Catholic Church in many pieces, and favours
the legalisation of prostitution. In recent articles he has been critical of
Islamic fundamentalism and extremism. In his journalism Myers has opposed
the classification of Travellers as an ethnic minority, and has opposed
feminist philosophy and the role of trade unions in setting economic policy.
He has written against the compensation culture and has opposed state
policies towards the Irish language.
Africa is giving nothing to anyone -- apart from AIDS, By Kevin Myers,
Thursday, July 24, 2008
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/co...s-1430428.html
No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action
to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl
for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years
since Ethiopia's (and Bob Geldof's) famous Feed The World campaign, and in
that time Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million
today.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic
demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be
sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count. One is my
conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed
child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again,
captures the tragedy of . . . Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory
on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like
most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation
there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a
priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes
him.
There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory
and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what
it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like
this. It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of,
well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never
fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and
its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men
in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men
whom I admire enormously. So be it.
But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of
our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison.
Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over
the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck
and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia's has more than doubled.
Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over
the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting,
khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts. Indeed, we
now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with
tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside
world.
This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense.
Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president
of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water
on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless
to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic
wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.
Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way
that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China,
Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th
century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of
Africa. They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or
investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush
pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.
Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing
catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia
will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today,
but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the
Great Rift Valley.
So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult
population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally
devastated and economically dependent country? How much morality is there in
saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life
of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse,
resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably
jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better,
which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has
sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed. It
prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring
Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost
complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the
most efficacious forms of population-control now operating. If his programme
is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in
infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts. Oh good: then what?I know. Let
them all come here. Yes, that's an idea.
Threaded Mode
