Every so often some body tries to shame the rich countries into sending money or food to those in need
Now maybe it is just me, but isn't sending money or food to those in need a bit like sending money down a rat hole
The same people appear on our TV, swollen bellies and hunger written all over their face
Does sending money to these people solve any thing???
I am tired of trying to solve some body else's problem They have to do some thing for them selves
A goggle search shows a large portion of Africa suitable for food production. Crops, animals, sheep goats would fill an empty belly
Until they get a stable gov't nothing we will ever do will solve their problem
Sorry I am a bit tired of seeing the same people on my TV
I forgot to add this to the above post
When the blacks kicked the white farmers off their land, the blacks claimed they were there 1st so the white's had to go. This happened in south africa
Well this region used to export a small amount of crop
Today they can barely even feed them selves with the black folks doing the management. At times they are food deficit
Some thing changed, do we send them money for food???
South Africa imports rice and pasta
Why can't they feed them selves???
Today they still don't have food security after kicking the white farmers off the land
Wayne,
You bring up more wonderful, profound topics here than anyone. This is greatly appreciated. I'm not just saying that to be nice, you REALLY do bring up more excellent stuff than everyone combined almost, so you must be feeling well again. Some of your stuff is out of the blue...........like this one but can turn into a wonderful discussion and let me tell you Wayne, it's a big blast of fresh air compared to bitching and moaning about the same political stuff, directed at the same political targets, so I'm going to try to expand on it with several elements here.
Everybody is welcome to join in.
I only have a few moments to get started here. Initially, when reading your posts, one would get the impression that you are calloused and racist. However, there some very relevant non racist, non self centered, strong points that can be discussed here.
This is one:
Is "poverty porn" making a comeback?
That's the term that some people used back in the 1980s to describe attention-grabbing fundraising ads like the one on the right:
This ad from the U.K. charity Disasters Emergency Committee for its East African Emergency was part of a campaign that brought in $23 million between 1980 and 1984 for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Back then, the media were filled with images of starving African children in desperate need of food, seemingly all alone in the world. And folks in the West were invited to save them from their misery.
This kind of appeal worked. The ad at right was part of the East African Emergency Campaign run by the U.K. charity Disasters Emergency Committee. Between 1980 and 1984, the campaign brought in $23 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
But not everyone thought these kinds of images were appropriate.
"People in developing countries are not incapable or passively awaiting rescue," says Jennifer Lentfer, director of communications at IDEX, a San Francisco-based international grant-maker, and a former lecturer on global development communications at Georgetown University. "Poverty, conflict, disasters, injustice is heartbreaking, but it doesn't mean people are victims."
By the end of the decade, the arguments against such images won the day. Nonprofits began using more positive images of the poor to tell stories.
But some observers in the global development community believe exploitative photos of the poor are creeping back as a way to boost fundraising efforts.
John Hilary, executive director of the anti-poverty organization War on Want, described the return of "poverty porn" in a 2014 article for The New International.
"Recent years have witnessed the return of the starving black child as a stock image in the fundraising communications of far too many ad agencies," he wrote. "A battle which we thought had been won many years ago clearly needs to be fought afresh."
The phrase even popped up Tuesday night on the new cable TV show Adam Ruins Everything. In a discussion of what motivates people to give to global causes, Teddy Ruge, a Ugandan-born writer who works to develop new businesses in Africa, defined poverty porn as "[finding] the most extreme situations and [making] it look like the most common situation on the continent."
I grew up in a middle class house in Detroit with a very successful Dad, industrial engineer who was committed to making the world a better place.
He had a nice income but was one of the least NON materialistic people around (I'm the least materialistic of anyone I know).
He grew up in the Irish ghetto of Detroit in the 20s/30s/40's on welfare part of the time and never met his Dad. He understood what it was like to have nothing. He applied himself so that he could obtain everything for his family-wife and 6 kids but also wanted to share some of it with the poor and set an example for his kids to be that way.
He financially adopted a family from another country and donated XXX dollars a month and would get pictures/letters back that he would post on a bulletin board for us to see of the actual people the money was going to. It made us feel very connected to real people...........not just the repetitive commercials on tv being used as "poverty porn" discussed in the article above.
Both our mom and dad spoke to us frequently about the need to help people less fortunate than ourselves.
My mom was sort of a recluse but one time when she was out and encountered a bag lady with no shoes, she took the shoes off her feet and gave them to her. She lost both her parents as a young child and also grew up extremely poor, raised by her older siblings. It was extremely rough on her but she totally understood the suffering of poverty and was on board with teaching us charity to the less fortunate.
How did this affect us as adults? Here's a great example.
I have 3 sisters, the oldest one is Patti. After graduating from Michigan State University, she signed up with the Peace Corps and was shipped out to the Marshall Islands to work with people that didn't even speak English. This is where she met her husband, Mark who was also in the Peace Corp. I'll show you what she did on the next page.
We never officially said "yes" to taking in a boy from Kenya, but had promised to pray about it. One thing led to another and in the end, many lives were changed.
Calvin’s coming to us was an amazing answer to his seemingly impossible prayer. Years earlier, he had read a book about a boy who left Kenya to go to school in the United States. ”Maybe I could go there someday,” he dreamed and prayed, “Dear God, please let me go to the United States.”
Here's another thread that I mentioned Patti in that I was just now grabbed from the search engine and became fascinated with the discussion and had to share it.
CNN was making a case that blacks were not wearing masks because it would cause them to be racially profiled.
More blacks dying from Coronavirus
Started by metmike - April 7, 2020, 9:06 p.m.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/50189/
Here's another one............can you tell that I'm proud of and admire her for doing this?
Peace Corps....this day in history:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/48403/
This is the best one of all:
Slavery reparations
18 responses |
Started by metmike - June 19, 2019, 9:02 p.m.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/32880/
When I go back to retrieve this stuff, which is often, it makes me appreciate that I've learned more as moderator in the last 3.5 years about more things than I have in any one entire decade of my life.....by a wide margin and its from guys like you, Wayne bringing up topics like this................ok, back to the original topic on the next page. The grand kids are here so it will be later today.
That's really what this site is intended to be about.
LEARNING NEW THINGS!!!
Especially with an open mind.
Back to the original topic.
We are all familiar with the many advertisements that we know are mostly bs for various products.
They work of course, so the billions of dollars spent every year pays dividends with sales.
The same thing applies to advertising for donations to help charities. We see the same commercials with the same people, saying the same thing and because we don't trust any advertisements on tv, we think/know they too are bs.
How much of the money actually goes to the people suffering on the screen?
Maybe some of them have been dead for awhile? How would we know?
They did some commercial spots making a compelling case to get peoples money and will play them to death if they work.
They also do whats called "spot advertising"
This is where they play only a certain type of commercial during programs that a certain kind of people watch who would also be interested in that product.
They would not show a panty hose commercial during a football game for instance. Beer would be a better product in that case.
So they are really trying to use tricks to get your money. When it comes to charities or to help less fortunate people, it gets tricky with the tricks.
I'm not an authority on it but there could be some similar dishonesty to regular commercials trying to get your money. The money you sent, is not really going to that person/people that you see but how much goes where and to who? How much goes to pay for the commercial and to people who work for the charity and other sources instead of the starving people? Is it a racket?
How to tell if the charity is a good one or not?
You can look it up on the internet and find out.
This is a list of many charities with ratings. Since the worst one is B+, then it appears they all get good grades. The A+ charities are really outstanding.
Top-Rated Charities
https://www.charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities
Groups included on the CharityWatch Top-Rated list generally spend 75% or more of their budgets on programs, spend $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, do not hold excessive assets in reserve, have met CharityWatch's governance benchmarks, and receive "open-book" status for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to CharityWatch. Please see the Our Process page of the website for more information on the rating criteria and methodology that CharityWatch adheres to.
Because many factors determine a worthy charity, we at CharityWatch suggest that you use the ratings on this page not as the sole determining factor in your decision, but rather as an aid.
This list is subject to change depending on the information CharityWatch receives concerning charitable organizations.
https://labyrinthinc.com/five-ways-to-tell-if-a-charity-is-legitimate/
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/charity.html
Donating to charity is a noble thing to do, but be sure you do your research before you donate your hard-earned money. Looking into the organization and using good judgment will help give you peace of mind that your donation is going towards a good cause.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-to-tell-if-a-charity-_b_9806518
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/before-giving-to-charity
With regards to another point that you made Wayne.
Why can't these people in a country like Africa, just be like Wayne and grow their own food?
Because they are all lazy and dumb and are counting on charities and tv commercials like the ones irritating you to trick rich people into sending a bunch of money to them so that they don't have to work (-:
Do you actually know what their situation is in those poor countries?
It's extremely complicated but they have not been blessed with the wonderful combinations of ideal elements which you and me enjoy......being born into opportunities surrounding us and providing hundreds of choices for us to go down rewarding paths on the way to reaching success.
When my sister Patti brought over her 2 adopted Aids orphans from Kenya, the oldest one, Calvin graduated from medical school and has been a doctor for over a decade.
The younger one, Joash is in the Marines.
If they stayed in Kenya, they would have had horrible lives, lacking in many necessaries and very little education.
Here are some articles explaining something that I'm no authority on:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/28/why-africa-so-poor-google
I can tell you that a country that lacks water is going to have major issues growing crops and in other areas.
Looking at the map below makes it crystal clear why Africa can never be self sufficient in most of the country with regards to agriculture. Almost none of the country has enough water.
There are over 1 billion people on the planet that don't have enough water every day just for drinking, bathing and other needs.........let alone growing crops which requires a minimal amount of rain.
https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml
According to your map South Africa and Southern CA and Mexico are about equal in water availability
Southern Africa is food deficit
Mexico and Southern CA manage to survive, in fact Ca and Mexico has many times more people than Canada to support
Why can't Southern Africa be self sustaining in food production
The used to export grain crops when the white farmers produced the food
Today they import food, now that the blacks run the farms
Same opportunity, same soil, same rain fall
Thanks Wayne.
What do you think the reason is?.... since I suspect that your question is actually a rhetorical one(meaning that you know the answer)
So that I can properly address it.
Africa is a big country
In fact a google search showed me africa has 400 million hectares of arable land. That means arable as in food production. Grain sheep, goats etc
The whole country is not desert. The whole country can not produce food. But the fact is the USA has some very arid parts also. Canada and Mexico have crop failures as does much of the USA. And yet NA produces a surplus
Now just a rough calculation 400 hectares x 2.2 -= 880 million acres
That is pretty darn close to the food producing area of the USA
In other words the USA manages it's arable land to produce a surplus of food
Why can't Africa do the same
NA has adapted to climate soil etc and grow what will grow. Sheep graze around the rocks and less than 5 " of rain
Colorado is rain deficient but grow crops, animals
B.C in Canada produces lumber as does the same southern part of the USA
Don't tell me africa could not do the same if they got their act together. They may not have the same amount of lumber but Africa is rich in minerals such as diamonds etc.
Food aid is so much easier
Africa waits on food aid
How many villages attempt to dig a well
Somebody from NA comes along as says: let's try digging for water. Golly, some times you found water, enough for the whole village
A lot of wells were dug by hand by the early western settlers, with just the immediate family providing the labour, for a small food plot of ground. Then the wells started to become more numerous to support cattle and sheep, further away from the home stead
If you look at the population of NA, by and large the amount of water available is what supports the population. Southern CA is having problems but that isn't the entire USA
My grand mother told the story
The good Lord helps those who help themselves.
What about South Africa?
"Now just a rough calculation 400 hectares x 2.2 -= 880 million acres
That is pretty darn close to the food producing area of the USA
In other words the USA manages it's arable land to produce a surplus of food
Why can't Africa do the same"
So your belief, Wayne is that all they would need to do is dig wells like people in NA do?
Let me show you that water map again Wayne.
Not sure how you are making these assumptions about water, comparing North America to Africa.
Maybe you color blind?
More than likely you just got the idea in your head previously and are convinced thats the way it is and are not really getting the information which the map is intended to display.
Let me help you out some more.
The "little or no water scarcity" color, covers all of Canada and all of the US, except the Southwest covers 0% of Africa.
The "economic water scarcity" dark blue that covers most of Africa.......covers 0% of North America.
The US/Canada did not eliminate all of the dark blue economic water scarcity by digging wells.
We have a massive Ogallala aquifer in the Plains of course and some great rivers in the West/Southwest.
However, last time that I checked, Arizona was not one of the top corn and soybean producing states.
The weather and soils and water availability(rivers/lakes/aquifers) in the North America are the best in the world by an extremely wide margin and Africa has massive areas with the worst in the world conditions.
https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/why-are-africas-wells-failing/
With regards to South Africa, maybe you are thinking their weather and water and soils are much better than they really are.
We live in the Garden of Paradise for weather, water and soils on this planet Wayne and you just don't realize/appreciate that.
Brazil, Europe and China have some pretty large areas that are favorable for crop production(Russia has wheat) but they still don't compare to how wonderful we have it.
Africa is the worst.............for weather, water and soils outside of the Antarctic and Arctic.
Australia is pretty bad too but they, like Russia can manage a pretty good wheat crop in many years.
South Africa is located in the southern part of Africa, spreading over 122 million ha with approximately 12% croplands (FAO, 2020a). The country is composed of nine provinces and has a wide range of climates from arid to subtropical, temperate, and mediterranean ( Fig. 1) (Waldner et al., 2017). About 91% of South African territory is arid or semi-arid, with only 10% of the land generating half of the annual runoff (Le Maitre et al., 2018). ...
... According to the general household survey performed in 2018 almost 15% of the households were active in agricultural activities, of which more than 75% are involved in order to ensure an additional source of food (DALRRD (Department of Agriculture, 2020). The agricultural economy comprises technically developed commercial farming on the one hand and more subsistence-based production in the remote rural areas on the other hand (Waldner et al., 2017). The dominant activities include: i) intensive crop production and mixed farming in areas characterised by winter and summer rainfall, ii) cattle ranching in the bushveld and iii) sheep farming in the arid regions (Waldner et al., 2017). ...
... The agricultural economy comprises technically developed commercial farming on the one hand and more subsistence-based production in the remote rural areas on the other hand (Waldner et al., 2017). The dominant activities include: i) intensive crop production and mixed farming in areas characterised by winter and summer rainfall, ii) cattle ranching in the bushveld and iii) sheep farming in the arid regions (Waldner et al., 2017). Considering climate and soil properties, only 12% of the country is suitable for crop production; of which 22% is considered as high potential land in terms of production capacity (Waldner et al., 2017; WWFW (World Wide Fund for Nature), 2018). ...
No Mike I did not express myself very well
I was trying to explain that in the USA the people make efficient use of land resources. My example of wells dug by family labor was an example of using the resources available as efficiently as possible. In an arid climate you roll up your sleeves and get to work
In Africa many times some body came along and suggested digging for water. Some times they found water, even enough for the whole village
In the USA most wells in arid places were dug with family labor during the yrs of early homesteaders
Just an example of USA willingness to do their own work. Now in many places in Africa, the people do work hard, dig wells irrigate and prosper. So not everybody in Africa doesn't work hard to feed the family. But some as in South Africa can't produce enough to feed them selves. When the white farmer produced crops in South Africa they had a surplus. Today South Africa is food deficit Just saying
I did a quick google and found some body making the claim that 880 million of arable acres would feed the entire continent of Africa.
True of false I don't know but
In africa the average arable land to population is less than 2 acres/person [ 1 plus acres per person]
In the USA in 2016 the arable land/person was approx .471 acres per person
Now why can the USA produce a surplus of food with less arable acres/person than Africa
Why should I sent food aid to Africa. That would feed a family for a day with my resources but:
I would make better use of my resources to participate in a group effort and send some body to Africa to teach better use of seeds, chemicals, fertilizer water etc.
And then hope they would listen and make use of a different way of producing food
Obviously that did not happen in South Africa
"Now why can the USA produce a surplus of food with less arable acres/person than Africa"
Wayne,
All I can say is that you are using bad data or at least applying it in a way that doesn't even come close to reflecting the reality. I guess none of what I stated previously or after this about the topic will change your mind.
Don't forget Wayne, I'm a meteorologist so I'm not just copying or repeating stuff from links to try to prove that I'm right and you're wrong.
I've been tracking global agricultural weather for decades and understand what is needed to grow crops.
Africa can do better and we should assist them in doing better with water management and growing crops but even if Africa maximized it's potential, expecting Africa to keep up with anything the US puts out would be like you entering the Indianapolis 500......riding a 10 speed bike (-:
https://beef2live.com/story-countries-arable-land-world-0-108929
Countries With The Most Arable Land
The world has 15.749 million km(2) of arable land. (Arable land is land ploughed or tilled regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation).
India has the most arable land in the world followed by the United States, Russia, China and Brazil.
India and the United States account for roughly 22% of the world's arable land.
Instead of Canada why not New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Just to be fair and equal
Wow Wayne,
I didn’t know those were big agricultural areas, which has been your point so far. I’m sure that those areas do have some crops....along with abundant water.
But fine, you want to completely change it to something else.
I’m not at my desk but will bet that those locations are blessed with natural resources which Africa does not have.
Alaska too, for instance.what would Alaska be without oil?
Tourism would be interesting to look at. Not sure how many rich folks want to fly all the way out to Africa for a vacation. Some do of course to see the unique wildlife.
What would the Middle East, which can’t grow squat, not unlike Africa, be without oil?
Maybe Africa, can turn all their dry wells into holes searching for oil which is not there.
Or use fishing, in areas that don’t even have water or lumber where there are no forests.
Maybe they can breed and train lions to be better than watch dogs and sell lions.
Never mind, lions would cost too much to feed and they might devour the trainer......but that could help with the population problem in Africa.....and so what if they ate a bunch of dumb, lazy black people......maybe there would be more smart whites left to turn Africa into another USA (-:
Well I did see a white farmer in Africa who owned, rented [I don't know] approx. 10,000 acres and ran cattle on the land
Showed a picture of him and a large herd of cattle suitable for the climate etc.
I just stumbled on that picture as I was searching soil, climate, uses etc.
Also saw some parched soil with too many cattle on the available acreage run by an Africian [maybe 40 cows thin as a rail]
It would be wonderful if you would share the link to those pictures with us Wayne. ...or tell me where to go to get them for us. Thanks