Posted on 05/03/2007 2:41:18 PM PDT by neverdem
If the top Democratic hopefuls are under the impression that the way to stop Third Worlders from hating America is to build schools in their countries, they need to think again.
On Tuesday, Senator Clinton floated the idea that we should spend 10 billion dollars over a five year period on schools and teachers in poor nations. The justification for this being that such schools could give children an alternative to the anti-Americanism they are so often steeped in these days. Senators Obama and Edwards are of similar mind as well.
--snip--
It would seem that more promising strategies would be ones in which America helps...
How about — take a deep breath — eliminating the subsidies to American farmers that keep Third World farmers from being able to make a living selling their products? Or, how about admitting that Rachel Carson was wrong about DDT and restoring its use in African countries to help beat back the malaria epidemic? Then, a targeted effort to resolve the Darfur conflict would be crucial, especially given that, of late, there are small signs of hope there.
Anti-Americanism is not a product of ignorance. Convictions are not always based on the rational: Recently, I met two PhD candidates in linguistics who are avowed creationists. Anti-Americanism is parasitic on obsolete mental hardwiring, and only transformations in the whole of daily experience can reach it.
Gut-level, placard-waving contempt for America in poor countries will ebb only when a generation of people are raised who see America leading fundamental reforms concrete and relevant to the quality of life that human cognition will be unable to iron out the dissonance between the tribalist rhetoric and real life. Mere schoolroom teaching, on the other hand, will make not a dent in the Third World brand of Hating Whitey.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Hillary is making the same mistake most politicians, and especially Liberals, make. She thinks that we can ‘change the world’ and ‘make them love us’. She, and others, fail to recognize that most people in other countries cannot and will not be changed. They will instinctively resist change, growth, modernity and freedom. She wants to throw money at a problem that is rooted in culture, not lack of cash.
Take Darfur... Liberals have the Save Darfur campaign. This campaign fails to recognize that NOTHING the West ever does or can do will actually address and fix the root causes of that problem. NOTHING. Conflict, tribalism and warfare are part of their DNA. We in the West can’t fix that.
Likewise, we can’t make foreigners love us by throwing cash at them. They’ll take the cash, but culturally its compulsory to hate the USA. No amount of cash will ever change that.
Actually, she may have a good idea here, just not the way she would like to implement it.
That is, imagine if you will, a very large publishing company as a subsidiary to the Voice of America. Its purpose would be to publish durable elementary and secondary school textbooks for wide distribution in nations that are in our “interest” at the time.
That is, right now, if we had such a program, we would be giving huge numbers of these school textbooks to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not only would it give these two countries a big jump in literacy and education, but the books could be filled with respectively democratic, patriotic, nationalistic messages. Along with their studies the books would teach their national history, and be very optimistic about the future course of their nations.
Nationalism is very important as part of education, as it gets the kids thinking of themselves as national citizens first, instead of their tribal, sectarian, and regional identities.
Right now, in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a crying need for *any* school supplies, even pens and pencils. By being prepared to step in and provide such supplies, we seize the opportunity to educate an entire generation of that nation’s people.
This could save us enormous heartburn in the future. And maybe even help create a nation friendlier to us in the long run.
It isnt bad enough that liberal Demoncrats want to keep tossing Billion into our own toilet school system. NOW they want to dump Billions into foreign toilet school systems.
New word of the day for me. ...it does sound refine.
The part about anti-Americanism being a symptom of our universal tribal hard wiring was snipped out, but it is an important part of what he is saying.
Selfishness and tribalism have been survival mechanisms for a long time. When we shed them, we will finally be able to move forward.
Ping
God helps those who help themselves.
Please give a link to your so called studies. You sound like the DBM, with their "some say" and "some argue" statements when trying to prove a point. They also use the "studies show" and "polls show" type of journalism. If you are going to cite studies please give a link so we can have some confirmation. It is hard for me to believe that the majority of creationists are ignorant bottom dwellers.
That's not what he said. Not even close.
About half of the U.S. population believes in creationism.
There are people in Africa who would LOVE for us to invade their country.
Zimbabwe, for example.
See? Even smart people say the dumbest things. While he may know a lot, farming isn’t one of those areas. Subsidies cripple farming because they support large corporate operations and processors. The family farmer is actually harmed by the subsidies and market restrictions.
Having said that, flooding the US market with third world food is probably the most stupid, shortsighted, HUA move we could make. There is nothing more strategic than a safe food supply. Didn’t the recent China pet food, poultry feed additive tell this guy anything? Didn’t the lack of inspections tell him anything? Didn’t the fact the Chinese company shipped their poison through a front company as non food products tell this guy anything?
When will he wake up?
Now, as for the money angle. What ivory tower idiot presumes these third world farmers will be playing on a level field with US ones? Pesticide restrictions? Fertilizer quality? Dumping food on the market to drive down costs before jacking them back up? Slave labor?
I assume the senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute eats only in restaurants and thinks food comes from the kitchen.
Oh, by the way Hillary’s idea sucks. Lets give 10 billion of OUR dollars away so they will like us. I don’t see her giving any of her money away. No vow of poverty for the elite.
Sorry for the rant. I hate it when our side is uninformed.
I met plenty of those black women”true believers”with less than high school educations when I lived in the South.
They are about as rigid a group of fundamentalists as you will find.No high falutin intellectualizations of great theological questions.
I must say,however,despite or maybe even BECAUSE of their dogmatism,they had to be some of the finest and kindest women I have ever met.
I disagree, he implied it heavily by saying the under educated blacks were the biggest believers in creationism. This implies that all believers in creationism are under educated people, it is also a slam towards black people.
I don't believe blacks are bottom dwellers but was pointing out that his words implied that they, and all creationists ,are bottom dwellers being ignorant and uneducated. Read his remarks again and if you still don't get it I will be glad to explain his meaning to you in words of one syllable or less.
BTW, I am NOT a creationist, I do not attend church and I am not a christian, but know many fine people who are, ALL of them hold college degrees at some level, several are black also, one having an IQ of about 150 and I deeply resent his patronizing remarks.
Invade Zimbabwe?
Who needs THAT headache?
No, it does not. It merely said the highest concentration of believers are such-and-such. Whether it's true or not, any such statistic does not even begin to imply that "all" or "a majority of" believers are such-and-such. You're free to infer whatever you want. But, don't shift the blame for your inferences.
BTW, I am NOT a creationist, I do not attend church and I am not a christian
Well, I do believe the Biblical account of creation, I do attend church and I am a Christian, and I didn't see any such implication in his remark. "Words mean things."
They spend billions now and teach Anti Americanism here.
You can add me to your collection of advanced degree people who believe the world is created. There are a lot of us out here.
Believing in creationism DOES NOT make you a bad person. I would defend to the death the right to believe in such nons...er, beliefs. Nevertheless, McWorther and myself are right to find it odd that folks on the far right side of the bell curve believe in creationism/intelligent design. Then again, even more "brights" were seduced by the idiocy that is dialectic materialism, but I digress.
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