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Posted on 08/31/2002 11:04:02 AM PDT by forest
It was a grand affair. The dinner was fitting of the potentates, perfumed princes, government leaders, and the other insecure third-world riffraff who attended. Participants dined on the finest fillet steaks, expertly prepared lobster and oysters, among other rich delicacies. No expense was spared for these captains of failed governments.
They were there, after all, to celebrate poverty and starvation around the world.
Oh, sure, this was the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa and they say they were meeting to fight famine. Yet, just down the road from that fancy dinner live many of the poorest people in the world. Next to all this opulence, the people live in shacks, drink dirty water and have to scrounge for food. Yet, not one delegate from this UN conference bothered to take even one small child a glass of clean water, let alone some food.
In an opening speech to the Earth Summit last Monday, South African President Thabo Mbeki described the Earth as a village divided by a river into districts of want and wealth, while its environment steadily sickened. He should know, too. All he need do to see the want is have his chauffeur drive his limousine down the road a little. Someone might want to ask him how he can run such a wealthy nation and not correct the rampant starvation.
"Poverty, underdevelopment, inequality within and among countries, together with the worsening global ecological crisis, sum up the dark shadow under which most of the world lives," he said. Then he added: "For the first time in human history, human society possesses the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment."
Note that Mbeki did not mention the root-mean cause of poverty: corrupt governments. But, nevermind.
In Rome, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the 13 million people facing starvation in southern Africa were threatened by donor fatigue. It reported that aid pledged by donor countries adds up to less than a quarter of the 507 million dollars needed to feed people in the region until the next major harvest in April.
So, with 60,000 delegates at the meeting, why were there no do-gooder caravans out to deliver food to the starving of the area? That's easy:
Like American Democrats, that stuff is not their real agenda. Fighting rampant poverty and starvation is but their excuse. Their real agenda is to acquire more personal wealth -- and yet more power over the people.
And, just where can these third world nation's leaders get the money necessary to pad their personal bank accounts and pacify more people so as to exert stronger control? From the wealthy nations, of course. They cannot, after all, be expected to set up programs at home to actually "earn" the coveted wealth. That would take effort.
Are they too ignorant, too stupid or just have no self determination? Probably just too corrupt.
Africa could and should be the breadbasket of the world. Yet, it is the poorest continent on Earth. They kicked out most of those who produced. Now, they are hungry.
Ah yes, there was great theater at the meeting. Delegates were even outwardly wearing their anger -- with campaign buttons that read, "What should we do with the United States?" Strong demands for more Western money were heard -- not requested, but demanded, like we owe them.
Thousands of activists are using the summit to further their causes, some even threatening extreme violence like they tried in Seattle, Washington.
The green activists thumped their chests to attract attention and angrily stated that the summit is turning into a spectacle of empty rhetoric. They say that rich countries are cooking up deals that would dilute pledges to open their markets to goods from poorer countries. "Key negotiations in Johannesburg are in danger of being stitched up by a controversial deal struck between US trade officials and trade mandarins in the EU Commission," a spokesman for the Sierra Club and World Wildlife Fund told reporters.
We see a great opportunity for both governments and activists here: Take all those environmental whackos out to the jungle they so want to preserve and drop them off.
Anyway . . . the Bush administration said it wants to stress public-private development partnerships. And, they are using our money to get that rolling. As a typical American response, Powell took along a $5-billion aid package that uses partnerships to set "results-oriented goals," rather than artificial time frames for achieving changes.
Which means, every American taxpayer will pony up an average of about $40 to feed people who already live in what should be the world's most productive breadbasket -- and is rich in minerals like diamonds, gold and silver, among other things.
From where we sit, giving them aid seems a lot like suborning corruption.
The root-mean cause of poverty: corrupt governments.
And, just where can these third world nation's leaders get the money necessary to pad their personal bank accounts and pacify more people so as to exert stronger control? From the wealthy nations, of course. They cannot, after all, be expected to set up programs at home to actually "earn" the coveted wealth. That would take effort.
We see a great opportunity for both governments and activists here: Take all those environmental whackos out to the jungle they so want to preserve and drop them off.
Powell took along a $5-billion aid package that uses partnerships to set "results-oriented goals," rather than artificial time frames for achieving changes. Which means, every American taxpayer will pony up an average of about $40 to feed people who already live in what should be the world's most productive breadbasket -- and is rich in minerals like diamonds, gold and silver, among other things. From where we sit, giving them aid seems a lot like suborning corruption.
Some people just cannot stand prosperity. Especially prosperity that is widespread, and tends to dilute the perks of elite living. This has been the principle that has made America the magnet, the shining city on the hill, to all the rest of the world, but through willful ignorance, certain jealous and impotent personalities have made it their business to not understand the correlation between adapting resources to needs, and the rising standard of living that results.
As one resource is used up, or becomes too expensive, the edge of technology turns to other resources. But even research into new development is denied, as the Luddites try, by one avenue or another, to muster opinion against spreading benefits of investment and free-ranging thinking to the entire world. You try to do what is best, and perform good deeds, and what do you get in return? A kick in the teeth. Most discouraging.
Yes ---exactly like the Clintons and the Kennedys. You never hear of them actually giving up their huge wealth to the programs they propose. They mean to take the wealth of middle class hard working Americans to promote their Socialist/Communist causes.
To the last - no :o(
Slum Protesters March on Earth Summit
Sat Aug 31,11:33 AM ET
By Manoah Esipisu and Nicholas Kotch
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of slum-dwellers marched on the Earth Summit on Saturday, protesting about issues from AIDS ( news - web sites) to globalisation and marshalled by heavily armed police who feared violence might upstage the U.N. meeting.
SNIP
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-zimland27aug27.story?nul
Zimbabwe's First Lady Grabs a Luxury Farm for Herself
Africa: The redistribution of whites' property is supposed to benefit landless blacks.
By DAVAN MAHARAJ and PETA THORNYCROFT
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
August 27 2002
MAZOWE, Zimbabwe -- Grace Mugabe came here last week, but her visit had nothing to do with promoting literacy, health care or any other official duties that come with being Zimbabwe's first lady.
Instead, Mugabe came to personally evict white farmers John and Eva Matthews, a septuagenarian couple who own the sprawling 2,500-acre Iron Mask Estate.
Witnesses said Mugabe-who was accompanied by senior army officers, government officials and young toughs from her husband's ruling party-told the couple that they had 48 hours to vacate their farm or be arrested.
...
With southern Africa already struggling with man-made and natural challenges including bad weather, disease and corruption, analysts say Mugabe's land grabs are endangering about 6 million Zimbabweans-nearly half the country's population. Millions of poor Zimbabweans now need international food aid to survive.
SNIP
August 31, 2002
Mugabe withholding food
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Zimbabwe's government is using a policy of "selective starvation" to punish political opponents, enrich supporters and ensure a victory in local elections next month, according to an American researcher who just completed a weeklong visit to the south African country.
"What we saw was selective starvation, the use of food as a political weapon," he said.
...
"Because government suppliers have a monopoly of the distribution networks, cutting back supply sends prices through the roof and is just one more way for the Mugabe government to steer money to its friends. Put that on top of the lack of nutrition, the high unemployment and the general economic decline, and you have a train wreck on the way."
...
Based on his tour of Zimbabwe, Mr. Prendergast said mortality rates among AIDS sufferers in Zimbabwe have already spiked because of the declining food stocks. At an estimated 35 percent of the population, Zimbabwe has the second-highest infection rate in the world after Botswana.
While much of the Western criticism has focused on the struggles of the white farmers, Mr. Prendergast said the government's food policies have been far more devastating for the 1.5 million black farm workers and their families who have been ousted from their plots as the white-owned farms are seized.
...
"If you broke the government's monopoly on the commercial food distribution chain, you could avert the famine tomorrow," he said.
[Go to the source for the complete article.]
JOHN FUND'S POLITICAL DIARY
Jeers for Johannesburg
A summit that cheers Mugabe isn't about helping the poor.
Friday, September 6, 2002 12:01 a.m.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was heckled and jeered twice during his 10-minute speech Wednesday to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was easy to see why President Bush didn't go. The summit seemed to come alive only when speakers bashed America like a piñata.
...
But the summit's true failing came when it ignored the biggest cause of endemic poverty and suffering in the developing world: corrupt, tyrannical and quasisocialist governments. The elephant in the room was Robert Mugabe of neighboring Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe's two-year-old policy of throwing white farmers off their land has turned once self-sufficient Zimbabwe into a country where half its 13 million people face famine. His mobs enforce blatantly racist policies, the media have been muzzled, and this year he was re-elected only through massive voter fraud.
...
In contrast to Mr. Powell's reception, Mr. Mugabe's anti-Western diatribe drew three rounds of riotous applause as he attacked the conference's failure to confront a "half-baked unilateral agenda of globalization in the service of big corporate interests of the north" who "focus on profits, not the poor."
...
In speech after speech, the 104 heads of state who did star turns in Johannesburg failed to criticize Mr. Mugabe's tyranny. Even Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair scrapped his normally firm denunciations of Mr. Mugabe and dodged any mention of him during news conferences.
...
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For the entire article, go to
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