[yankeedame]

It got this story off the "front page" of Junkscience.com.

They apparently got it off of a place called PLANT ARK at www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm

[cicero's_son]

Where are all the Chirac supporters on FR who were assuring us mere months ago that his election was a great victory for the European right?

((chirp))

((chirp))

[pulaskibush]

No taxiation without representation.

[unixfox]

It's soooo much easier to take and spend someone elses money.

The whole world has become dependent on the U.S. and the people who are paying for it live right here in the U.S.

When is this crap gonna stop? I say to hell with the lazy countries. They can kiss my red white and blue ass !!

[henderson field]

There is no poverty, only poor people. All of the so-called poverty in Africa is caused by political "leaders" who first set up bank accounts in Switzerland and then bleed their countries. There should be a tax against corruption to put a price on the heads of these tyrants.

[Abcdefg]

Fug dat goob, Chirac.

[templar]

"It could be a tax ... on health products sold in industrialised countries ..."

My, oh my. A tax on health ... Well, if you don't want to pay it you could always just get sick and die.

[DrDavid]

France Backs Global Tax To Fight Expand World Poverty

[Coeur de Lion]

A few years back I ran across this story about this Nigerian philanthropist who was scouring the United States for these old obsolete Ford tractors circa 1940s. He would then buy them and ship them off to Nigeria. He was asked why was doing this and why specifically these old obsolete tractors and not the latest John Deeres. He said for his country these tractors were ideal. One, they were mechanically simple, very reliable, and didn't require a lot of maintenance. If they did breakdown, they were easy to fix and as for replacement parts someone with simple machinists skills could machine most of them.

He also said that the experience in his country was that in the past they would use the foreign aid dollars and go out and buy the most modern and latest and greatest farm equipment. For the type of farming they were doing this equipment was overkill. What they needed was something like a mechanical equivalent of a couple oxen. Typically, the more modern stuff was temperamental so you couldn't leave it out in the fields for a week or so without it breaking down due to exposure to the elements. These tractors were much harder to do maintenance on and when they needed a replacement part they didn't have the money to pay for it. So, these tractors would just end up sitting out rusting in their fields after working perhaps for one growing season. These other tractors were a much better choice.

The point here is that most solutions provided from idealists in the West to solve problems in Africa are usually not the correct solution for the problem at hand and far more expensive then the one which actually works.

[buffyt]

As Dennis Miller said last night on LENO, France should stay out of all this and go back to just producing porn., that is what they are good at.

[WhiteGuy]

Sounds like this guy is trying to follow the US government model.

[Valin]

Two words for Jacques Chirac.

[Major Matt Mason]

Who cares what the bloody French think!

[xp38]

Chirac says he has a passion for "green" issues and sees France having a special role in advancing the environmental cause. His detractors question his actual commitment, noting for example his decision in 1995 to hold nuclear tests in the Pacific

Ah the good old days when French sabotage agents sank a Greenpeace protest ship while in a New Zealand harbour.