Do you feel bad about "the starving kids in Africa" ?

[freddi91]

Do you feel bad? It's kind of saddening yes
Do you feel guilty? We all should, its out ruthless exploitation and lifestyle that directly causes the disparity.

Not only the mining sector but also the food sector. Developed countries tend to produce more food products than they consume, such that they can fall back on it if food imports become expensive. However overproducing food means the prices plummet and farmers in developed countries go broke. So usually the govmt. Sets a quota, a max amount to be produced and buys all excess from farmers at low price. This excess food is either destroyed, sent to the local poor, or sent to africa as "aid".

But all this food aid really does is wreck the local food economy because you cant compete with free.

so "send food" doest help, "send money" doesnt help either because it end up in the pockets of local corrupt politicians.

and you cant go there and send officials or people that tell them what to do to get better economic growth because they see that as western oppression.

oh one last thing, famine isnt the worst of the problems in africa, its just that they cant show the results of civil war in some of its countries.

 

[Phasmal]

I'm a bleeding heart, really.
So I will probably feel bad about anything if I think about it long enough.

Unfortunately, I'm broke at the moment, so there's nothing I can do. But hopefully when I am in a better position I will be able to donate to charity.
Figuring out which charity will probably send me into a week-long guilt spiral.

 

[Sarcastic_Applause]

If i had the money, i would, but much like an earlier poster; i can just about take care of my necessities.
But I'd never donate to places that i feel are guilt tripping me; Charity is an act of Kindness, not an act to gain amnesty from Guilt.

 

[Keoul]

I think we need to fix up our own country before helping others, sure they're life sucks right now but all we're doing is making it suck a little less while the homeless on our streets starve to death, seems kinda counter productive when you plan on helping everyone EXCEPT the people next door.
I'm sure any other 3rd world country should be able to deal with it now right? I mean it's been several years they MUST of found some way to stay alive besides donations, do they just twiddle their thumbs waiting for the food? no. They're probably fine, TV is over dramatizing it.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Do you care about the starving kids in Africa?

Only a little. The problem is that right now my country is in the hole. 1 in 5 children are below the poverty line in America [link]http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/more-than-1-in-5-american-children-are-now-living-below-the-poverty-line[/link] Right now I am much more concerned about my own country than worrying about others.

Do you actually do anything about it?

No, because I myself am broke and can barely afford to feed myself.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Nope, all hail the mighty power of evolution...

 

[MintsMan]

I don't feed BAD about it. I mean, sure, it's sad that there is so much hardship, but the government over there is doing NOTHING about it and the population is through the roof. People send their five-year-old children to work to get more money, have more kids, send them to work, realise that they need to pay for the new child, have more etc. It's called the "circle of poverty," and there's not much I, myself, can do or WANT to do myself. If I'm privilidged enough to live in such good conditions, I want to make use of those privilidges.

 

[Neonit]

yeah i do. i think its terrible people are starving.

but i dont give a rat's ass about people who are basically begging, walking around with pictures of starving children. "oh, but they have it so hard, we should help them!"

how about you get a real work, and donate some money, instead of begging?

and lets not forget that most of those big corporations collecting money are trying to make a profit through investing the money they get. how is it bad? well, "humanitarian organisation" investing in cluster-bomb factories seems stupid to me..... lets not forget their nice offices costing mountains of cash EVERY FRIGGIN DAY.

a couple of years before i donated, not often, but sometimes i did. now, after seeing that massive amount of bullshit.... im just pissed that they are basically basing their existence and luxury on other peoples misery.

edit: right now im more of "leave them alone, they will fix it someday", i read a lot of articles where people claimed that humanitarian help destroys economy. free food? send local farmers to "unemployed" list. free building? how about local building company?

 

[Palademon]

I don't care, but I always think I should hate myself for not caring, but I don't...

It's an awful situation, WHY DONT I CARE DAMN IT!!

 

[veloper]

I donate when there's a new disaster, like a flood for example, but not when everything is going as expected(terrible).

Under the surface, Africa is the riched continent in terms of resources. Below the sahara there's great stretches of fertile land too. Take the human condition out of the equation and Africa should be able to feed billions of people and have a massive export $$$ surplus.

War, corruption, inefficiency, stupidity and general hopelessness is the cause of all problems.
Our governments cannot replace the corrupt regimes with our own. We learned that colonialism isn't very nice and military interventions with good intentions don't improve life for the common people either, as we can learn now in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Giving money as a matter of routine is indirectly supporting the corrupt regimes and everything that is wrong with those countries.
Through taxes and foreing aid, I already support those poor nations, where the people in charge aren't too bad: flawed democracies and promising regimes. Got that covered.

That only leaves aid after unexpected disasters to receive extra donations from me.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

The people saying they don't care are funny...

Of course you care, as apathetic as you want to be... It's not always "super cool" to be apathetic, even if the internet makes it seem that way.

However, I don't donate shit.

If I was capable of living beyond comfortably, I would donate an appropriate amount... and anyone who says otherwise is a spoiled shithead, a liar, or a true asshole.

 

[Frostbyte666]

no question about feeling bad for them but I follow the charity starts at home philosophy. As otehrs said we already send them food and things but the situation doesn't change and I'd rather donate to cancer research centres. also whenever I see 1 of those adverts I can't help but htink how much did the charity spend on this ad instead of helping the children? It's kinda like when they get actors to come to charity events pleading with us to donate money and all I can think is don't you earn 5 times my salary a year why don't you donate?

 

[Radelaide]

Of course I do, but I'm more inclined to help people in my local area (or even myself) to get better before I go off changing the world.

 

[Deviluk]

Yeah I feel bad for them, I feel bad for a lot of people, including people I see on the street every day. I even avoid going out sometimes just because I feel like my brain can deal with the amount of depression I get from travelling around this city (I grew up in a rather wealthy small country state in England). Its still shit over here too, but in a different way. 1st world shit is still messed up as 3rd world shit.

But humans cannot feel sympathy for everyone, especially if they live thousands of miles away. And even if they did, it'd have to be a bloody good advert to get people to pay money when they'd much rather continue watching tv and forget about the problem that seems to never go away no matter what.

And just on a side note, I donate money to a children's charity every month, and those bastards on the streets, asking for money, you know what they said to me? They said "Well, maybe you can donate a bit more." These people were asking money for keeping some sort of monkey-lizard form dying out in madagascar or something. FUUUU!

 

[Micromyni]

I'm too busy trying to keep MYSELF fed at the moment, thank you very much.