Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site shark.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!orca!shark!hutch From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: poor starving people Message-ID: <1174@shark.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 16:49:58 EST Article-I.D.: shark.1174 Posted: Fri Nov 30 16:49:58 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 2-Dec-84 04:46:31 EST References: <610@amdahl.UUCP> Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 70 < eat flaming death, fascist media bugs > |> | = phil ngai in a very uncharacteristic mood |> = myself in a very uncharitable mood | = gordon muppet in a very self-righteous mood |> | But that's not what I want to flame about. Are the United States and other |> | countries expected to continually bail out countries which can't feed |> | themselves? I think there must be too many people living in Ethiopia. |> | I think there probably isn't any birth control there. |> |> Ignorant jerk. The cause of the famine in Ethiopia is the five years of |> severe drought. The birthrate there is nearly zero. Starving people don't |> make new babies. |> |> | PROPOSAL |> | The United States should send more food to Ethiopia, but all recipients |> | must consent to sterilization. |> | |> | Phil Ngai (408) 749-5720 |> |> Only if I get to sterilize you first. |> |> This kind of flame is far too mild for you. Send your address and I will |> arrange more literal flames. | |I think Steve's response to Phil sums up Steve's thought and |understanding of this problem very well. Steve is even erroneous |about "starving people don't make new babies" -- they do have babies, |but the offspring are frequently mentally retarded. | |Hey, but why bother making sense when you can flame? |-- |Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,sun}!amdahl!gam Well, Gordon, I appreciate your summary of my thought and understanding, but until I see you with Amazing Randi's check in hand, along with the evidence that you can add two and two together and get four twice in a row, I would advise that anyone else ignore your summary. Except maybe as a curiosity, which it certainly is. The sahara desert has been growing to the south for the last several years. It has brough severe drought with it. Before that time, the population in the afflicted areas was growing at a high rate, due to the increases in simple medical knowledge. This meant not only that more babies were being born, since they were being carried to term, but that they were also living to the age where they could make their own babies. Once the famine set in, the birthrate dropped. This is a fact, not subject to vote or opinion. The drop occurred because the rate of miscarriages increased sharply. Pregnant women don't carry to term when they suddenly stop having enough food to eat. Additionally, many of the offspring who are born are both mentally and physically deformed. They don't live long. And after starving long enough, say, a year, fertility drops WAY down. So, yes, in a sick sort of way, you are right. Starving people do continue to make babies, sporadically and poorly. Obviously genocide is the only answer, and Phil is right in his original assertion :-(. Oh, by the way, while putting in your seven bits worth, please make sure that those seven bits don't include adding a letter to my last name. It's spelled Hutchison not Hutchinson. If you promise to refrain from that error, I promise not to call you Gordon Muppet. Hutch (In the defined spirit of net.flame I refuse to apologise for or even recognise that anything is wrong with the vile, sniping, and vicious tone of my articles. If flames are requested then flames will be generated. So there.)