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From: omo@mcnc.UUCP (Julie Omohundro)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: The role of America in world hunger & red spread
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Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 22:05:47 EDT
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Posted: Mon Aug 19 22:05:47 1985
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OK, OK, I can't take it any more.  (One of these days I'm going to
get off this stupid net altogether.  One of these days.)

Steve Hutchinson has injected some sanity and knowledge into this
discussion, but let me add some.  I do know a little about that
of which I speak.  Enough to know that many postings on this subject
know zilcho.

1)  Americans grossly overestimate the impact that the US can have
on the underdeveloped countries of the world.  Their problems are
so complex, the activities of the US (powerful as we perceive ourselves
to be) can only marginally affect the condition of the local population.
(Nuking them aside, of course.)

2)  Many postings illustrate a lack of awareness about what and who
the Third World is.  You probably never even HEARD of the really
poor countries.  Brazil and Mexico are developed and economically
affluent by world standards.  (Don't tell me about the starving
masses--we got some starving masses of our own, ya know.  It's all
relative.)  Argentina appears to be on the verge of breaking out into 
the new Japan (from an agricultural base, no less), if they could
just get their government together. 

3)  The REALLY poor countries ARE really poor.  This poverty is
basic, and has nothing to do with income or staples.  They can't
possibly want their land back--nobody's got it, because it ain't
worth sh*t.  They will be lucky if they can identify one lousy
cash crop that their rocks or desert or mountainsides can support,
because there's NO WAY they will ever be able to grow ENOUGH staples
to feed themselves.  (This seems to escape lots of people.  Sure,
the land might grow a staple or two, but not enough to FEED them.)
Only a few countries (like the US and Argentina) have enough good
land to feed the people of the world (or a reasonably populated
world) and the only way out for people living on solid rock is
to figure out a way to get our CASH to buy food from us.

I'm going to stop soon or I'll get on a roll, but I sure wish you'd
stop bandying the farmer about like motherhood and apple pie.
Any US farmer would take one look at any of these countries and
give the local population his blessing to grow anything they want,
they ain't gonna compete with him.

Also learn some respect for the people of the Third World.  They're
not stray puppies who need you to open a humane society for them,
so you can feel good about yourself.  Read up on Lesotho (ever
hear of it?) and its political/geographical situation and determination
to survive (talk about Against All Odds).

Also read up on the history and failure of the much-touted Green
Revolution, an excellent example of the `cavalry-to-the-rescue'
mentality in action.  If you can understand WHY it failed, you might
be onto something. 

And then, once you really know something about what's going on,
pause for a minute in admiration for that handful of people who
DO know that there are NO sweeping solutions to all of this, that
anything that any one of us do, or that the US might do as a whole,
will have at best limited impact, and who still (quietly) try.