Refugee camp babies

[TomViolenz]

I’m complaining because the impression that no matter the amount of aid it never has any lasting impact while the population of those in need of aid increases.

And that human nature demands the advertising exploitation of babies and kids in a crisis because nobody is going to donate to “this village of people in their 30’s needs your help!”

And our media is the worst. In summary “You live in the greatest country on earth. Now here’s 30 minutes of stories that totally contradicts that.”

All nice, but your rant sounded like you were actually blaming the people in need for all that systemic snafu.

[TomViolenz]

I just need to remove Vice from my DVR series recording. The entire premise of the show is to scour the globe for fucked up situations and then show they are even more fucked up than you imagined. Another moment was a segment that featured new multimillion dollar power plants we built in Afghanistan that nobody is using because they lose money when they are running. But hey, I’m sure the contractors that built them got paid in full.

Western mainstream media is not any less propaganda, than the Russian, or the Chinese state media is.

[beats me]

Kenya (or was it Nigeria?)

At this point, does it really matter? It's happening so often, in so many places, one only needs to throw a dart on a map and it's like 'oh, look. a massacre just happened there.'

I honestly could not be bothered to look it up...

The least you can do is repost the youtube documentary on this month’s African warlord’s atrocities. Or the absolute least you can do is Like somebody else’s posting of it.

[beats me]

I’m complaining because the impression that no matter the amount of aid it never has any lasting impact while the population of those in need of aid increases.

And that human nature demands the advertising exploitation of babies and kids in a crisis because nobody is going to donate to “this village of people in their 30’s needs your help!”

And our media is the worst. In summary “You live in the greatest country on earth. Now here’s 30 minutes of stories that totally contradicts that.”

All nice, but your rant sounded like you were actually blaming the people in need for all that systemic snafu.

I think there’s some kind of mass denial that these kids featured in these commercials, news stories, or documentaries never age or grow up. Where are the kids from the 80’s relief campaigns? Perhaps some now contributing to the problem we helped them overcome as a kid?

Of course I’m not saying across the board and that nobody deserves our aid. I’m saying they aren’t all 100% innocent victims and warlord based displacement doesn’t give a pass to lawless Babies by Rape factories.

[re:dream]

Kenya (or was it Nigeria?)

At this point, does it really matter? It's happening so often, in so many places, one only needs to throw a dart on a map and it's like 'oh, look. a massacre just happened there.'

I honestly could not be bothered to look it up...

It actually does matter. I am aware of a number of such schemes going on. Most of them are not very well conceived but I have not heard of the situation you mentioned. So I wondered whether it is true or just one of those rural development myths people bandy about, based on hearsay and misunderstood facts.

[re:dream]

I’m complaining because the impression that no matter the amount of aid it never has any lasting impact while the population of those in need of aid increases.

And that human nature demands the advertising exploitation of babies and kids in a crisis because nobody is going to donate to “this village of people in their 30’s needs your help!”

And our media is the worst. In summary “You live in the greatest country on earth. Now here’s 30 minutes of stories that totally contradicts that.”

[/quote]

Well, it is actually simple. The calculation that Northern NGOs and donor agencies make is that they need to get rich northern people to give to those who are less fortunate than they

But the notion of others being less fortunate / wanting something from me creates powerful ambivalent feelings. People feel funny about giving to those who need stuff, because what if they keep on needing and needing and needing

But people feel OK giving to kids.

So what you are doing is essentially represent the needs of whole marginalized and improverished countries by representing them through the metaphor of childhood.

Very patronizing, very cliched, very predictable... but it works. So they keep on doing it.

[TomViolenz]

I’m complaining because the impression that no matter the amount of aid it never has any lasting impact while the population of those in need of aid increases.

And that human nature demands the advertising exploitation of babies and kids in a crisis because nobody is going to donate to “this village of people in their 30’s needs your help!”

And our media is the worst. In summary “You live in the greatest country on earth. Now here’s 30 minutes of stories that totally contradicts that.”

All nice, but your rant sounded like you were actually blaming the people in need for all that systemic snafu.

I think there’s some kind of mass denial that these kids featured in these commercials, news stories, or documentaries never age or grow up. Where are the kids from the 80’s relief campaigns? Perhaps some now contributing to the problem we helped them overcome as a kid?

Of course I’m not saying across the board and that nobody deserves our aid. I’m saying they aren’t all 100% innocent victims and warlord based displacement doesn’t give a pass to lawless Babies by Rape factories.

Many of these private aid organisations are non-profits in name only. You can be a non-profit that pays very good salaries, gives out contracts to special conditions, buys lots and lots of ad space etc, etc.

For a dollar donated to many of them, only pennies actually arrive where they are needed.

So you should rather think of them as a cynical way to make money by using the poorest of the poor as a means to guilt trip you.

State sponsored aid organisations are mostly not better, just evil in a different way. They use aid as a political tool to enhance their sphere of influence and enrich their croonies. Often making the situation on the ground actually worse in the process.

Religiously sponsored organizations of course use this to further the religious brain washing in the regions they help and to make their members at home believe they are the good, god fearing people. The rise of the Evangelicals in Africa is staggering. (Especially considering, that most of the Christian part of the African population was actually Catholic until very recently)

It gets really bad when the last two entities merge their goals, like they did under Bush, where massive amounts of funds were used to promote abstinence only programs. Yes, abstinence only programs, in places where women often have very few rights to even say no and AIDS is a major problem. It boggles the mind

Organizations like the (very good) Bill and Melida Gates foundation are the absolute exception to the rule.
If you want to help people, really do your research in regards to which channels you want to do it through. I donated to "Doctors without borders" before, and I think they deserve all the help they can get.
If you find sincere philantropists (like Bill and Melinda Gates) then their foundations can also be good ways to achieve this.

But please stop blaming the victims. It's disgusting!

[beats me]

But please stop blaming the victims. It's disgusting!

OK

[LoopStationZebra]

It actually does matter.

It actually doesn't and you've missed the point entirely. ...and I do mean ENTIRELY.



Google AFRICAN ATROCITIES. It won't take but 2sec to find one in which

a. Aid was recently rendered and life was getting better.
b. Some warlord or other brought the citizens back to reality in a demonstration of what really matters: F O R C E and the W I L L to use it in as brutal a fashion as possible.


Or are you saying all the brutality is an urban legend?

[LoopStationZebra]

Religiously sponsored organizations of course use this to further the religious brain washing in the regions they help and to make their members at home believe they are the good, god fearing people. The rise of the Evangelicals in Africa is staggering. (Especially considering, that most of the Christian part of the African population was actually Catholic until very recently)

You are again out of your FUCKING MIND and have no idea what the fuck you are talking about. Just more Left Wing / boring as fuck / anti religion nonsense. Catholic charities and outreach programs in particular have done ENORMOUS FUCKING GOOD in Africa for 40 years. My God you fucking dolt - even the most leftist of organizations have acknowledged that fact repeatedly.


omfg


This entire thread has become so inevitably painful. Armchair whiteboys solving Africa's problems.


o m f g

[TomViolenz]

Religiously sponsored organizations of course use this to further the religious brain washing in the regions they help and to make their members at home believe they are the good, god fearing people. The rise of the Evangelicals in Africa is staggering. (Especially considering, that most of the Christian part of the African population was actually Catholic until very recently)

You are again out of your FUCKING MIND and have no idea what the fuck you are talking about. Just more Left Wing / boring as fuck / anti religion nonsense. Catholic charities and outreach programs in particular have done ENORMOUS FUCKING GOOD in Africa for 40 years. My God you fucking dolt - even the most leftist of organizations have acknowledged that fact repeatedly.


omfg


This entire thread has become so inevitably painful. Armchair whiteboys solving Africa's problems.


o m f g

Did I touch a nerve?

And I don't know why this needs to be said, but in an internet forum discussion "Religiously sponsored organizations" != "All Religiously sponsored organizations".
I mean for a guy, who thinks: "Kenya, Nigeria...who cares...", you are quite anal about generalizations.
Geez...

[re:dream]

This entire thread has become so inevitably painful. Armchair whiteboys solving Africa's problems.

I am white, but don't call me an armchair whiteboy I am not in looking on this from the comfort of distance. I live here. I am a South African and and African too - no better or no worse than any other person, regardless of race, who lives and feels connected to this continent. Which is where I will live until I die.

And yes, we are trying to solve our own problems. Which is why I am for the most part not intervening greatly in this thread. The work is not here. I come here for fun and for music. Fortunately, your inability to distinguish between Kenya and Nigeria, indicative though it is, is not of much concern to me. What ppl on the Ableton Forum lounge think about my continent and its problems, piss-ignorant or not, is neither here nor there.

[skullneck]

Why would US citizens give a shit about refugees when they should be concentrating on eliminating the water shortage in the USA?
Fucking sitting there in their pools, washing the extra car they don't even use, smoking out of their water bongs, running their water cooling system in their gaming PC's. Fucking at least the refugees have the common sense to manage resources better.

[TomViolenz]

smoking out of their water bongs, running their water cooling system in their gaming PC's.

Yeah, let's focus on the big picture here!!!

[H20nly]

fucking Yankee scum!!