I welcome anyone who says that aid, charity or giving to the sick, dying and poor is wrong or causes more trouble. I welcome them to my country, to come and spend some time with the orphans here, orphans that have no place to go. They will get a private tour of the orphanage I worked with, get to meet the little kids that broke my heart with their pain, they watched their parents die of AIDS, left alone in their shacks.

Education is great but what about the children already suffering from the lack of it, I’ll take you to shack schools where 10 kids share one torn text book, where the only lunch they get handed is an apple, if that.

I will also invite them to my friends in Kenya, they will get a private tour of the camps there, they will witness what malnutrition does and what a starving child looks like. They will see the smile on that child’s face when they give it a simple hug, it’s first hug in its life at the age of 4.

I welcome anyone who wants to venture to Africa, come and see for yourself before you take a first world stance on what we see everyday. Come and see for yourself why giving one plate of food to a child who has only ever had rice means so much. If it means that they die with a smile on their face, so be it.

I give because I love, I give because they are me, they are part of my soul. I am like AA, I close my eyes and see my people, then I know it’s worth it.

The offer stands, anyone who wants a tour of Africa let me know, it is a genuine offer.

i realize that this analogy was clear to me only, but maybe now it’ll make more sense? Again, it’s not something I see as being a 1:1 correspondence by any means!

My pseudo-comparison (vaccinations)had more to do with attempting to come up with something that might parallel some of what I thought you were saying, but in less detached way. And I have no doubt that there are lots of people here in the US who might well agree that poor people have too many kids, thus increasing the number of poor (and/or people receiving public assistance, which aren’t snyonymous). There probably *are* people who think such a drastic “solution” would be a good one! (There were certainly enough people monkeying around with eugenics in this country at one time; “experimenting” on poor, minority populations in the not-so-distant past…)

I think maybe we (US natives, anyway) might tend to judge others and their cultures on the basis of our own standards and ideas about what constitute “wealth” while simultaneously missing the fact that people from other cultures/countries might indeed have tremendous assets in some form other than real property, 2-car garages and, well, comfy houses in the suburbs. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, really – and I know I’ve been guilty of that line of thinking many times. By the same token, I think that working with people to help them find (and create) their own solutions to problems is vital. Time and money have to be invested, sure, but it is an investment. (Dealing with immediate needs for intervention – people on the brink of starvation, etc. – is another situation entirely.)

Somehow, I think the idea of “investment” means a lot more than throwing money or food in someone’s path, but that’s just me.

However, Lindsay, as you know the biggest “charity” we are supporting now is in the form of our new kids who are (now) four and six years old. Hard to believe they have been with us for twenty-eight months!

I suppose I can see your reasoning with the ethical question of prolonging someone’s life if it is a life of pain and suffering- the same question has been asked of people about elderly in poor conditions in homes in the US- if we are prolonging their lives through artificial means and that life is a lonely, painful, and diseased on- does it stand to the test of “do no harm?”

And you are right on one point- throwing food at the problem ultimately does no good other than delaying the inevitable. But there are a lot of good charities that do far more than simply throwing food. I’m glad you see the intrinsic value in things like Kiva and my father’s charity.

Mr Africa: My figures are ballpark/examples. Also, read my writing closer. I never said it was ok for people to die because its natural. I meant that if we unnaturally increased a population in an area that doesn’t have the agriculture, medicine and infastructure to support more people than we are doing more harm than good. You’ve got to change the system before you stop people dieing, because if you do it in reverse or the same time all your going to do is kill a lot more people than would have already died. How is that compassionate? But oh, wait, you were trying to do the right thing. But I believe a death is a death, regardless of the good intentions of the perpetrator.

lindsey: I think you’ve got me a little wrong here. I’m all for projects like Kiva, which by the sound of it give people a realistic solution to poverty. That sounds fantastic. I’m against simply feeding people because I’m objective about it. As for entire populations dying, they probably will. And yet again, I don’t see how me giving them food is going to do anything but prolong the agony. If an entire population is set to be wiped out than the problems are again linked to more than food.

e2tc: First of all, how the hell can not vaccinating babies in poor parts of America have anything to do with starving africans? Stop trying to draw comparisons that just aren’t there in order to make it seem like I’d be all right with other things.

I know a couple of south africans, thats about it. But i see a lot of similarities between the aborigine situation in Australia and africans. And let me tell you, throwing money and aid at them doesn’t work. Its a lot more complicated than that, and I think that this is something people have to realise. They can’t just donate 2 bucks because they feel guilty and expect things to fix themselves. Its naive.

In closing, maybe i am a sociopath. Or maybe I just realise that acting emotionally about the situation and being a bleeding heart is going to do fuck all, just as I think donating to feeding people like cattle won’t do anything but make the situation worse.

Again, I don’t mean to offend, but may I ask: do you know anyone from Africa? Or Central/South America? (or any of the other places you mentioned?) I’ve done a lot of ESL/EFL work, and… for every group of people you mentioned, I can see faces with names attached to them. Some are former students, others are colleagues, neighbors, friends.

I have never lived in the kinds of harsh conditions we’re referring to, so close to possible starvation and/or death (including infant/child death) on a daily basis. I ahve never had to fight to try to keep my family alive. But that’s only because i was “fortunate” enough to be born into the upper middle class and stay in the middle class. My guess (per figures) is that over 90% of the people in the world are not that fortunate. We are – *I* am – blind to the realities that face most of the people in this world, or at least, those of us who are “fortunate” are (largely) blind.

I’d better stop before I say something inflammatory. *Lindsey, please feel free to either pull or edit this comment and the previous one, OK?

I know that sounds very, very harsh. But I’m just trying to give you a “Western” parallel to what you’re suggesting about Africans and their lives.

Sorry to be so heavy-handed, but …