Another Way To Prove My Point about African Children.

[tolbiny]

Why? Humans aren't straight forward logical thinkers, as you seem to suggest we should be. emotions have been a huge portion of our evolution allowing us to be able to create a society with high reproductive fitness for many members. What is your basis for the assumption that logical consistancy is nessecary for a person's pricnicples to be taken seriously?

[11t]

Luckily I get to dodge the question since I think that Africa's problems are its own to work out before any signifigant amount of aid/money/foodstuffs will do anything besides contribute to the corruption, rape, and murder that routinely occurs among the uneducated and unemployed masses.

That being said, I have no problem with donating money to social welfare organizations (like the adopt a child organizations) that try to help those who cannot help themselves but I do have doubts on many levels about how much they actually help.

I would let them die because it is in my nature and I believe most others too look closer to home. If I rate a family member as being the most important to me (reasonable), I would obviously donate far more money to save them than to someone I had never met. This works in a sliding scale. A friend will get more money than a friend of a friend etc. Sadly for the poor dying African child I am too far removed from them emotionally to give as much. now if I went over to Africa and befriended a dying child then it is safe to say I would donate more. it isn't a question of me wanting the money over someones elses life. If i followed Davids logic on this I would have no money to the detrement of my own survival chances and that of my family. Add into it the fact that nature dictates that I would rather protect those gentically close to me than those further removed then it makes perfect sense. The money issue is largely irrelevent and David is just using it as an indicator of how much I care, not how rich I want to be.

[ QUOTE ]
How effective are condoms against HIV transmission?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not much less than 100% if used properly. Of course whether or not you have huge, gaping, open sores on and around your genitals is an important factor too.

I'm reluctant to point this out as a European on a board mostly populated by Americans, but I'm going to anyway. But please be aware that it's not meant as some kind of attack (or at least if it is, it's an attack on the developed world generally). I just think it's an important fact to be aware of in this very interesting debate.

Most Americans I speak to are under the impression that the US is a huge global contributor to foreign aid. The US is actually ranked last out of the 22 developed nations in foreign aid donations. It gives 15c on every $100 of gross national income. The average is 33c and the table is topped by the Norway at 92c.

Personally I feel like every nation in the world that can afford to, and any individual who can, should be doing much more than we are. I've never met a single other person who has travelled around Africa who would say different, we just pretend it's not there.

[roueful]

There's a Wallace Shawn play, The Fever, that takes the same accusatory arguement towards people born into western countries. Kinda tough to argue against when you're capable of making 100 times as much as someone else simply because of where you were born.