5 million children die of hunger a year-and yet we practically do nothing!

[Booze Zombie]

It's disturbing to say that there isn't enough food for everyone.

Perhaps, but people will still die regardless.
Not because of hatred or improper use of resources, but simply because people die.

I admit that quite a few deaths could be stopped, but at the same time, more people equals more deaths overall, so... it's kind of sad but it's what happens.

 

[maninahat]

You may want to check this out though.
http://www.worldometers.info/

Huh, England publishes more new books per year than anyon else...heart warming, despite the statistics saying 1/3 of people in the UK will never buy a single book in their life and another 1/3 will only buy one book per year.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

you should first consider that most of those countries with high children mortality don't give a shit about their own people... they use the State money as if it was their own...

 

[ultrachicken]

Why is America responsible for Africa?
People want to help, but throwing cash can't solve an entire continent's problems. Especially when they tend to have bad governments.

 

[Raiha]

if your so damn concerned with the starving kids in africa get get off your computer and on a plane to africa so you can do some real good. talking about helping kids isn't going to make them any less hungry.

BTW, part of every paycheck i get goes to charities that help starving kids and various other people in need.

 

[maninahat]

Its estimated that this year around 5 million children, mostly in areas like africa, will die of hunger. and it just shocks me that we in the west can just sit around as if nothing is happening. i mean i no we give some aid or whatever, but its pathetic, like the US doesnt even give .01% of its gdp, yet it can fund military projects etc. like i dont really have much of a point, but like do you not think its a pretty sad enditment on us all that we throw away money like we do in the west while so many people die needlessly?

This happens because America is populated by conservative people who care only for themselves. God only knows how those people sleep at night.

I contest that. Conservative Christian Americans on average give more to charity than any other demographic on Earth. That still goes, even if you discount donations made to Christian based foundations. Say what you like about them, but they are no more selfish than anyone else.

It is worth pointing out that more liberal, non-religious people give only a fraction to charity by comparrison. I don't mean to use this to suggest that we should all become religious, I am merely stating these facts to refute your putdown regarding conservatives.

Well, that has more to do with religion than with politics. Religious does not mean conservative, I am very liberal and I am still religious.

Yes,somewhat to do with religion, but the statistics tend to specify conservative Christians for some reason. Perhaps there is the assumption that conservative people are more likely to be Christian(at least in the US). We'd need to look into conservative atheists more to properly compare the stats.

 

[Flight]

I generally prefer to donate to environmental causes or more local charities. After all, while there are people starving halfway across the world - and yes, it's a tragedy - but there are how many homeless people in my country? They're starving, too. Why not take care of the ones who are closer to us before looking at the rest of the world?

 

[MR T3D]

cool guilt trip, bro!

 

[photog212]

First of all, what makes you people all assume that hunger is something that happens "over there". Hunger is a National issue no matter where you live. The organization 'Feeding America' which composes the largest study of hunger in the US released a report that said:

* Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.
* That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.
* Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.
* Thirty-six percent of the households we serve have at least one person working.
* More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.
* The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006.

We are also experiencing some of the worst crop shortages in years and are running out of surplus. Several nations, including those in the third world have experienced shortages of staple foods (ie rice, wheat, etc.) A lot of hunger issues stem from outside influence, such as natural disasters, a sudden increase in population or industrialization, or hundred year old colonization techniques that rerouted damns.

I think its absurd to assume that hunger is not 'our' problem.

 

[Snotnarok]

Its estimated that this year around 5 million children, mostly in areas like africa, will die of hunger. and it just shocks me that we in the west can just sit around as if nothing is happening. i mean i no we give some aid or whatever, but its pathetic, like the US doesnt even give .01% of its gdp, yet it can fund military projects etc. like i dont really have much of a point, but like do you not think its a pretty sad enditment on us all that we throw away money like we do in the west while so many people die needlessly?

When did it become another countries responsibility to protect and feed another countries people? Things should be done by each country but why is it anyone ELSE'S responsibility?

This is the funniest thing, when the US does something, everyone complains about it, when the US does nothing everyone complains about it.

Fact of the matter is, the US is in debt, it's in shambles in a lot of ways, why should the U.S. hop on over delivering all the things said country needs when the things it can't even do for it's own unemployed/homeless? Or you know HEALTH CARE?

People donate, people fly out there and help personally, send vaccines and such. That's a lot of help if you ask me. So ask yourself this, what have YOU done?

=)

and it's not just the US...it's all of us

Well he posted about the US, I know other nations do a lot as well. My point was it's not other nations responsibility to take care of it. Teach a man to fish as they say.

 

[Ham_authority95]

To quote Falconer, "I shed no tears for strangers."

My thoughts in a nutshell

Besides, even if we did give them all this aid, its likely that the government of that country would just take it for themselves

We try sending food to countries like North Korea as well as several ones in Africa. But the problem is that the food we send is then picked up by the two-bit despot regimes and fed to the supporters of those regimes. We try man, but we can't help people when their governments and/or warlords simply take all the food for themselves. Charity can only go so far.

Like this

 

[Hallow'sEve]

Let em die, world's overpopulated as is.
It's a problem we can't fix, and I won't care about people I don't know.

 

[Kiju]

If you haven't noticed, OP, there are people starving, homeless, jobless, and drug addicts here in the US. I say we fix our problems first. And...if you really haven't noticed it, then what utopia do you live in? Gimme an address, seriously, I'd like to move there so that I can have the affordable income to actually send help to people who need it. But until then? ...it's their own damned fault in the first place.

The US is not the big mommy who kisses the owwies of other countries and coddles them. We have our own problems that need fixing; we aren't a perfect country that can afford sending help. In fact, I'd bet we'd see a lot more money in the US' Treasury if we'd stop sending support except to our immediate allies and neighbors.

 

[geldonyetich]

On one hand, all the starvation in the world is a terrible thing. I like to think of myself as an unorthidox Buddhist (albeit not a terribly devoted one) and those guys would be the very first to remind you of that of the suffering in the world the plight of starvation is clearly among (if not the) greatest.

On the other hand, I have to wonder why the hell those people breed so much if they know they don't have enough food to feed their own children. I'm guessing it's a mixture of:

• (a) Having such poor education they have no idea how their own reproduction mechanisms work, making me think giving them money for food will just set the carrying capacity higher so even more of them can starve to death.
  (b) Simply being unable to avoid the inborn lust of human nature, rendering their suffering an equally natural result. If you want to breed out of control like stupid animals, you're going to starve to death like them too.
  (c) Live in an economy where they figure breeding as many kids as possible for free labor is a great idea, with the plan that they'll go slash and burn rainforest [http://library.thinkquest.org/26252/evaluate/11.htm] to support themselves, making their very survival a blight on the rest of humanity.

Under closer scrutiny, my fledgling universal compassion for all the suffering in the world can't help but be trumped by a desire to throttle them for perpetuating the problem. And they are perpetuating the problem because otherwise if 5 million children a year die of hunger why is that society even left?

Granted, while I may not approve of the way they're bailing water, it was us that put them in this sinking ship to begin with. Globalization is responsible for a large part of them problem, we destroyed Africa's industry when we attempted to "uplift" them by underselling everything they made and industrializing them through bunch of loans they had no chance of repaying and then repossessing their means of industry as compensation. So, to an extent, every time I cram a Big Mac down my hole to support U.S. economy I'm providing an imperceptibly small slice of support for the very body of misers that damned these people to such a miserable existence.

Regardless, the problem simply can't be solved by throwing money at it. We're talking a situation requiring complete social reform, with three generations of change required before it really sets in. We've got so much problems at home right now that we'd have to stop ourselves from bleeding to death before we can save the drowning man next to us.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Callous as reality may be, we are not responsible for the circumstances, regardless of how detrimental they have become for the inhabitants. It our Government's responsibility to govern own our country and no concern ourselves with the severity of others. The poverty in North America is astonishing, thus our priority is to rectify our own qualms. In addition the corruption allotted in those third world countries would intervene with any outside assistance rendered. In my opinion the best avenue of assistance we could provide is birth control.

Yes a perhaps selfish mindset I suppose however c'est la vie.

 

[red the fister]

The World is cruel, and made for the fittest, it´s not our fault africa is poor and not meant for western colonization, and can´t be made into farmland to grow shit on.
It is however our fault that we interfered with africans in the first place, teaching them over generations the western society, whereupon they forgot how to hunt, how to find water, and how to generally survive in their own country.

We can´t just drop a moneybomb there and say "here, help yourselfs" because some Warlord is gonna use the money and buy some shiney new AKs and Tanks for his Army.

Well that's not completely true. We (by we, I mean Europeans) invaded their lands and stole all their (or most of at least) gold, diamonds, coal, iron etc. So yeah it is our fault that they are poor. Can't say that I care though.

is it cool to blame your self for the actions of your ancestors?

should i, a white american (most of my family migrated post CW), be made to pay restitutions to the descendants of slaves i never Personally Owned?

the "Sins of the Father" do NOT "Pass to the Son"... unless that Son performs the old "wash, rinse, repeat" cycle.

on topic.

let them thrive or fail by their own actions. (and yes, my actions are currently phial)