Do you feel bad about "the starving kids in Africa" ?

[-Samurai-]

I couldn't care lss to be honest. Not in the slightest, I got enough of my own problems to think about theirs, whilst mine may not be so bad, they are more pressing to me. I'm selfish, so sue me.

This is how I feel as well. They don't care about my problems, so why should I care about theirs?

Sure, their situation sucks, but my problems are the most important problems in the world, because they're mine. If I don't worry about me first, who will?

It may come off as selfish, but I'm sure the majority of people feel the same way. We can't help others if we don't help ourselves first.

 

[Mauso88]

I do not feel guilty because there are many issues in our own countries we need to address before we go off trying to save others. I can see how this attitude could seem to be short-sighted, but if more prosperous countries are damning themselves to help others, it's only going to badly affect us all in the long run.

 

[Ledan]

The aid situation as it stands is unsustainable - we give just enough food for the current population to survive, each family has 4 or 5 children, and we need to give more aid. Eventually, this will plateau when there isnt enough land for them to live on.

I think we need to start weaning off the aid, or at least replacing it with something more helpful. Education, say, and irrigation materials. Rather than try to feed a rapidly growing population that is already far beyond the lands carrying capacity, we should be trying to increase the lands carrying capacity.

There are a lot of organizations that do that. Grassroot organizations, they develop different communities, teach them about medicine, proper places to dig wells, etc.
And the problem isn't that they can't suppor their current population (after all, the UK's agriculture cant support itself) its that their goverments are inadequate and most farmers sell their crops over seas; as bio-fuel.

Because there will always be starving kids in Africa. Africa doesn't have a strong economy right now, and the country itself is closer to the equator, making farming much more difficult. *snip*What the hell do people expect me to do about it? Buy food for the whole country? There's just not enough money, or food for that matter, in the world to feed everyone.

Africa is a continent.... -.- . And the entire continent stretches form above to below the equator, there is a lot of arable land there.
Some studies show that there is enough food to feed everyone in the world, just look at how much food is produced. And isn't it kinda weird that in some places people are eating themselves to death, and in others they are dying of starvation?

Because, let's face it, no matter how much money you pour down there, it simply won't get better unless the african people themselves start taking some serious steps towards improvement.

Right now they just wait with their grubby little hands outstretched for another pile of credits from me. Well guess what, it isn't coming.

Well..... with some money you can educate the kids (schools, teachers, school materials), who will then replace their completely incompetent goverments. With some money you can educate the parents, about medicine, sex, contraceptives and family planning, and how to economise. I never give money to beggars, but if I can give some money for a kid to go to school I'd be happy to help.

No, if aid helped development, then shouldn't Africa be better-off after all these decades of aid?[/qoute]
They are. My parents worked in Africa 30 years ago. Now that they are back and working again, they say it's vastly improved. Unrecognizable. But with different times come different problems, right now its corrupt goverments and the brain-drain. Everyone who goes to university leaves for better jobs elsewhere, so few competent people are left.
[qoute] And after all, with all the corruption, it's doubtful that you would help anyone other than greedy government officials.

To that I'd say you should always check up on the charity you are giving to. But if dont feel like fact checking them, dont give to them.

 

[Kizi]

Well, I certainly don't envy them but they are not my problem. I don't donate because:
a) I'm a bit broke, myself.
b) the money would probably just fund some war.
c) If it indeed would make it to its destination, it wouldn't do any long-term good.

If this makes me an asshole, so be it.

 

[Ledan]

'Simara lives five miles from her local well.'

^ move closer to the well.

Your house is a mud hut or made of chunks of sheet metal and wood, it wouldn't be that hard to move closer, and in the long run it's easier than sending your five year old daughter with a bucket.

That about sums up my opinion, I may come off as a complete dickhead but hey, I went to Sierra Leone on my gap year, there are mud huts and there are sheet metal houses. they can move.
[/qoute]

Reasons include: Warlords. Goverment sanctions against moving. The source of water changes all the time. Inhospitable living environment. To far away from local roads (very few of them are main roads). To: having houses made of brick and mortar (most houses arent made of mud).

[qoute]
On the other side with the whole, they need education, unfortunately a primary school education will not improve your standard of living by much, yes it's amazing you can read and write but the employer will stick pick someone who has had both a primary and secondary school education.

And in a job like washing dishes you don't need an education.

In countries like these: any education is good. Plus, primary school doesn't just cover maths and being able to read/write. It covers loads of things: mosquitos cause malaria, sex causes aids, goverments shouldnt be corrupt, clean water before you drink it, you can make something of yourself. By being able to read they can self-teach, read pamphlets, read to their parents.
Most people are unemployed, and everyone is looking for a job. So having any edge is better than none, and you need to go through primary school before secondary, before getting a university degree.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

No. I am actively considering offering my services as an evil henchman for whatever corrupt african government will allow me to hunt humans for sport.

I can evil fake a british accent and go whole hog

 

[Eccentric Lich]

Nope. I've got my own problems to deal with.

Besides, no matter what anyone does, Africa is screwed. A lot of aid that goes there is intercepted and spent on weapons or just luxuries for the local warlord. Sending more money won't do anything.

 

[Korolev]

It's true that some charities don't use the money effectively and that the governments of such nations often use Aid money to buy arms.

But donations and aid DOES help somewhat. Doctors without Borders do great work and they need donations to ensure they can treat enough people. Oxfam gave mosquito blankets and peanut-butter based nutritional supplements which HAVE saved lives of people in Africa.

Yes, not all the aid makes a difference. Yes, some charities take 90% of the money donated for "administration purposes" and give only 10% to the people (and only 5% of that actually makes it through after all the bribes and such). Yes, aid will not, and cannot fix Africa's problems (which aren't entirely the fault of the whites you know - some of Africa's problems ARE definitely caused by white people, but there's a lot caused by their own governments and inter-tribal hatred). But please do donate - I'm not asking you to give your life-savings to them. But if you donate 5, 10, 15 dollars to the UN or Oxfam or to Doctors Without Borders, some of that money will go to helping people, I can guarantee you that - and the more people donate, the more makes it through. A mosquito net can save a life - it can. Just a little bit more food can mean the difference between life and death for many of the sick and the dying.

No, foreign aid will not, and never could, transform Africa or any nation for that matter, into a paradise. But it can allow one child to not go hungry for a day. It can save the life of a father or a mother so that they can look after their child. Hell, 50 bucks can help pay for part of a water pump and filtering device for a village - this could literally save tens of lives and prevent up to 100 people from getting sick from water.

I do feel bad for the sick and the dying in Africa - you'd have to be virtually inhuman (or a racist) to not feel bad for them. I won't pretend that I bawl my eyes out whenever I see dying or sick children on my TV screen - I'm far too removed from the situation to have a strong emotional response, but I at least have SOME emotional response to seeing these images.

And I do donate - not as much as I probably should, but I do donate. It does not really give me a warm-fuzzy feeling, as I know that the good that is possible is very limited. But at least it's some good, and at least the gnawing guilty voices in my head don't shout so much after I do donate.

 

[mrdude2010]

Of course I care for them. They're fellow human beings who got stuck in a bad situation that they couldn't control, and it'd be nice to help them take their lives back.

Do I do anything about it? Like you said, I don't have a lot of faith in those for-profit organizations you see ads for. I'd be happy to contribute to a nonprofit organization like the Red Cross, since they do a good job of getting food to the citizens instead of just paying the local warlord to reinforce his power base.

 

[TWRule]

Many of them live in wretched squalor, no doubt. I don't get especially upset seeing the commercials produced in such a way as to get me to pity them; mostly because I'm more concerned with the root problems that lead to their situation rather than generic stop-gap measures to temporarily ease it (if that). On a related note, spiritual illness, starvation are much greater maladies than their physical counterparts, and while I can't speak for those over in Africa, I'd say the former issues are at pandemic levels in affluent developed nations like mine.

 

[ccggenius12]

The money spent on the ad space and commercial would probably do more good than the donations they're asking for. Lead by example and the media will cover it.
Also, I dislike religious charities. If you're going to help people better they're lives, do it for their sake, not so you can beat the bible into them. If your actions move them, they'll come to it on their own.
Also, I wonder what would happen if instead of sending all this donation money to other countries, we instead payed down the national debt. Nah, that's too simple, it would never work...

 

[Gamer_152]

You know I do feel bad for those kids or any people starving in Africa. Living that way, day after day is a kind of hell I just can't comprehend. By this point though, I feel completely numb to the adverts, if I stop and think about it, it's rather depressing, but I've been seeing the adverts since I was a kid and there's just nothing at this point that they can really say or show which evokes a great deal of emotion in me.

 

[Appleshampoo]

I've seen way to many of those adverts, so now I just blank them out.

I honestly don't even feel bad about it any more. I used to, when I was a kid, but then I grew up and realised it's been the same adverts for over 20 years. If people who go on and on about how much they donate and whatever, then why aren't things getting any better?

I don't think the money you donate actually goes to the kids, chances are it lines some dickwads pockets or buys weapons for more wars. Or if supplies are actually purchased, I bet they just get hi-jacked and used by the terrible people out there.

This has been going on for years, and because of the sensitive nature of the subject I'm willing to bet no one will ever stand up and say 'Hey, we've been donating money for like 50 years now, why has nothing changed?' because that person would be targeted by every form of media in the world and they would forever be known as that dick who hated starving children.

 

[Zeren]

No, because I have to deal with the fact that there are starving children in my own country.

I know that saying "This" is frowned upon here, but that is actually how I feel about it. One our own problems are solved then we can worry about other nations.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

It may not be your fault that there are starving kids in Africa, but it's not THEIR fault either. I mean, sure, someone's to blame. But none of those kids had any say in where they were born, or what circumstances they were put into. You just got incredibly lucky.

So why are they none of your responsibility? Why are the concerns of other human beings not relevant to you? Because they have no connection to you? Why is that significant? Why does their proxomity to you make their needs more or less relevent?

It seems like your argument was simply engineered to prevent you from feeling guilty. What if you had been born in a starving African nation? Again it's pure luck that you weren't.

I have an idea, how about we support causes that can help to develop impoverished countries. Perhaps once we fix these problems, these nations will be able to CONTRIBUTE to the rest of the world. Besides, our grandchildren won't have to sit through the same annoying TV programmes anymore.

Firstly, I don't believe in luck. I don't see a reason to feel bad about someone just because I was born somewhere.

Secondly, no, concerns of other humans are not relevant to me unless they affect me or my life somehow. Proximity doesn't matter at all, I couldn't care less if you are starving two blocks or two continents away (no effect either way). It's natural selection in its finest: the strong live, the weak perish. And from what I see, the continued charity only serves to weaken them further...

There *is* a reason why the discussed countries look how they look, why they show continuous decay rather than improvement no matter how hard the developed world tries to help. Why they have been unable to make proper use of the resources Africa has, or the infrastructure left there by colonial nations. This reason is the main cause of my disinterest or even disgust over the situation there, and my continuous refusal to get involved in any way.

If I find myself in a position to make a real difference and see the people there (majority of them, not just a few odd individuals here and there) actually DO something, strive towards improvement themselves, not just passively wait for our help then I'll consider assisting. Until then they can all burn for all I care.