Kony2012. Surely I don't have to tell you what it's about, do I? Really? OK, it's about Jason Russell (a media / film maker type guy) who met a young man by the name of Jacob Acaye in Uganda. Jacob had been abducted by the undoubtably nasty Joseph Kony in 2002. Jason promised to bring Kony to justice and has since meeting Jacob waged a kind of running media battle for action. You can watch the orignal video on YouTube here : http://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Watched it now? Good. Then let us continue... Well, actually, before I go any further, Let me say I really like that there are people in the world that actually do things about stuff they think needs to be changed. If the world was full of people like me, they would only write about what they think needs to be done. Power to you, Jason. Now - let us press an imaginary fast forward button and zoom forward six months. The campaign has been a tremendous success. Kony is caught and put to justice. The sentence would almost certainly be the death penalty (as I write this, Uganda is considering this measure for being gay, so I can only imagine what they would do to someone who has actually done something wrong). He hangs, fries, chokes, or whatever. Yay! Hooray for justice! But what has actually happened here? Exactly the same thing that always happens to African countries when they get in the shit. Some foreigner swoops in the saves the day. What happened to THEM doing something about it? What happened to the people that are affected by something actually doing something about it?
I don't think they are lazy. I do not underestimate how terrible it must be to live like that. I do not lack the empathy to comprehend what it must be like to watch your brother have his head hacked off for trying to escape. However...
Let me give you a personal example. I'm shit with money. Throughout my twenties I had to go back to my parents a number of times on the beg for some cash. I was earning, sometimes quite a lot. I was a supposedly intelligent guy but I was consistently spending more money than I earned. I was consistently committing the same mistake over and over again. The reason for this is that I was able to see hope of salvation in a third party, namely my parents.
Transpose this situation. Imagine I was Uganda. Uganda is historically used to foreign powers walking in and "helping". They have lost the power of self determination. They have lost the self confidence of a country that decides what happens and to whom. Let them work it out, however long it takes. In the long run, it will produce a country with identity. A country that will not take shit. A country that would not have allowed Kony to thrive. Who knows, maybe even a country that wouldn't have produced him in the first place.
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
The ongoing "Humanitarian Crisis" in East Africa.
The TV is quite clear. There is a full blown famine decimating Sudan and neighbouring Ethiopia. The local population are dying of hunger, thirst and disease. As fast as aid can be flown in, it is being distributed to aid camps. At the gates of these camps emaciated carcass' queue, hugging new borns to their bosoms, waiting patiently with the swarming flies around their eye to be admitted. Could the picture of human suffering be any clearer? Could human suffering be any more crystallized into a single event?
Yes. There could be twice as many people in the queue and half as much food to go round.
Picture that. A queue as far as the eye can see snaking into the scorching desert. But that couldn't happen, could it? The aid agency's would see to that, no?
Sadly the opposite. It is the aid agencies that are currently engaged in killing millions of, as yet unborn, babies. They bring 'em in, patch 'em up, send 'em out and give their blessing to the next generation of starving locals. Don't believe me? The current disaster is apparently the worst for twenty (or thirty depending on who you listen to) years. Amazingly, given the scale of this clearly desperate situation (two major humanitarian disasters, not counting the constant background wars and tribal tit-for-tats) the population of Sudan has grown from 11 million in 1960 to 45 million today. But that's at the cost of Ethiopia in the form of refugees, right?
Nope. The population of Ethiopia has grown from 22 million to 86 million in the same period. In the last thirty years the population has doubled. That's despite natures best efforts to keep the population of both nations in line with the amount of natural resources available.
As quick as nature takes food away, we fly it back in (I know, from an engorged west). As quickly as we clear paths to the smaller villages and settlements, they replace the land mines that mame and kill not just those that live there, but also those who come to help. As fast as we educate that HIV can be stopped by condoms, the witchdoctors advocate sex with virgins (Again, I know, the Vatican doesn't help, and the witchdoctors are dying out).
All in, their fucked. The more we try to help them the worse it will get. We're just propping up an already untenable situation. Fast forward twenty years to when the US and China are fighting over oil and Europe is tearing itself apart over immigration and the aid dries up totally.
Now that would be a true Humanatarian Crisis. Hell, the population might even level out.
Yes. There could be twice as many people in the queue and half as much food to go round.
Picture that. A queue as far as the eye can see snaking into the scorching desert. But that couldn't happen, could it? The aid agency's would see to that, no?
Sadly the opposite. It is the aid agencies that are currently engaged in killing millions of, as yet unborn, babies. They bring 'em in, patch 'em up, send 'em out and give their blessing to the next generation of starving locals. Don't believe me? The current disaster is apparently the worst for twenty (or thirty depending on who you listen to) years. Amazingly, given the scale of this clearly desperate situation (two major humanitarian disasters, not counting the constant background wars and tribal tit-for-tats) the population of Sudan has grown from 11 million in 1960 to 45 million today. But that's at the cost of Ethiopia in the form of refugees, right?
Nope. The population of Ethiopia has grown from 22 million to 86 million in the same period. In the last thirty years the population has doubled. That's despite natures best efforts to keep the population of both nations in line with the amount of natural resources available.
As quick as nature takes food away, we fly it back in (I know, from an engorged west). As quickly as we clear paths to the smaller villages and settlements, they replace the land mines that mame and kill not just those that live there, but also those who come to help. As fast as we educate that HIV can be stopped by condoms, the witchdoctors advocate sex with virgins (Again, I know, the Vatican doesn't help, and the witchdoctors are dying out).
All in, their fucked. The more we try to help them the worse it will get. We're just propping up an already untenable situation. Fast forward twenty years to when the US and China are fighting over oil and Europe is tearing itself apart over immigration and the aid dries up totally.
Now that would be a true Humanatarian Crisis. Hell, the population might even level out.
Friday, 14 January 2011
Innocent until proven guilty?
BBC News - Jo Yeates murder case: MP backs DNA testing
I once had pub argument. It wasn't a very good argument because I was pissed. As a newt. It's all a bit misty now but I think I was reacting to a totally reasonable comment with some vitriolic anti-logic that made no sense whatsoever. I remember being so outranged by one particular point that I shot one leg out from under the table in order to made a counter point and banged my knee. It hurt quite a lot. It is from this episode, and many others like it, that I have learned not to make knee jerk reactions. Or at least, I try not to. Most often they don't help, by their nature they are made in haste soon after the event or situation to which they pertain.
I am just a normal(ish) everyday citizen. I'd expect a well educated MP to have an even keener sense of managing ones mouth. Step forward Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy. She presented the entirely reasonable and well thought out idea that, in the hunt for the killer of Jo Yeates, ALL MEN IN BRISTOL SHOULD BE DNA TESTED. You read that correctly. All. Men. In. Bristol. Jesus wept like a little baby.
Just for giggles, shall we run this idea under the soothing cold water tap of logic?
At the count of the last census, there were 208,500 men resident in Bristol. A DNS test takes upto 24 hours, just for the labwork. Never mind the collection of the sample, administration and analysis. Let us be charitable and say that there are 6 person hours of administration and 6 person hours of scientific analysis. 12 hours per sample.
That would be, um, tap tap tapity tap on the calculator... 2.5 million person hours. Or 104250 person days. Or 285 person years.
And then there are the civil rights issues brought to light with such a wide ranging tactic. That's a nasty can of worms right there. I wonder if the police would "accidentally" keep the DNA records?
All for the possibility to solve a single murder.
Next time Kerry is up for election, does someone, anyone, want to remind her of her comment? The British public should expect, and deserve, better from their elected representatives.
I once had pub argument. It wasn't a very good argument because I was pissed. As a newt. It's all a bit misty now but I think I was reacting to a totally reasonable comment with some vitriolic anti-logic that made no sense whatsoever. I remember being so outranged by one particular point that I shot one leg out from under the table in order to made a counter point and banged my knee. It hurt quite a lot. It is from this episode, and many others like it, that I have learned not to make knee jerk reactions. Or at least, I try not to. Most often they don't help, by their nature they are made in haste soon after the event or situation to which they pertain.
I am just a normal(ish) everyday citizen. I'd expect a well educated MP to have an even keener sense of managing ones mouth. Step forward Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy. She presented the entirely reasonable and well thought out idea that, in the hunt for the killer of Jo Yeates, ALL MEN IN BRISTOL SHOULD BE DNA TESTED. You read that correctly. All. Men. In. Bristol. Jesus wept like a little baby.
Just for giggles, shall we run this idea under the soothing cold water tap of logic?
At the count of the last census, there were 208,500 men resident in Bristol. A DNS test takes upto 24 hours, just for the labwork. Never mind the collection of the sample, administration and analysis. Let us be charitable and say that there are 6 person hours of administration and 6 person hours of scientific analysis. 12 hours per sample.
That would be, um, tap tap tapity tap on the calculator... 2.5 million person hours. Or 104250 person days. Or 285 person years.
And then there are the civil rights issues brought to light with such a wide ranging tactic. That's a nasty can of worms right there. I wonder if the police would "accidentally" keep the DNA records?
All for the possibility to solve a single murder.
Next time Kerry is up for election, does someone, anyone, want to remind her of her comment? The British public should expect, and deserve, better from their elected representatives.
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