living in a first world country, we have advantages available to us that people who, through nothing of their own fault, will never be able to have. the real problem is not the terrorist, but what the terrorist is trying to convey. I don't agree with terrorism and never will. the terrorist though are seeking attention they want people to recognise that they exist and i believe it is about time that the first world looks at the atrosities which are occuring because of the greed of first world nations. it works like this: terrorist want attention, the attention is used to convey a message, the message is that these people are hurting. and the most worrying thing of all is that we have pushed these people to the point where they believe that the only alternative is that they have to act barbaric. What are we loosing to satisfy our greed? My question is do you, the public, believe that we should change the meaning of success and happiness, so that it is measured upon the goodness of an individuals actions and not of the possesions they own?
Why do we need a universal definition for success and happiness? I have my own definitions for being successful and happy and I couldn't care less if it matches everyone elses.
Amen to that. Who's to say what is success and happiness? You can't blame terrorism on the first world; third world countries are just as responsible for their own economies as first world nationsa are to their own. Terrorists are unhappy with their way of life, to be sure. But they choose to blame all their problems on America instead of looking towards themselves and their governments.
y do we need to hav a definition for success? hello, how dumb can u get, the idea is that u define it for urself, i was merely trying to help u understand that through people like u, who don't consider the importance of ur actions, (for example it's not our fault that the government which u support, holds contracts with nations that can only ever b able to support to pay the interest on the money), many people suffer. how selfish a civilisation r we? i would like to no how the people who r most advantaged in the world can turn around n b the most ignorant? people who hav all the opportunities n all they want is to take more. u don't understand that by choosing to follow a set lifestyle u r hurting many of ur fellow humans. this is probally the funniest thing, that the people who are most educated r the one's who r the least wise. a little girl is starving in Chile because the government can not afford to support the orphanage, due to the massive debt owed to America. If u r that brave tell me wat ur definition is? n tell me who u would support? do u believe that the girl is to blame for the situation she has been born into, her parents dying in politic wars, due to uneven nature of the society n how they can not recieve proper education n basic human rights, how she has a career range of becoming a prostitute or a homeless person? and of course it is easy for society to sit in our warm homes during winter and say that she had the choice to b what she wanted, yes but u hav the choice to b able to turn around and give the third world a helping hand, and u justify ur actions by blaming that little innocent girl for the situation shes in. Well i blame u for the ignorance and stupidity of ur situation, and i blame the third world for making her life impossible. I am disgraced to believe that society has become so selfish to actually believe that it is acceptable to act like barbarians. we should rise up and take the moral high ground that we can help these individuals, before it is too late and we loose sight of what is right and wrong. A great man once said, " I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." and i have a dream that one day we might believe in equality and help those who are less fortunate, to show them that they are equal. Tell me the true meaning of your success? Tell me what u have succeeded in doing? and i will tell u that u have achieved nothing, without showing the true character of u as an individual to be valiant. A word of warning from Mickey
LMFAO!! Okay pal, first of all, you have no idea who I am. You are ignorantly accusing me of being heartless and unaware of the problems on earth. Well, guess what? I'VE BEEN TO AFRICA, BITCH!! I went to Tanzania last summer and actually VOLUNTEERED at an ORPHANAGE!! Oh, wow, I'm so ignorant! I'm just a sheltered little American. Please! I'm PAYING for one of the orphans to get an INTERNATIONALLY ACCREDITED EDUCATION! Damn, I'm really selfish aren't I? Aside from your title, you didn't mention anything about third world debt, all you did was blame America for terrorism, and I disagreed with you--now all of a sudden I'm heartless and mean. God, you're hysterical! WHAT, pray tell, have YOU done for the good of the world besides look at a website? Go ahead, Mickey boy, I'm waiting for you to tell me I've done "nothing"...
Third world countries need loans. Not lending to the third world can harm their economies. All the compassion in the world won't finance their development.
Okay pal, first of all, you have no idea who I am. You are ignorantly accusing me of being heartless and unaware of the problems on earth. i am not ur pal, first of all and guess wat? ur right i am accusing u of that and it may b some wat unfair, then again my family and i actually being from Tanzania, Dar-es-salaam, might actually hav a little more experience than u in the matters of third world poverty. BUT ok i didn't mean to offend u and i apologise. i will reiterate the main theme of the thread so that you might be able to understand the real reason why i started this. i am not personally attacking americans or any other citizens of other countries, i mean to try and educate those of you who don't understand the trials of people who are from third world countries. and those of you who are educated should be able to sympathise with me that the heartlessness of people and their greed is damaging our chances at being able to hav pride in our ethical and moral actions. i am pleeding with those of you who can take this last stance with me to stand up and help each other. we are one world and this life is wat we hav, lets make something out of it. ps to all americans, i am sorry if i offended u, but please join in this ethical and moral cause. love from Mickey
Who's to say what is success and happiness? You can't blame terrorism on the first world; third world countries are just as responsible for their own economies as first world nationsa are to their own. Terrorists are unhappy with their way of life, to be sure. But they choose to blame all their problems on America instead of looking towards themselves and their governments. This is nonsense. Third world countries are very frequently NOT responsible for the massive debt they owe to the "first world." The best example, I think, is that of South Africa - the fascist apartheid government borrowed billions from the developed world, and after that government was removed and there was actually a real democratic goverment in place, the nations/organizations that had UNETHICALLY loaned money to the prior fascist regime continue to this day to refuse to forgive the debt. Black South Africans, who finally have a slight say in their lives, are now put in the position of being forced to pay for their own past oppression. This scenerio is common all over Africa, and it is part of the reason that Africa is such a humanitarian nightmare. In addition to corruption, theft of natural resources, civil war, etc., these nations also have to deal with billions in debt that the wealthiest nations on the planet refuse to just forgive. And in many cases - especially when we talk about the US, Britain, and France, the INITIAL problems in these nations was caused by colonization or CIA coups - hardly the fault of the people of the nations in question. The above quote from StrawberryFF also displays complete ignorance about the current machinations of organizations like the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. These organizations force third world nations to "liquidate" their natural resouces (read: destroy and sell to the US, west Europe, and Japan), to agree to trade deals that benefit wealthy nations rather than themselves, and to enact policies that violate human rights, are ecologically unsound, and that frequently result in the sacrifice of vital social services (health care, education, development of safe public water systems). The penalty for refusing to follow the west's notion of "development" can be anything from trade sanctions to denial of future aid and loans. And SFF blames this situation on the third world, which she CLAIMS to have visited. Very nice. As it is, the terrorist is quite certainly responsible for his/her own choices in life. That said, we would be as stupid as the imbeciles following our current president if we didn't recognize that terrorism needs fertile ground to thrive in. We provide perfect conditions for the growth of terrorism by keeping the third world in poverty, by mindlessly attacking nations in order to loot their natural resources, by declaring any who do not subscribe to materialism as a primary value "uncivilized," by creating tens of thousands of martyrs in the form of innocent women and children to fire the rage of those who remain, and by funding some of the worst oppression on the planet (either directly, as in the cases of nations like Egypt, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel - or indirectly, as in our massive trade with China). I have also been to Africa - South Africa and Kenya, specifically. I've also been to Brazil, Venezuela, Jamaica, Vietnam, Malaysia, and India (along with a decent number of more "developed" places). Anyone who CLAIMS to have visited the third world - Africa, in particular - and who persists on blaming the innocent victims there for the dire situation they find themselves in is either completely blind, a fool, or LYING about going there in the first place.
What they ask them to do is to solve fiscal mismanagement. While it is all very nice to have wonderful social programs that give everyone everything they want, if you are a poor country that cannot afford it eventually you will spend yourself bankrupt. No sane lender, whether private or IMF/World Bank, would lend money to someone who intends to just blow it on social benefits they cannot afford and then come back the next year looking for more loans. Neither would any sane leader spend his country into bankruptcy just because social programs are nice and everyone deserves them. So while it may suit LW's purposes to pretend that poor countries don't have five star health care because the IMF forbids it, the reality is that fiscal crises don't do a heck of a lot of good in terms of promoting development. Furthermore, accusing anyone who doesn't draw the same conclusions as you do from visits to developing countries of lying is pretty lame. Nobody blames the individuals, but while you would like to believe developing countries are helpless pawns or perpetual victims of the evil west, in fact developing countries mostly control their own fate. Thus we should hold their governments responsible for their performance rather than making excuses for their failures. If you believe otherwise, I strongly encourage you to lend your own savings to the government of Zimbabwe. I'll also point out that one of the ways we provided fertile grounds for terrorism was by being the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as 9/11 was being plotted. Perhaps the idea that we aren't guilty for others crimes against us is too horrible to contemplate?
question: if you were a person from one of these small counties, pretty much an ant compared to the us and you had major problems do you think the big bad us would listen? rational talking has been tried, it will never work as long as amierica is corporate, capitalist scum
let me put it this way, would a country that barely even listens to its own citizens listen to another country?
LEDCs dont need their debts to be dropped (it would be awesome though). But it would also do if medicine companies' (pfizer, bayer and etc.) illegal pressure on medicine patent rights were lifted.
i was just about ta reply there, and then i read yer post- and ya took the words right out of my mouth!
