Somalia has is officially experiencing a famine.
We're giving more than $400,000,000 in aid to the area, and Hillary Clinton says it's not enough, that we have to give more.
Umm...
'Kay...
But...
Pardon me while I pitch a tiny little fit over here in the corner.
What the hell are you thinking, woman?? Where the hell do you think the money's going to come from?
And while I'm having my hissy...what about the people with no food, no shelter, no medicine, right here in THIS freakin' country? Oh, wait, they don't count because...umm...you know? I'm not sure why they don't count...no one has yet satisfied my curiosity in the matter. All I know is, from where I'm sittin', the people who have basic needs going unmet in this country mean exactly bupkus to our nation's so-called leaders and that alleged bastion of compassion, the UN.
There's a record drought going on right smack in the middle of our nation. People, livestock, and crops are dropping dead in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, as far north as Michigan and down into the Carolinas. At the current rate, in a few months you'll be paying a whole lot more for a bucket of the Colonel's extra crispy, or a pound of beef, or your Thanksgiving bird, if you can afford 'em at all. Corn? Tomatoes? Wheat? Ouch... The economy has tanked enough that people can't afford seeds for a garden to raise their own food, let alone being able to donate money to feed others. What does Clinton propose we do? Squeeze a little more out of the people who don't have anything left to give, I imagine...she's a politician, and that's how they roll. Considering what she makes in a year, she can reach into her own danged pocket and leave the rest of us alone.
It's not that I'm lacking in compassion...I hurt for the children who don't make it, for the people who wonder if there will be water, or food, this week. Please believe that if I could, I would feed 'em all. I can't, though...and while I feel deeply wounded that anyone, anywhere is hungry, and while I would feed them if they were in my house even though it meant going hungry myself (because that's how I roll), I also feel that it's crucial to take care of the people in our own back yard before we go looking around the globe for places to dump resources.
I will spare you my thoughts on indiscriminate breeding among humans, about reproductive rights and education and social programs that do more harm than good...they're skewed at best and more than a little likely to piss people off.
Right now all I can see, all I can wonder is why, why, why are we supposed to carry other nations when we can't even carry ourselves (questions the woman who has to be carried most of the time, herself, but that's a whole other kettle)???
I wish Somalia luck...but for now they're going to have to right themselves without my help...I'm worried about Treesong, Scifi Chick, Phelan, the Hermit, and scores of other folks right here at home who are facing hot, dry, and hungry times ahead without benefit of the UN or their own representatives giving a rat's patootie whether they make it.
*Who's Bob? No one. Everyone. The guy or gal who is struggling to get through today, tomorrow, the next day...you know...Bob...
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6 comments:
And here's a thought: Instead of sending all that money abroad, how 'bout paying off some of the national debt that may be defaulted on. We're going to be owned by other countries soon.
Amen sister!! I've NEVER understood why we have to feed and police the whole world while our own populace is starving and in trouble. Who is old Hillary trying to impress anyhow? I have a friend whose mantra is-"If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em." And don't even get me started on Haiti, we've been propping them up for more than a century. GGGRRRRRR. Now don't get me wrong, a natural disaster is an entirely different ballgame, and to send hospital ships to help when there is a volcano or an earthquake is understandable, but, how come no one comes to our aid? It's a conundrum.
You are SO right.
I couldn't agree with you more. Hope you don't mind if I link over. You have touched on a subject that many of us are ticked off about. We spend millions and millions of dollars supporting other countries while people here at home are loosing hope. Tough times are here and are only going to get tougher after this summer. They have called this the summer of hell and I believe them.
I thought so much money was wasted on the space program. Why? So we could have a bigger penis than Russia.
Don't get me started on all the countries we help out financially. It's a mystery to EVERYONE why, in these times, we bailed out the car companies and the banks but let hardworking citizens lose their homes.
Changing political parties doesn't appear to help. Voting for the "other" guy is the same as voting for your guy. Nightmare.
location, location, location.. anyone notice where Somalia is? How 'bout them pirates? With Yemen as a neighbor.. what other "issues" do you think is a problem there? 1 hint and it goes boom.
Now.. before anyone goes on about feeding ourselves.. in the last 9 out of 10 years we have had to import more food than we export. Also, the whole commercial farming system, 1 farmer essentially is working to feed about 155 people... for a year. They do it because the whole system is based off of OIL.
No oil= no tractors, no fertilizers, no burn-down chemicals, ironically then no corn to make ethanol so we can pretend it is some means of independence from fossil fuel.. etc.
Yeah the weather has been nuts. A 2 week delay in planting can result in up to 50% lower yields in several primary crops.. corn/ soya. As most livestock is corn fed and finished.. and more farmers are being encouraged to grow yet another GMO for ethanol.. food crop land is being lost to "ethanol" crop land. (In Mexico.. it is cheaper for them to buy OUR subsidized corn.. than to grow it themselves! And they are in an area where they think that plant originated!!)
I can agree with you on that we do have a ton of problems.. some of it politics.. some of it corporate.. most of it greed.. and we passed the maximum capacity of people the Earth can sustainably carry a long while ago. As in technically.. there are too many of us the generation before ours. There are several "peaks" coming in resources and things will get significantly more interesting.
So there is a vested interest in keeping that area quiet.. and it does have to do with US not losing much in their daily comfort. As for seed prices.. that's a whole other war that most are unaware of.. one we are losing in our own backyards. Or.. one could always save their own as opposed to dependency on others.
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