something to ponder
Other than saying life is going very very well at the moment I haven't felt like i've had too much to say. But you know me... one of the two or both don't last so long.. So.. I have some things to say but not because things are any less grand. Mostly just insights within myself and views of the world that have been floating around in my head for a few days and are begging for exit. And I'm really getting tired of Liz Phair singing "Polyester Bride" in there too. She's been stuck for a few days. Poor Liz...
I dunno if this will be several different blogs yet or just one.. Depends on how my day goes I suppose but here goes...
*word to your moms! I came to drop bombs*
For those who don't know (where have you been) I am an NPR junkie! When I am working at the real job I listen to it all day long. I like it because it makes me think about the world in a much broader way and it doesn't just give one perspective. It gives 2 or 3 or more and lets me make up my own mind. Last week sometime I heard a story of a woman from a country in Africa *I don't remember which anymore.. Its been a week and I've heard lots of stories since* who firmly believed that food aid to her country was holding back progress instead of helping. When she was a child the country she lived in was doing well and then war came and tore down all of the infrastructure leaving people with very few ways to earn a living and because of food aid very little drive to rebuild. I've never thought about such a thing before but, man, my mind has been going ever since. Especially since I've been ever increasingly addicted to Freerice.com. *if you don't know what it is, go check it out and you'll see how big a nerd I really am... I totally just ruined my own rep.. Whatever that is..* anyways.. Back to the ideas... in a way, I can see her point. Desperation breeds desperate measures. Pushes people in ways they never knew they were capable of. Both in a positive and negative way. Some people will create opportunity that will advance them and theirs and more than likely a community around. Others will tear down others in order to provide for themselves. And others will simply wait for help still. When they finally realize it isn't coming they'll already be too weak to do anything about it. The question in this is which would be the overwhelming result. If the latter 2 are greater the first won't be able to wade through enough to succeed. Those who've managed to do well will more than likely end up being dragged down by the other two categories. The only way doing nothing can succeed is if there are mostly hard workers. Which isn't entirely impossible.
Does providing any food help make people les likely to stand on their own? Or is there a possibility of helping to build people and infrastructure at the same time. Give people a push in the right direction and slowly back off of food aid as people learn to stand on their own. Or are people inherently lazy and if they get enough to exist they are ok with that for now. The other thought that comes to mind... there are a lot of places the world has helped with food alone for a long long time and I wonder if it isn't just "here's some food now shut the hell up" instead of kindness and true compassion. Or is it one way to control a whole set of people and keep them on their knees intentionally?
I won't even go into all of the religious sectors that provide help and such because that's another bag of crackers all together.
Right now, I'm not really sure what I think about all of this. So, I'm curious. What do you think?
I dunno if this will be several different blogs yet or just one.. Depends on how my day goes I suppose but here goes...
*word to your moms! I came to drop bombs*
For those who don't know (where have you been) I am an NPR junkie! When I am working at the real job I listen to it all day long. I like it because it makes me think about the world in a much broader way and it doesn't just give one perspective. It gives 2 or 3 or more and lets me make up my own mind. Last week sometime I heard a story of a woman from a country in Africa *I don't remember which anymore.. Its been a week and I've heard lots of stories since* who firmly believed that food aid to her country was holding back progress instead of helping. When she was a child the country she lived in was doing well and then war came and tore down all of the infrastructure leaving people with very few ways to earn a living and because of food aid very little drive to rebuild. I've never thought about such a thing before but, man, my mind has been going ever since. Especially since I've been ever increasingly addicted to Freerice.com. *if you don't know what it is, go check it out and you'll see how big a nerd I really am... I totally just ruined my own rep.. Whatever that is..* anyways.. Back to the ideas... in a way, I can see her point. Desperation breeds desperate measures. Pushes people in ways they never knew they were capable of. Both in a positive and negative way. Some people will create opportunity that will advance them and theirs and more than likely a community around. Others will tear down others in order to provide for themselves. And others will simply wait for help still. When they finally realize it isn't coming they'll already be too weak to do anything about it. The question in this is which would be the overwhelming result. If the latter 2 are greater the first won't be able to wade through enough to succeed. Those who've managed to do well will more than likely end up being dragged down by the other two categories. The only way doing nothing can succeed is if there are mostly hard workers. Which isn't entirely impossible.
Does providing any food help make people les likely to stand on their own? Or is there a possibility of helping to build people and infrastructure at the same time. Give people a push in the right direction and slowly back off of food aid as people learn to stand on their own. Or are people inherently lazy and if they get enough to exist they are ok with that for now. The other thought that comes to mind... there are a lot of places the world has helped with food alone for a long long time and I wonder if it isn't just "here's some food now shut the hell up" instead of kindness and true compassion. Or is it one way to control a whole set of people and keep them on their knees intentionally?
I won't even go into all of the religious sectors that provide help and such because that's another bag of crackers all together.
Right now, I'm not really sure what I think about all of this. So, I'm curious. What do you think?