From: Neil Blanch (neilb@nswcc.org.au)
Date: Wed Dec 19 2001 - 23:00:22 MST
Mike Lorrey wrote:
"Well, for starters, lets first scale everything to a progressive scale
like left wingers are so wont to do when it benefits their arguments:
Israel Afghanistan Egypt
%/capita GDP supplied by aid: <0.85% >1.5% <0.66%
So it seems that the US was providing almost twice as much aid to the
Afghan people as to the people of Israel (note that more than 1/3 of the
citizenship of Israel are Muslim arabs). Don't you think that this
demonstrates a significant bias by the US AGAINST the Israeli people and
FOR the Afghan people?"
Mike, using progressive scale measurements is yet another cop out that the
1st world (most notable the USA) uses to justify the continuing poverty &
unfair allocation of resources to 3rd world countries. The fact is that
people in countries like Afghanistan live in poverty and the foreign aid
that they receive only provides the barest minimum of advances. Regardless
of a country's GDP, major life enhancing projects like improving electrical
or telco infrastructure & even real basics like clean water cost big bucks,
and it is countries with low GDP's (like Afghanistan) that need the most
help and the most money to make real improvements in the lives of their
citizens. Afghanistan in particular now needs real help from the USA - many
of the problems that Afghanistan faces are the direct result of US policy,
even prior to the "War on Terrorism", in fact in many respects one can see
the seeds of the economic, humanitarian, religious & military situation in
Afghanistan in the foreign policy of the US, Pakistan & the USSR, and it is
no great leap of intellect to see the same forces to be at least partly
responsible for the terrible acts of September 11.
If one thing is learnt from the attacks on the WT centre it should be this:
the 1st World*, and most especially the USA can no longer afford to pursue
foreign policy without regard to the effects such policy will have on the
people of other nations. The propping up of mad dictators & inhumane juntas
MUST stop. The exploitation of foreign workers and ecologies for the profit
of a few rich shareholders MUST stop. The 1st world and the US in particular
MUST act responsibly, failure to do so generates the hatred, generates the
economic misery that lunatic organisations like Al Quada thrive upon. The
saddest thing of all, is that by acting responsibly on a global scale, and
improving the lives of lesser nations, America & the 1st world* will
eventually benefit in many ways; economically through new markets & the
development of new products, militarily by having other countries (& most
importantly the populations of those countries) being better disposed
towards the 1st world, culturally by the infusion of new ideas, ecologically
by the adoption of cleaner & more ecologically responsible technologies -
the list goes on. These are not short term benefits, and it will take a
strong government with a real commitment to take the world down this path.
It CAN be done if only we of the 1st world have the courage, if America
makes good on it's promise of being the "land of the free" & the "defender
of freedom".
*Please note that I do not exclude my country (Australia) from my criticism.
At present the Australian government, always the first to criticise other
countries for their failure to uphold basic human rights, is engaged in what
can only be called the politics of hatred, by demonising legitimate
political refugees (including going so far as to manufacture photographic
evidence) in order to illegally imprison them in sub standard housing, quite
literally in the middle of one of the harshest deserts in the world.
Australia currently treats refugees (including those from Afghanistan who
are fleeing the Taliban - the regime we are at war with!) infinitely worse
than it treats prisoners of war or even those who commit violent crimes like
rape & murder. This illegal imprisonment (for some people the imprisonment
length could be indefinite) extends to women & children, many of whom have
suffered from or witnessed murder & torture. This, the treatment of
indigenous Australians and the ecological insanity of the current government
make my country no better than the US, or China or many other nations.
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