Why are those children starving in Africa?
Let me answer that this way. If I send a bag of rice to the starving in Africa, some of them will eat, and by eating, they will find the strength to conceive offspring. Then there will be more mouths to feed, and still about the same hope of feeding them. It's not God's fault, and it's not my fault.[..]
It was NEVER smart to try to live in a desert in the first place. Some African ancestor had a really DUMB idea way back when. There are all sorts of wild beasts out there.... Whoever settled there in the first place just wasn't as
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There are more terrains in Africa than desert... most live in those other areas.
Starvation, however often doesn't depend on climate but civil war between tribes.
Fought with weapons supplied by Western countries.
With the specific purpose to gain control of African natural resources.
So keep your fucking rice and just leave them alone.
The reason they are starving is because Europeans invaded their country, tore up the ground to try to force the land to be like Europe, made the natives farmers on land that wasn't suited for farming. Now, the land is barren, and the desert encroached because there was nothing to hold it back.
And, there used to be a time a woman would have 8 children, and be lucky if two reached adulthood. Then western medicines were brought in which was good, so if a woman had 8 babies, 6 or 7 survived. And of COURSE these idiots did nothing to teach about birth control, as that's against their religion.
Over population, on unarable land, or land that should never have been used for farming or grazing.
Do the math.
Wow. From an ecological POV, he's actually pretty damn accurate. Except he has yet to prove K-selection still works that way for humans in Africa.
"I think I have answered your question sufficiently."
Oh yes. You did.
Well, no, actually, you told me a lot about yourself.
Stay away from me, my family, my friends, and anyone I've ever met.
Why are those children starving in Africa?
Let me answer CORRECTLY. If I send armys through a land to loot it for all its wealth, There wont be a whole lot of food left for the people.
It was NEVER a time when these people chose to live in a desert, Those who do live in a desert do so only because they were driven there by invaders.
Nnnnnnnnno.
Also, assuming you're a northern europeaner American immigrant, your ancestors decided to live in a shitty, cold place presumably because they didn't want to fight for resources with other humans. They had to then deal with a lot of even less pleasant creatures and other hominids.
Clearly, those African children would have been lucky if their greatgreatgrandparents had been slaves! [/Pat Robertson]
Actually, this idiot isn't too far off. The part they're ignoring is that it was the Christians forcing them into an agrarian society that causes first, a swelling population, and secondly, a vulnerability to weather extremes. For millennia prior to that, these people were nomadic, going where the food went and their population never exceeded their means.
Christians forced them into an unsustainable societal model. Now they're starving and Christians are profiting more than ever through running charities to feed them. WTF!!!
@JonnyTruant and Ash:
This joker is totally wrong even from an ecological point of view. To begin with, Africa is enormous and has more unique ecological communities than any other continent with the exception of Eurasia (which is really a single landmass). Africa is extremely rich in natural resources and has abundant arable land. What African nations lack (generally speaking) is political stability--political stability ensures that land use is both efficient and sustainable. I don't have the expertise in either history or politics to make a strong argument regarding the causes of political instability in Africa, and I would guess that the causes are numerous and often unique to particular nations. I have heard several interesting ideas. One (obviously) is that the exploitation of Africa by European powers prevented self-governing bodies from being established until recently. Also, cultural diversity of Africa was not taken into account when establishing territorial boundaries by colonial powers. This has resulted in subdividing and mixing distinct cultural groups who have as yet not found common ground for establishing egalitarian governing bodies.
Feeding Africa won't provide political stability, but it will prevent people from starving. Undernourished children experience retarded cognitive development...will they be suitable leaders when they come of age? Further, undernourished people are more susceptable to disease. Would you expect someone with malaria to be economically very productive?
I don't know if Bridging The Gap is a fundy, but based on this comment, I would be willing to guess that he/she is both an idiot and an asshole.
Try surviving the winter in New York without a building, just for example.
Even if you insist that humankind did not arise in Africa, and insist without proof that we began in Eden, that's the headwaters of the Tigris. thats Iraq. That's a desert.
Actually, I really should stop trying to reason with morons.
"doesn't your "holy" book claim that our ancestors were from africa?"
which holy book??? citation please.....
Bridging the Gap is still talking nasty crap but we don't need to invent reasons they're wrong....
Not really fundie at all (God is mentioned once, ok), but very stupid nonetheless. People shouldn't make this kind of claim unless they would be happy for the entire starving population of Africa to move elsewhere.
Geography, biology and logic fail- among others.
It probably hasn't changed much. Back in the eighties, during the Ethiopian famine, Ethiopia was a net exporter of foodstuffs. Primarily Coffee, so that western consumers could have a choice of which blend to drink with breakfast. This coffee was produced on the best available arable land and sold, at rock bottom prices, to generate enough money to pay for the arms that were sold to the Ethiopian government, by the west, at much more than rock-bottom prices, so that the government could defend itself from the people who were starving because the best arable land etc, etc, etc.
"Then there will be more mouths to feed, and still about the same hope of feeding them. It's not God's fault"
Yes it is. Having given us the digestive system, and biological drives that he did with forethought and foreknowledge of the full consequences of it, as well as being responsible for the consequences of pursuing or not pursuing those drives, God is incredibly responsible for this. Don't even try to play that game.
"It was NEVER smart to try to live in a desert in the first place"
Well you're lucky that they weren't smart, then, because that's where your Bible came from!
"Some African ancestor had a really DUMB idea way back when. There are all sorts of wild beasts out there.... Whoever settled there in the first place just wasn't as
You are either some sort of retard, or a Poe. You cannot choose where you are born. And, guess what? Wild beasts tend to live in areas where there is readily available food (including other wild beasts) and water. You pretty much don't have much of a choice in the matter.
It was NEVER smart to try to live in a desert in the first place.
, they will find the strength to conceive offspring. Then there will be more mouths to feed, and still about the same hope of feeding them.
It's not God's fault,
I think I have answered your question sufficiently.
Things operate somewhat differently in sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture is difficult to establish, for various reasons, climate being only one of them.
I don't ask this question facetiously but, has there been even a week in African history when there wasn't some kind of tribal war in progress?
Very very stupid comment. Imagining that Africa is half desert / half rainforest is pure ignorance.
There's a large strip of land running from South Africa up through Zimbabwe that is the absolute most fertile land on the planet.
The Europeans who first farmed it properly a century ago couldn't believe they were getting double the yields of the best land in Europe.
"It was NEVER smart to try to live in a desert in the first place."
Africa isn't one big desert, brightness.
Um. . . I'm sorry, but when humans first settled in Africa it was NOT a desert (not that it's all desert now because it's definitely not). . . In fact, some places, like Ethiopia, had sufficient agricultural capabilities until recently. Furthermore, not only is Ethiopia a CHRISTIAN nation it is also the site for some of the oldest fossils of early humans ever discovered. So you have NOT answered the question with even the slightest amount of sufficiency.
"Let me answer that this way. If I send a bag of rice to the starving in Africa, some of them will eat, and by eating, they will find the strength to conceive offspring. Then there will be more mouths to feed, and still about the same hope of feeding them. It's not God's fault, and it's not my fault."
"It was NEVER smart to try to live in a desert in the first place. Some African ancestor had a really DUMB idea way back when. There are all sorts of wild beasts out there.... Whoever settled there in the first place just wasn't as
OK, up to "still about the same chance of feeding them", he actually has a point. Simply feeding the starving millions will just result in more starving millions. What we NEED to do is not only feed them, but provide them with adequate means of birth control so that they can have manageable families and a fighting chance of survival.
His argument just degenerates into a clusterf*** after that, though.
"Let's put all the fundies in a concentrated area".
I though Americans already did, with Texas and Oklahoma...
"Let me answer that this way. If I send a bag of rice to the starving in Africa, some of them will eat, and by eating, they will find the strength to conceive offspring. Then there will be more mouths to feed, and still about the same hope of feeding them. "
hi Thomas Malthus, didn't know you were still around...
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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