With all the criticism on US 'control' in vast areas, you have to admit, that never was such a power with so much --into-- humanitarian aid, kindness. Did anyone ever force US to feed Africans?, or to help Bosnian Muslims? or to help out Somali Muslims? or to shield Israelis from terrorists, or to free Liberians from civil war, etc.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp#ForeignAidNumbersinChartsandGraphs ... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yes, economics. Compassion does not exist in government, at least not in the way you are thinking. Government is more like a big corporation.
i consider the polio vaccine one of the worlds greatest humanitarian gifts. the eradication of smallpox must surely rank in the top 5.
It's difficult for a large nation to maintain a high degree of compassion. Its population inevitably becomes heterogeneous, either from immigration and annexation or from the natural tendency to form small communities bound together by religion, philosophy, and response to natural forces such as climate, topography, and proximity to other cultures. As friction develops between the inhabitants, emotional energy--not to mention resources--are diverted from the compassion that can be directed externally. I think for a country the size of the USA to be ranked close to New Zealand, Australia, and Portugal--countries with small populations whose ethnic and regional rivalries pale in comparison with ours--says a lot for us. To even be on the same list with Sweden, Holland, Britain, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and Japan, rather than lumped at the bottom in a category of "all other," is remarkable.
It was not a gift of compassion. Corporations, and countries do not usually act out of compassion, they act in their own best interest. Curing polio was great for the economy, and during this time the jobs actually stayed in America so it was a matter of national security to keep the labor supply healthy. Today no one cares about the labor supply because labor is itself a renewable resource. Labor is global, and the value of each individual is low enough where if polio existed now, it would not be cured, it would be treated but definately not cured. AIDS could be cured too, but it's being treated, not cured. Polio had it came about today, it would be like AIDs, or Cancer, or any of the current diseases. When thinking of government, think of a super sized corporation. Government, just like the corporation, exists to protect itself as an institution, and to protect profits. In the case of Government, profits are protected for corporations and corporate interests. In the case of corporations, profits are protected for shareholders. So the shareholders in a corporation, are very much like the corporations in a government. Corporations pay wages, as a way of giving security to vital workers. If you can be replaced by a Chinese or Indian, you will be replaced. It's the fault of Americans and American workers, for freely giving away all their sacred knowledge to the public school systems, and relying no degrees. We are now in a new age, an age where people with skills don't share their skills, and where people with knowledge don't share their knowledge. The days where you could go to school and learn a trade are over. The days where you could go to school to be something or be someone are over. Anything taught in school, will be learned by the Chinese, the Indians, and eventually the jobs will be exported there. So it's up to Americans to unite, because if we don't unite in the workplace we are all toast. All the racism in the world wont save your job from being outsourced to Japan, China, India, and this would not happen if you simply choose to keep your knowledge as a trade secret, or family secret, or just stop making it simple for people in other countries to do what you do. If we want to teach minorities, teach the minorities living in America, personally, 1 on 1. There was once a time, when there were trade guilds, and in these trade guilds, people actually did discuss their craft. Today it's not like that because people have lost their ability it seems to do what is in the national interest, the corporations interest, and as a result their own interest. It's the male employees vs the females, the black employees vs the whites, the immigrant employees vs the black and white employees, the gay employees vs the straight employees, etc. Then you have places like India and China, which benefit when we fight ourselves, they simply offer to do the same jobs for cheaper. I saw this happen with the computer industry, at first it was programming jobs so no one cared but now it's so much more than that, now it's the good jobs we are losing too, not just programming and call centers, but they are recieving the creative jobs, the web design jobs, the art jobs, the only jobs we are left with are the CEO jobs and quite simply, we can't all be CEO's, so we are being robbed of our jobs. This is one issue where Americans should be united, but each American thinks he or she can be CEO, so we are busy fighting to see who can bring the jobs to India and China fastest, thinking we'll just be able to make them do all the hardwork while we are a country of CEOs. I wish it were like this and I hope it can be like that. The day we are all CEO's, is the day I'll be able to become a multi-millionaire, but I just don't think it's going to work out like that.
Also from: http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp#ForeignAidNumbersinChartsandGraphs Commitment to Development talk is cheap, except when The US let's its money do the talking. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Spurious, that chart is very interesting, but I'm curious how it shows "compassion"? I'm also curious about whether you think money is a valid measure of "compassion"? I'm also curious about the chart from the aspect of where the money came from? I.e., in the USA, there are billions of dollars sent to national and international aid agencies, not just the government. So does that chart take in private donation money as well as government tax dollars? Know what I mean?? I hope? Baron Max
At one time I think we were, for some people. But we are the furthest thing from compassionate now. War=Patriotism Dissent=Terrorist The new world order has arrived.
Who are you to define "we" for the rest of us? You are of your tribe, the rest of us are of our own. Stop pretending to speak for all of us. You can't.
oops, i forgot the US made it possible. it would've been a gift of compassion if it came from a european country right? the US invented the peace corp you know.
Shhh. We're supposed to be shit. Being the really good shit has nothing at all to do with their expectations. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
There are compassionate people. Governments and corporations are not individual people, they are collective persons. There are some good non profits. Compassion is in people not in systems, or numbers.
the US government is directly responsible for every US citizen getting the polio vaccine free of charge. john f. kennedy one of the US presidents created the peace corp.
Not the US government, individuals in the US government. See you just don't get it, just because there are compassionate people in the country, it does not mean that the government by design is compassionate, or that compassion is some sorta feature of the US government. Also, I don't think health security is or was about compassion. Keeping your workforce healthy just makes sense, as corporations would have lost fortunes if the American workforce were to lose population. This is why you had the population boom, it had nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with national security and profits. Government focuses on national security, not on compassion. Yes you can say Kennedy may have done this or done that, and yeah you can say FDR may have done this or done that, but the peacecorp also has security purposes.
Ask the original poster. He proposed that humanitarian aid shows compassion. If anyone actually had bothered to follow the link I gave you could also have read that aid is actually dwarved by the effects of first world subsidies, third world debt, unequal Trade etc. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRe...stWorldSubsidiesThirdWorldDebtUnequalTradeetc I wouldn't call the USA or any first world country compassionate.
