World food crisis? Stop having kids.

[steward 433]

The prices aren't the same here as there :thud:

The reason they have many children is because:
1. Not all of them will survive
2. If they do survive they are used to work for the family, to make money

It may not work too well but there aren't many choices for them

Maybe not but to have children just because some of your others might die is f***ing outrageous and says everything that needs to be said about their culture!!

 

[Rangdo]

What food crisis? I went down Asda last night and their shelves were overflowing with the stuff. My cupboards are practically bursting at the hinges today. I'm going to have to eat double portions for the next week just to get rid of the stuff.

 

[SNOOBS]

Maybe not but to have children just because some of your others might die is f***ing outrageous and says everything that needs to be said about their culture!!

It says everything about the situation they are in, that is what they have to resort to.

 

[beorhthelm]

its nothing to do with catholic church - though they dont help. families in poor third world countries have loarge families as they expect several of them to die, but they need a couple of children to survive to adulthood to support them in old age. we used to do exactly the same, even in the last centrury working class areas prone to poorer health had larger families.

many cultures havnt adapted family sizes to the improvements in basic health care and better food supplies, combined with poor distribution of foods and our sanctimonious attitude to save all the people of the world no matter what conditions they then live in. Getting rid of churches would certainly help, but it also requires deeper cultural change.

 

[steward 433]

They would have to go back to slaughtering each other the old fashioned way with Clubs and spears I suppose.

Interestingly big Pharma tries to tell us all that they give loads of medicines away over there, which they do, but in fact it is usually done to avoid paying tax rather than for alturistic reasons. The problem is also that Pharma companies spend very little time and effort on developing effective treatments for Malaria, dysentry etc which are endemic in poor nations because they have no money to pay for such treatments, Pfizer and GSK would rather spend their time and effort developing baldness treatments and erectile dysfunction treatments than trying to cure Typhiod and Yellow fever.

That's because very sadly developed nations are too vain (sorry Buzzer) and the pharma companys can make more money with the baldness cures etc. The CEO's of those companys should hang their heads in shame profit over humanity.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Anal sex is the answer





Thought i would get that one in first

Actually there is good evidence that AIDs is such a massive problem in Africa is in part due to men insisting on "Mr brown back door" when the ladies are on their periods.

Also condoms are another thing that have yet to catch on.

 

[crasher]

Clean water medicine and food seem to come a very poor second to arms out there.

The G8 nations and maybe even NATO should pitch in to help stop the arms trade out there.

It's often the g8 nations and NATO countries who are making big bucks from selling the weapons to these countries. Perhaps if we halted all arms exports from this country we could claim the moral high ground. But not till the.

 

[Normal Rob]

with Aids running at pushing 50% in many African countries I think that the answer is to encourage them to shag more...

 

[steward 433]

Actually there is good evidence that AIDs is such a massive problem in Africa is in part due to men insisting on "Mr brown back door" when the ladies are on their periods.

Also condoms are another thing that have yet to catch on.

Condoms haven't caught on because 85% of Africans are CATHOLIC

 

[steward 433]

It's often the g8 nations and NATO countries who are making big bucks from selling the weapons to these countries. Perhaps if we halted all arms exports from this country we could claim the moral high ground. But not till the.

True sadly our government are involved as well but it's way past time that this all stopped

 

[KZNSeagull]

The thing I don't get is when they say "Sponsor just £2 a month and you can feed a child". Do they get some kind of discount because there is no way you could feed a child even for a day on that kind of budget in this country.

You could if all you ate was Rice, Pap (Mealie Meal) or bread, which is the staple diet of most poor Africans. This food crisis has been caused because the price of these commodities, plus oil, has shot up.

There is also a cultural issue with regards to contraception and family sizes. Providing condoms free to everyone does not mean that they will be used, hence one of the reasons that AIDS is such a major issue in Africa - culturally people are dissuaded from using them, and not just by the Catholic church. In some African cultures, a girl will not be married unless she can prove that she can have children, hence teenage pregnancies are epidemic. It can also be argued that the more children you have, the more likely that one of them will grow up and get a job and therefore look after the rest of the family.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Condoms are also not readily available. I spent some time in a hospital in rural Malawi and they had not had a single new syringe in 6 months. No wonder AIDS is a massive killer in Africa...

The developed nations could take massive steps to help out these countries, but cancelling the debt was not a popular move surprisingly. Despite most countries having paid and serviced many times the original amount.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I also remember reading that organisations like Medicines sans Frontiéres prefer to buy drugs from Pharma companies rather than rely on freebies because then the companies are less likely to suddenly decide to stop making crucial drugs or decide just not to supply one year as has happened in the past

 

[steward 433]

Condoms are also not readily available. I spent some time in a hospital in rural Malawi and they had not had a single new syringe in 6 months. No wonder AIDS is a massive killer in Africa...

The developed nations could take massive steps to help out these countries, but cancelling the debt was not a popular move surprisingly. Despite most countries having paid and serviced many times the original amount.

I would pull all of our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and deploy them across Africa to dig wells etc.

Be worth it in the long run when the land is irrigated and crops could once again flourish out there.

As for cancelling the debt most of the corrupt governments out there would just spend the extra money on arms or lining their pockets

 

[steward 433]

I also remember reading that organisations like Medicines sans Frontiéres prefer to buy drugs from Pharma companies rather than rely on freebies because then the companies are less likely to suddenly decide to stop making crucial drugs or decide just not to supply one year as has happened in the past

That's just plain disgusting :thud:

 

[Gully]

I went to South Africa in 2003 and got chatting with a lady who told me that the country is resigned to losing a whole generation to AIDS, they realised back then that it was too late to do anything about it, I am sure this situation is faced by many other countries on the continent.

I stayed in a hotel in Tanzania in the late 90's, there were free condom dispensers on each floor of the hotel...these had been kindly provided by the World Health Organisation, however on inspection they were several years past their use by date...so, I don't think they were that popular.

 

[beorhthelm]

Maybe not but to have children just because some of your others might die is f***ing outrageous and says everything that needs to be said about their culture!!

i dont think you have any right to say what is right and wrong about their culture. its pragmatism, you do what you have to in order to survive. whats the alternative, euthanasia of the sick, infirm and elderly?

Condoms haven't caught on because 85% of Africans are CATHOLIC

now thats just bollocks, Africa is not even 85% christian.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I would pull all of our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and deploy them across Africa to dig wells etc.

Be worth it in the long run when the land is irrigated and crops could once again flourish out there.


As for cancelling the debt most of the corrupt governments out there would just spend the extra money on arms or lining their pockets

That interests me as well, why don't these thirsty people just dig their own wells? why does it take some gap year kids from Surrey to go over there and do it for them? surely if your kids are dying of thirst and you have a spade you'd just get on with it?

 

[Gwylan]

Maybe not but to have children just because some of your others might die is f***ing outrageous and says everything that needs to be said about their culture!!

Er..that was actually British culture too not so long ago. In the Victorian era and before, families had large families precisely because infant mortality was so high. It took some time for those attitudes to die out - I know of several people from families of eight or more; one of Mrs Gwylan's friends is one of 12 - so today's small families are a relatively new phenomenon.

It's nothing to do with culture, it's to do with poverty, pure and simple. Children are an ecoonomic necessity, just as they were here about 60 or 70 years ago.

 

[steward 433]

That interests me as well, why don't these thirsty people just dig their own wells? why does it take some gap year kids from Surrey to go over there and do it for them? surely if your kids are dying of thirst and you have a spade you'd just get on with it?

I know i would if it was my little boy