Re: An interesting view on how 'green' CFLs really are:

"Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:vq6dnfJPk7-8Xg3VnZ2dnUVZ_tHinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:


Kris Krieger wrote:

Also, from all I've read and heard, there is a US policy of not
exporting birth control to the poor in various nations, a policy
which is not based upon the would-be recipients own needs, desires,
or choice, but rather, upon the personal beliefs regarding morality
of people here.


Over the years I have seen a bunch of news stories about attempts
to
provide birth control pills in poor African nations. They provided the
pills and classes on how to use them, then ome back to find they
weren't taken properly, or the women made jewlery out of them. It's
just like drilling wells and providing modern farming tools. They tach
them how to farm, then the next year they just eat the seed corn and
let the tools rust away.

I haven't read that this happens after the proper useage of the thigns
has been explained. One forblem with condomns BTW is cultural -
although, in some cultures, a woman's desire to have fewer children
and/or space them out better is considered to be irrelevant, and/o the
use of a condomn is seen as "unmanly". It's how they were brought up,
and it's nto some simple matter to get around cultural beliefs.

Some people don't want a better life, if it
means they have to do anything for themselves. that is why thye live
like they do. It's the same, all over the world. If those people were
in the US, they would be trailer trash. If they wanted a better life,
they would move to a town where they could find work, better food, and
a better life. You just can't help spme people.

I think that's both incredibly harsh, and at best inaccurate. Yes,
"some" people choose to live in ways that are self-destructive. But
you're treading perilously close to implying that anyone who, for
example, lives way out in the countryside of a poor nation, who has never
had access to an education, and leads a hand-to-mouth existence, is only
that way by choice. Not everyone has access to the things that would
even make them aware they might have achoice, never mind to the things
that woudl allow them to actualy implement a choice to change their
situation.

It's also inflammatory, and not relevent, to claim that someone would be
"trailer trash" if they lived in the US, becasue:
(1) unless you know specific cases, it's an unproveable accusation;
and
(2) it ignores the cultural, environmental, political, and material
realities that exist in other parts of the world - not everyone can
simply move to a town, and a great many towns/cities are worse tahn the
villages becasue of extremely high unemployment, poverty that can't even
be relieved by planting soemthign, due to there being no land, and an
overall dismal quality of life.

If you want to question whether any nation has an obligation to support
people in anotehr nation, then address *that* question, but don't justify
an unwillingness to help/educate/etc. by merely implying that people
choose to live in countries such as Burma, where the military
dictatorship takes pretty much everything away from them, or in countries
where roving armed bands randomly commit acts of robber and genocide, and
so on, and so forth.

At the same time, it's well-known that brain development suffers when a
child doesn't receive (or can't be given) adequate nutrition. When this
is combined with lack of education, and/or a damaging upbringing, it can
make "choice" *extremely* difficult. Now, I am a big beleiver in choice,
because of my own life, but I also know that there are a lot fo
circumstances taht make chocie difficult. And in the case of, say, the
people victimized by situations such as that in Darfur, the only
"choice" is to stay, of walk across the desert - they cannot "choose" to
not be poor.

As for education, anyone involved in education must take into account the
previous experience, education level, nutritional situation, culture, and
other aspects of the lives of the poeple being educated. One can't just
go in to some traditional village, give a short talk, and claim to have
"educated" the people - even under teh best circumstances, education is a
*process* that requires understanding, openmindedness, and creative
thinking on the part of the educator. Any doof can stand in front of a
group of well-nourished, well-reared children with above-average
intelligence, and have them parrot back pretty much whatever is
presented, regardles sof how it's persented. WHen one goes into a group
of disadvantaged children/adults, however, it's an entirely different,
and very challenging, situation.




It's one of those thing that seems obvious, but runs head-on into
very deeply-held beliefs which oppose voluntary population reduction
- curiously, a great people seem to oppose birth control *far* more
bitterly than they oppose war...



.

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