Creating an imbalance of wealth is dangerous, especially where the balance is so delicate. Relish her "Xi xi gu. Xi xi gu," and feel good about helping one family, but this is parallel to handing one person in your local ghetto a winning lotto ticket - they are bound to squander their good fortune (granted, farmers use resources much more wisely than any city-dweller). And, what about the billions of people who will continue to live with similar tragedies as these people did before the water buffalo? What gives you the right to favor one family over all the others? Maybe building a McDonald's and a Tim Horton's will make everything perfect for everyone? Gift-giving is great for a momentary lifting of the human spirit, but upsetting nature's balance is dangerous... as we have proven over and over again.
Ok. You hate me because I have no heart. But ask yourself: If these people could barely feed themselves, how were they going to feed the cow, which eats about 40kg of grass or grain every day? It's not like the muddy side of a mountain yields edible vegetation as does a grassy knoll in Yorkshire. And how do they feed themselves? Probably buffalo meat, and a Big Mac meal they bought with cash from selling their daughter. Life's rough out there, and a few thousand years of existence has given it balance. Don't mess with real life.
Actually we do give them our old computers, but they don't run them, they take them apart and cook them down in big frying pans for the to extract the metals.
syzygy...that's as negative a commentary as one might expect to hear on an open site. Someone once said that you (at that time meaning employers) can not be the conscience of the world...this, to people who were trying to solve the ills of their work forces and communities. She was, of course, correct. But this should not chill the desire to help others. Because one (or a random number of others) are uniquely benefited by a process that can not possibly be effective over vast numbers of needy, well, why should we not benefit those few?
Don't mean to be argumentative...and syzygy seems experienced here...just cogitating the options.
I understand it sounds negative (as I do to many), but it has been my experience: "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." I have been doing volunteer work to help people pull themselves up by their own means. The volunteer work also gives petty criminals doing community time a hands-on skill that they did not know they had (many try to hold a tough-face... I do what I can to crack it so they can enjoy what I enjoy). After finishing their community time, some return to become volunteers so they can help other people the same way they were helped (crack 'em, build 'em up). Related: I had a well-off friend who did what podman writes (below) - he backpacked Thailand for fun every year as a tweener. He stumbled upon a poor tribal village (poor meaning; water was scarce in that part of the jungle - no running water, rain did not fall often, all resulting in poor crops, and health was bad). The next year he brought a Thai contractor and had a simple fresh-water well dug. Soon they had fresh water for hygiene and crops. A few years later the village had surplus crops and could buy things to help with the crops, and to slowly build a "town" - Chief's house, doctor's, school, etc. For many years he returned to see progress. Probably cost the same as a cow, maybe a tad more.
Yes, do what you can. I like to challenge those who can to do it for life.
Syzgy you used exactly the phrase I was thinking of 'when you teach a man to fish etc' when watching this, and I fully understand your view of minimizing imbalance.
I don’t want to start a heated debate as I kinda agree that problems can occur when charity gives without thought to the consequences… In this instance though I really think here that the farmer has already been taught how to ‘fish’, he just didn’t have a rod!
We are told the area is agrarian / farming focused and there appears to be feed in their living area (which the team no doubt saw fit to purchase) so the animal will be fed and cared for. I very much doubt they would butcher it in an area like this; sell it on to another farmer perhaps, but this in itself is unlikely, the reason for this being…
In many farming communities in rural Asia, there are many ‘have nots’.
This farmer just became a very definitive 'have' and will easily be able to hire himself out, using the creature as the bovine equivalent of a contractor's tractor, thereby providing him the means to til the earth and increase his productivity hugely, not only on his own land, but that of others.
I appreciate what you say regards food, and no doubt when he’s contracting out the animal, food will be part of the deal when he arrives at his customer's land. At least that's how it works normally in Asia.
This is also crucial - the guy also helped in a way that was NOT contrary to the way of life of these people in general. They use Buffalo as working tools and care for them accordingly – it’s their livelihood after all. There was a shop in the village selling them – kind of makes you think there’s a demand there?
Your question ‘why should THIS family benefit?’ is definitely interesting and I’m with Chaz on this one – in some instances every little helps if thoughtfully given
Yes – these people benefited through fate, luck, circumstance, whatever. Is that wrong?
The guy helped because he could and I don’t really see that there is anything which would put that local balance out of kilter. Unless the local communist party head decides different…
Had he turned up with a John Deere 7800 Tractor and given it away then yep, an imbalance could justifiably be said to have happened! He didn’t though, he gave a locally used living tool to a farmer who needed it.
Would be interesting to go back in a year though and see…
Now do we know any parts of the world with a vital need for Chihuahuas?
Well said, mak. A painful part of growing up (for me) was realizing; for every hand in which I placed my pocket change, there were hundreds of thousands of hands open and empty. Still get the feeling, but learned to live with (read: hide from... ignore) the painful facts of the world. In a phrase, "Life's not fair."
syzygy. Ni hao ma? O genki desu ka? Good analysis, good questions, wrong crowd, 'cept Chaz. See how quickly it deteriorated into inanity? The usual suspects.
Interestingly, your anecdote about that kid in Thailand is the GWB vision for America. in fact it an old American tradition, and it pleases me to know it's still going on. A kind heart, a few bucks and common sense. Funny your interlocutors can't figure that out. Good luck
I, for one am a realist. syzygy is right about feeding the thing, i would think. that water buffalo was either 1) sold for quick cash 2) hamburger 3) stolen
if we gave them old computers insted of waterbuffalos thay could surf glumbert all day and then there would be no need for them to work at all. and we could have more friends and foes. every one wins :)
in the US, you would need to pay withholding and state and local tax and get it registered and pink slipped and show the ability to garage it and....and....and.....
I kinda agree with syzygy, I think this is the kind of shallow thinking endemic in the affluent. The money would have been better spent on a project for the whole community, or medicine, or anything that they could all use. But, I'm not as familiar with Chinese culture as this guy is, so I guess I have to bend to his experience.
hey pod...just posted a response to syzygy. You think pretty clearly...will like to hear you response to my reply up above. I believe that type of thinking is the sort of thing that keeps help from even beginning. "Do what you can do" and if it only works for some....then there is a benefit for them that no one would otherwise have had. Wait until you can do it for all.........never............never......going to happen.
Well I don't disagree with you either, but if I had a choice of receiving a gift or a job, I would take the job. I have been poor, and I am often bewildered by the wrongheaded approach taken in many instances of giving. It is certainly a direct benefit to the family, and a indirect benefit to the community at large, but Syz is also correct that there may be certain social downfalls to the family as a result. I don't really know.
Any help is good, but without taking precautions as to the manner and intelligence of how it is applied, can lead to damaging, or even deadly consequences.
Sadly, no, I did not read your posting until now. I saw so many long winded comments and simply skipped to the end. My apologies....you can share my hanky :)
Haf I got zis wrong? Do not ze little yellow fiends haf ze fastest growing economy in ze vorld? Ze Vashington Post says zat, in two years, zey vill be able to buy ze USA.
Do zey need ein farmyard animal to help zem achieve zis?
No adolf you are not wrong. In fact they own the US economy. The 'they' in China is just like the 'they' here, the top two percent own almost everything, and have the control, and have the wealth.
Good question! I guess they don't have enough money for charity. We must all look to the great philanthropist Miss Paris Hilton. The answer lies there.
I haf followed her career vith interest in ze popular Yankee press und am most taken vith her appearance und personality. Vile some may say she is, how do you say, "ein airhead", I for von vood use her scheise fur toothpaste!!
Und she is also ein kvite gut hotel.
Adolf - If at all possible you should have her. We really want you to have her. We don't want her here. The next time she is visiting the Buenos Aires Hilton, you and your men should capture her, and keep her there.
back to the story, when americans are in the 3rd world we get this guilt, we have what we need and we look to pass it on to "take away the guilt". I do feel the WB will help the family, but they'll have to keep guard on it.
....gasp...gasp...gasp.....no charitable act from 'merica is noble...it's all because they need venting for their guilt, them rich sob's.....arrrgghhh.
Okedokey...Bill and Melinda need to hear this so they can stop their damned self-indulgent efforts at expiation by flooding the "poor market" with their damned gifts of food, water, books, infrastructure...should just tell 'em all how to fish.
Somehow, I really....REALLY...think that those benefited won't appreciate it should their foreign aid stop because some (forgive me for the adjective) cynical observers believe the givers are faulted.
sheeesh......is there nothing 'mericans can do that's OK?
OK, now these people need to denounce the Red Gov't and rise up in revolution to impose the rule of the one true Savior... George W. Bush! Maybe we would be greeted as liberators if we rolled in a convoy of water buffalo?
Anyhow, is that guy so bad at the violin that he has to play in China? Was North korea and Sierra Leone all full of first chairs? I hope he got permission for ripping off The Fray with his hack version... I guess since he is in China he doesn't realize that there have been 100,000 touching videos using that as background music?
So this guy’s blog solicits money for a non existent gift. Smacks of “Oh those poor people, I have so much money and I feel guilty. Oh look here I can give a poor family a gift to assuage me of my self loathing.”
Which leads me to another rant: Why do Americans always feel they have to help others change their way of life or the way they do things? In Africa, the natives wait for the peace corps or missionary to leave and then go back to they way they have always done things, until the next self righteous idiot show’s up to show them how to do things again…
What rule of the universe says things are done best in the US?
If you wish to purge your guilt by way of your pocket book, by all means let me give you the address of my charity.
"Why do Americans always feel they have to help others change their way of life or the way they do things?"
Not all Americans feel this way. Unfortunately as is displayed here in this video, ordinary Americans don't really leave the country that much, so what the rest of the world sees from us is the wealthy idiots, the crazed religious nuts, or the self centered business people. There really are good Americans, but I guess you will have to visit here to find them.
Screw all countries and the US should shut down all aid to other countries. Use that aid to help our nation, rather than some poor hungry bastards 10,000 miles away. Bring all the troops home. If there is hostility in the world, screw them. Only become involved if it involves the US.
Lets hear the comments about how the US is screwing the other countries already. Maybe they should be wearing chastity belts then.
....gasp...gasp...gasp.....no charitable act from 'merica is noble...it's all because they need venting for their guilt, them rich sob's.....arrrgghhh.
Okedokey...Bill and Melinda need to hear this so they can stop their damned self-indulgent efforts at expiation by flooding the "poor market" with their damned gifts of food, water, books, infrastructure...should just tell 'em all how to fish.
Tho' I don't have the referece available to me at this moment, I recently read of how our big-time earners have devoted big bucks to support the needy. Cynics might demean this largess as a means for the giver to gain tax benefits (sheeeeeeeeesh....that is exactly why the benefits were structured...does nothing to lessen the benefit to the needy). I think that if I had the resources of the captains of industry, I might not be as generous as some of our current givers...then again, maybe.
Somehow, I really....REALLY...think that those benefited would not appreciate it should their foreign aid stop because some (forgive me for the adjective) cynical observers believe the givers are faulted.
sheeesh......is there nothing 'mericans can do that's OK?
This video shows the main difference between the vast majority of the poor in other countries and our own country. Our poor feed on unemployment and squander what little money they have on ridiculous items they cannot afford. These poor people work their ass off just to stay alive! No wonder most people like to help people from other countries rather than our own.
I belive you are on to something here. There was a recent report that indicated the majority of poor people in America had more than 1 colour TV and AC in their homes.
This "work to stay alive" work ethic is exactly why immigrants to the US are usualy far more sucessfull than those who are raised in the US. Contray to "Bubba's" belief, immigrants don't get free money from the US Gvt, they do pay taxes and work harder. In fact, immigrants do not receive any benifit from their Social Security payments untill the have worked consistanly in the US for 10 years! Furthermore, they have no say in how the country is run as they can not vote untill they have citizenship - which in it's self takes something link 5 or 6 years.
Are you ein rich person? Vot is your "own country"?
Ze poor Chinamen gamble all zer money und ze poor Africans spend much on prostitutes. Ze Tibetan poor buy ridiculous fluttering flags und ze poor South Americans buy much tequila und cocaine. Poor volk in Albania buy muskets to kill ze rich volk who steal zer babies. Ze poor aborigines in Australia buy ze alcoholic drinks, und ze poor eskimos in Greenland do ze same.
Ven I vos poor, I bought only underpants, but I am ze exception.
Ze Yankee poor are no more stupid zan ze poor of any ozzer nation. Zey are just more irritating. But zen, so are ze rich Yankees.
if you are serious about that queston, then the answer is yes.
as Americans to make the rest of the world happy is as follows.
we only need to conform to strummins ideals and beliefs .
buy your very own non peronalized Bible which shall be then scrutinized by strummin, or those high of rank in the strummin group.
to learn this text and only this text . shunning all other form of literature regaurdless of its total validity .
all this will be easy of course since you now know the southern Christen art of mind closeing .
this being the one true art still accepted in the "new order"
you shall have the mind of a steal trap welded shut and void of all light .
but fear not for there will be growth. does fungas need light?
and then then you need take all that you have learned and go amongst those people of the world more weak then yourself . (preferably starving) being easeyer for getting the job done.
lastly if conversion of the soul in not imminent then killing the host is very much permitable.
now the world is ready to love americans and its all because of Christen love..........oohh wait a sec here it seems this was allready tr...........FUCKKKKK ,DAMMIT .
never mind.....
to convert call now toll free 1-800 -your fucked , thats 1-800-your fucked'
CALL NOW !!!!!!
Thats the number I called to return the Christian home lobotomy kit. I think it's the same number for the RNC. The Holy Squirrel told me to return it. I'm a true follower of the Squirrelnetics from now on. Randal would you like to be a High Priest in my new Squirrel church?
Unlike Christianity, you will get to keep all of your nuts.
syzygy, what the fuck kinda cow eats 40 kilograms of food a day????? Cheese-and-rice, it must be Babe, the blue-fuckin' ox....My horses don't eat 40 kg a day. That's like, 88 pounds dude. Trim-spa for that walking burger...
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