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Originally posted by MaggieL
Since it's "only a temporary fix", do you really think they'll be less likely to hate us when we <i>stop</i> giving them food?
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Possibly. Even I as an idealist realize that this is nice in theory, poor in practice. But as I see it, we give them food and help them on their feet, they may play nice with us in the War on Terror (apparently, the Sudan is playing nice right now)*, we improve our standing in the world community, it costs $1.3 billion (based on the amount in the story) over the lifetime of the deal. Though I'm sure plenty will disagree, to me, $1.3 billion in the long run is a drop in the bucket.
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It doesn't <i>fix</i> anything, even temporaily (except perhaps misplaced feelings of guilt); it's a quick fix of feel-good.
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I don't see it that way. If we're giving a nation such as the Sudan food, and it's keeping them alive for the time being, then I would say it's a temporary fix. Nothing compared to a sustainable economy of course, but...
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By the time you're aware of a starving population somewhere, they're too far away and there too many of them to do anything meaningful by shipping food from here. Food isn't of fixed value. Like real estate, *location* is highly important variable in the equation. We've got lots of water in Lake Michigan, should we spend millions to ship it to areas stricken by drought?
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Depends on whether the benefits are worth the cost. I'm sure it would cost a ton of money to ship water from Lake Michigan...but would it be worth it to send it to drought-stricken states? A cost-benefit analysis would need to be done.
Shipping food to Sudan would probably cost a lot, but I would think it cheaper than sending food to Afghanistan, since the Sudan appears closer to the US.
Hmmm...the US could use this to their advantage with the UN. We offer the food to them, they reduce our debt to them and handle the logistics. Unlikely, but...
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It's a viable, working economy that feeds people, not CARE packages.
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Absolutely...I don't disagree with you on that. Perhaps we should include economic advisers as part of the food package. Unfortunately, Sudan has a lot of political issues that I think need to be resolved first before they can truly develop a solid economy.
*--Sudan's background
notes from the US State Dept.