Earthquake

[SamIam]

CAIRO – Rare torrential rains across the Middle East swept away homes, marooned resort towns and killed seven people Monday, including a British tourist, in what officials are calling the worst flooding in at least a decade.

The flooding along Egypt's Red Sea coast, the border with Israel and in the south left six people dead. It also damaged the roads leading to the resorts in the Sinai desert and brought down telephone and power lines.

Dam the US! We should have been sending Egypt more yachts.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

beauty is only skin deep


ugly goes to the bone

Are you insinuating that I'm ugly because I think we should procatively help the downtrodden and needy?

[Clodfobble]

Proactive help is a good thing, Spexx, but I think you've lost sight of the scale. Even if we'd gone so far as to give all of Haiti free rebar for life, then the earthquake would have struck rural Mexico instead. Or Costa Rica, or Puerto Rico, or Cuba, or Guatemala... We help a whole lot of countries a fair amount, but you can never predict who's going to end up needing more help than others.

[xoxoxoBruce]

We can't just give them free rebar... we'd have to take over their government, pass a law that they would have to use it and how, and police the construction sites to assure compliance. Chavez would love it.

[lumberjim]

i won't argue politics with a socialist. I think you're ugliness goes to the bone because you behave worse than you look.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

i won't argue politics with a socialist. I think you're ugliness goes to the bone because you behave worse than you look.

To which behavior are you referring?

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Proactive help is a good thing, Spexx, but I think you've lost sight of the scale. Even if we'd gone so far as to give all of Haiti free rebar for life, then the earthquake would have struck rural Mexico instead. Or Costa Rica, or Puerto Rico, or Cuba, or Guatemala... We help a whole lot of countries a fair amount, but you can never predict who's going to end up needing more help than others.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

We can't just give them free rebar... we'd have to take over their government, pass a law that they would have to use it and how, and police the construction sites to assure compliance. Chavez would love it.

Those are good points. But aren't you tired of going around trying to close the barn door after the horse is gone? It's expensive, and what does it really accomplish, in the long run?

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Those are good points. But aren't you tired of going around trying to close the barn door after the horse is gone? It's expensive, and what does it really accomplish, in the long run?

Right. We'll just stop sending aid to Haiti right now since it accomplishes nothing in the long run.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Those are good points. But aren't you tired of going around trying to close the barn door after the horse is gone? It's expensive, and what does it really accomplish, in the long run?

No, that I do by choice. What I am sick of, is dumping millions Billions of dollars into countries all over the world, with no choice as to who it goes to or what they do with it.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No, that I do by choice. What I am sick of, is dumping millions Billions of dollars into countries all over the world, with no choice as to who it goes to or what they do with it.

But you don't have a choice where your money goes. You do have the choice of whether to give or not. You may choose The Red Cross, but you don't control who they give it to, or what they do with it. And if you find a charity that you know will give it to, let's say as an example, rebar, why didn't you donate, by choice, to them long enough ago to make a difference during the earthquake. Do you know what I'm getting at? We give now, but it's too late. 100,000 people are dead.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Because I don't know any rebar charities and what the Haitians are going to do with the damn rebar. They could sell it to another island for bananas, for all I know.
I know what the Red Cross is doing with my money, paying McGovern over a million bucks a year.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

We give now, but it's too late. 100,000 people are dead.

So you're saying we should cut our losses, and funnel all of the aid currently going to Haiti into rural Mexico instead?

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No, that I do by choice. What I am sick of, is dumping millions Billions of dollars into countries all over the world, with no choice as to who it goes to or what they do with it.

We actually "dump" less than one penny out of the federal dollar on foreign aid.** I dont think that is too much.

But I think it is misdirected in the sense that most goes to corrupt governments or governments incapable of maximizing the use of the funds....or through equally inefficent international organizations like the World Bank and IMF.

I would give more of that one penny to NGOs with a proven track record of accomplishment in improving economic or social conditions in developing countries.

** excluding military aid and trade assistance.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

OK Classic, you win. We did not give them nothing. I exagerated. We did not help our neighbors so much that their buildings collapsed on them because of all the rebar they couldn't afford.

What???? You really believe this was preventable by the US?

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

It's a shame. We're very good at being reactive, not very good at being proactive.

lol

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Not you. It's the people who are giving to charities since the earthquake.

How bout that Tsunami? Should we have given them a 50' high wall?
We cannot prevent natural disasters - Hell we have cities built below sea level right here in the US, ferchrissakes.

We already do help proactively - to the tune of untold BILLIONS upon BILLIONS. We cannot fix every ill in the world. It is not possible. We do the best we can and when something happens we help our "neighbors" (many of whom HATE US) in their time of need as well. Just paying for everything any other country could ever need isn't a solution. Its idiotic actually.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, but you'd happily give them my money too.