ok, say you are the head of the u.s. government. up to a 100,000 people could die in mynamar thanks to the jackass government not allowing aid after the devastating cyclone hit. what do you do? form a coalition with other governments and just go in there anyway in order to save those people's lives? beg the burmese government for access (if they'll pick up the phone)? or ignore the whole thing?
bush is donating a whopping 3 million in aid (what's that, a couple of hours worth of funding for iraq?) and waiting. what would you do?
rainbo need not answer, 'cuz we already know he's only concerned about puffing up his chest over his whopping $20,000 of lifetime savings through investments.
ok, say you are the head of the u.s. government. up to a 100,000 people could die in mynamar thanks to the jackass government not allowing aid after the devastating cyclone hit. what do you do? form a coalition with other governments and just go in there anyway in order to save those people's lives? beg the burmese government for access (if they'll pick up the phone)? or ignore the whole thing?
bush is donating a whopping 3 million in aid (what's that, a couple of hours worth of funding for iraq?) and waiting. what would you do?
rainbo need not answer, 'cuz we already know he's only concerned about puffing up his chest over his whopping $20,000 of lifetime savings through investments.
We have roads to fix here in America. Burmese lives just aren't high on my priority list.
Joined: 30 Aug 2004 Posts: 1425 Location: New York City 561 eGriz Bucks
It's a delicate situation -- I don't know what the "right" amount of $$$ is that we should be willing to spend to help them (though I do agree that we should provide some help), but the fact is, right now their government isn't accepting any U.S. aid, and as much as I may disagree with that, they are a sovereign nation, so forcing them to accept our help isn't easy. That doesn't mean I think we should just throw up our hands and walk away; we should try to persuade them to allow us to help, but under the circumstances, I'm not sure it matters whether we give them $3 million or $3 billion -- the first thing we have to do is convince them to allow us to give them aid, period.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." --Voltaire
We have roads to fix here in America. Burmese lives just aren't high on my priority list.
I think we should form a coalition of the willing, invade, depose the dictatorial and clearly murderous regime, and liberate and bring democracy to the good people of Burma.
I think we should pay for all of this with their oil revenues.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". Orwell
Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 65 Location: Local #112 65 eGriz Bucks
tampa_griz wrote:
argh! wrote:
ok, say you are the head of the u.s. government. up to a 100,000 people could die in mynamar thanks to the jackass government not allowing aid after the devastating cyclone hit. what do you do? form a coalition with other governments and just go in there anyway in order to save those people's lives? beg the burmese government for access (if they'll pick up the phone)? or ignore the whole thing?
bush is donating a whopping 3 million in aid (what's that, a couple of hours worth of funding for iraq?) and waiting. what would you do?
rainbo need not answer, 'cuz we already know he's only concerned about puffing up his chest over his whopping $20,000 of lifetime savings through investments.
We have roads to fix here in America. Burmese lives just aren't high on my priority list.
Too bad nobody can afford to use these roads thanks to president J.R. Ewing and vice prez Blake Carrington!
We have roads to fix here in America. Burmese lives just aren't high on my priority list.
I think we should form a coalition of the willing, invade, depose the dictatorial and clearly murderous regime, and liberate and bring democracy to the good people of Burma.
I think we should pay for all of this with their oil revenues.
I'd almost be inclined to agree if the Burmese government were engaging in operations to kill our military personnel like the "non-agressive" Iraqi government was. Oh well.
That 3 million dollars is actually quite a bit of money to throw at this problem (1 million more than Canada's contribution). Burma is an ass-backward tyranny, even if they allow our assistance, who do you give 3 million dollars to...or even 100,000 thousand dollars to? What assurances do you have it will go to those and need and not some scum-bag official. I am all for foriegn aid, but you can't just throw big numbers at a problem.
oh c'mon vlad, a self-professed smart guy like yourself should probably have figured out that the u.s. isn't going to hand the burmese government $3M cash. obviously, we're talking $3M in rice, fuel and water here - the things that keep suffering people alive.
also, you completely ignore the bigger (immediate) problem, that the burmese government won't let aid agencies personally hand out the rice, fuel and water.
oh, and i love the 'canada's contribution was extremely pathetic, so our really, really pathetic contribution is actually good' argument. keep 'em coming, boy genius!
Median household income in the US in 2006 was $48,000, according to Wikipedia.
are you really stupid enough to think that has anything to do with the discussion of aid to people who are starving to death?
maybe you should be looking into the price of the fuel to bring the aid there. or the wages of the people who coordinate relief efforts. then at least you'd be close to the right track.
argh, "are you really stupid enough" to believe that the posting of 2 facts, without additional text or comment, constitutes anything other than the posting of 2 facts?
argh, "are you really stupid enough" to believe that the posting of 2 facts, without additional text or comment, constitutes anything other than the posting of 2 facts?
ok, i am wrong. i should have written "this thread is about a situation in which up to (according to current estimates) a million or more human beings could lose their lives because of a psychopathic government's unwillingness to accept aid to help innocent, oppressed people survive a natural disaster. are you really stupid enough to think that posting two facts that have no real relevance to the topic in some way contributes to the discussion?"
Yes, it's true that I believe that posting 2 facts contributes to a discussion like this on a message.
argh, I don't know why you have to react negatively to everything I post, but did it ever occur to you that you someone might care to know what the per capita income of Burma is and that one could use the two facts to make an argument that the US should contribute more?
Yes, it's true that I believe that posting 2 facts contributes to a discussion like this on a message.
argh, I don't know why you have to react negatively to everything I post, but did it ever occur to you that you someone might care to know what the per capita income of Burma is and that one could use the two facts to make an argument that the US should contribute more?
if you would've (or will) make such an argument, i'm all eyes. until then, all i've got to go on is what you wrote, and the history of your posts, which have almost entirely supported an "us versus them" mentality when it comes to the rest of the world. of course, most of these posts have been about the iraq "war", and we seem to disagree a lot on the issue of the validity of this military engagement, plus the 'necessity' of prolonging it.
having said that, on occasion you exhibit the ability for rational thought. as such, i'd be more than happy to mentally override my preconceived prejudices and give your idea a fair listen.
aarghh, I don't recall posting anything about how smart I am. I guess I would say I am relatively smart...perhaps we could each take an online IQ test or post our ACT scores to settle which of us is smarter.
In response to your bitter sounding post, I know we are not handing anyone Burmese official cash, but supplies have value and can be misappropriated the same way money can be. I think the US should be pro-active in providing relief to disaster victims, but I doubt the NGO distrubution infastructure in Burma exists to dole out more than a few million dollars at a time. Transparency is important.
aarghh, I don't recall posting anything about how smart I am. I guess I would say I am relatively smart...perhaps we could each take an online IQ test or post our ACT scores to settle which of us is smarter.
In response to your bitter sounding post, I know we are not handing anyone Burmese official cash, but supplies have value and can be misappropriated the same way money can be. I think the US should be pro-active in providing relief to disaster victims, but I doubt the NGO distrubution infastructure in Burma exists to dole out more than a few million dollars at a time. Transparency is important.
Not trying to hijack, but posting test scores doesn't prove intelligence, it simply shows who was better at providing answers on a given test.
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 2265 Location: Roaming the countryside with GrizChick 2425 eGriz Bucks
tampa_griz wrote:
argh! wrote:
ok, say you are the head of the u.s. government. up to a 100,000 people could die in mynamar thanks to the jackass government not allowing aid after the devastating cyclone hit. what do you do? form a coalition with other governments and just go in there anyway in order to save those people's lives? beg the burmese government for access (if they'll pick up the phone)? or ignore the whole thing?
bush is donating a whopping 3 million in aid (what's that, a couple of hours worth of funding for iraq?) and waiting. what would you do?
rainbo need not answer, 'cuz we already know he's only concerned about puffing up his chest over his whopping $20,000 of lifetime savings through investments.
We have roads to fix here in America. Burmese lives just aren't high on my priority list.
Neither is Iraq on mine with the exception of friends still there and other friends kids!!!
For those of you who don't like beautiful women and like to complain, click on ignore and don't read my posts. I don't have anything of interest for ewe types. That includes the "mods".
Untrue. Saying "test scores are not an accurate indicator of actual intellectual ability", is just something parents say to make their kids feel better about being stupid. It's kind of like telling your kid he got "most improved player" because of all his contributions to the team, not because he is the worst player and just got a ribbon so he wouldn't cry.
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