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Annan Urges Rich Countries to Help Poor
That bleat's starting to wear pretty thin by now. Rich countries have been "helping" poor countries since I was a tad. Some of those same poor countries — war-shattered Japan and Korea, idyllic, agrarian Thailand, steamy, rubber plantation Malaysia — are now in a position to do some helping of their own. The starving children in India are now starting to get plump and happy. Others countries, starting from similar or worse circumstances, shackled themselves to Marxism, "third way" National Socialism, Islam, or outright kleptocracy, and they're stuck right where they were. Places like Zim-Bob-We have actually regressed.
I was a toddler when the Marshal Plan was implemented. I was in junior high when the colonial powers left most of Africa. How the hell old are my grandkids going to be before the continuous demand for money for kleptocrats finally ends? Or will it? Why is it our responsibility to clean up the mess left by Emperor Freddie, Idi Amin, Mobuto Sese Seko, Kwame Nkruma, Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor, Sane Abacha, Jonas Savimbi, and the rest of the host of dear departed or absconded whose relatives send me spam every day, begging my help in secreting their hard-won millions? At what point do the inhabitants of those countries stop either killing each other or hollering "Death to America" and actually start living humdrum lives with families, jobs, and civic responsibilities? |
Posted by: Fred 2005-06-10 |
