Originally posted by david:
This thread was funny, and enlightening.
But it always makes me mad when people say that Bono should just give away 300 million to Africa or whatever, and then it will solve all the problems.
That's not how it works.
Who said that he should?
And who said it would solve all the problems?
Surely that was NOT the intent of this thread.
$30/yr from 10,000,000 first world citizens = $300 million
Will that help?
Is it fair to levy such a 'tax' on first world citizens?
Bono said:
"So, with the same imagination, with the same brilliant minds, here in Los Angeles, can we make the American Dream a little bigger? Can we make it big enough to fit and affect the lives of the poorest of the poor, the wretched people? Eight million people die every year for the price of going out with your friends to the movies and buying an ice cream. Literally for about $30 a head per year, you could save 8 million lives. Isn't that extraordinary? Preventable disease - not calamity, not famine, nothing like that. Preventable disease - just for the lack of medicines. That is cheap, that is a bargain."
People here (USA) are starving, homeless, and diseased. There are people here that DON'T have the liberty to go to the movies and buy an ice cream. There are working people here who barely make it from pay check to pay check.
About to voice my PERSONAL opinion/ideas (don't faint):
I grew up an idealist, and in many ways, I am still an idealist. But I am also a realist. I think it would be incredible for ALL people to work together to rid the world of it's problems (mostly human caused problems), and I do think that it CAN be done. It is possible. Unfortunately human beings, like most creatures, are greedy in one form or another. To accomplish such a goal is going to take A LOT more than money and schmoozing with the right people. It's going to take re-educating the entire world's philosophy, both social, economic, and political.
While I would LOVE to see this happen, I find it highly unlikely of ever happening within our lifetime or the 21st century at all. A time when people are blowing themselves up, their families getting $20,000 for the act, and innocent people getting killed in the process. Unfortunately, I think the world has yet to see the violence that will disgrace our lives, and our kind. It's going to get A LOT worse before it gets any better.
I've voiced personal thoughts recently, in which I said, 'live by example'. But this thread alone proves that people often don't.
As an example:
If we started a collection here, on this site, that would be given to help those in Africa, and the suggested donation was $30, I personally have little faith that we'd even raise a thousand dollars. According to Bono, that amount would keep 33 people alive in Africa for another year, but what about next year? Who is going to care for these people next year? Who is going to care for their new children?
Simply dropping the debt isn't the solution. Sure, people will argue, 'but it will help!'. But it still isn't the solution. So will buying the homeless guy on the corner a burger... but it won't solve the problem.
Who is Bono to impose the 'American dream' on the rest of the world. With that dream, comes America, it's politics, it's culture, and it's capitalism. Sula, earlier in this thread mentioned 'economic colonialism'. Have you ever heard of imperialism?
The world needs to be both educated and re-educated. But who am I to say that?
Outside is America.
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-Elvis
http://plot180.net/taol/
elvis@interference.com
