Tuesday, May 22, 2012

It Takes A Village Idiot

Barack Obama has once again spoken about the wisdom of his family in ultra-modern, high-tech, super-productive Kenya. The Kenyan Obamas told him that “economic growth can’t just be for the lucky few,” and he repeated that complicated and prescient economic theory last weekend at the G-8 Global Agriculture and Food Security symposium

Individual thinking and theorizing is a great thing, but when you put the entire Obama family together, the thinking becomes sharper and the collective IQ rises almost to room temperature. Said Obama: “Most of the world’s unused arable land is in Africa. Fifty years ago, Africa was an exporter of food. There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again. There is no reason for that.” He concludes that the successful non-African nations are “lucky,” but it seems to me his own statement says there’s something more than bad luck involved in Africa’s poverty.

Did the land become less fertile over the past fifty years, thereby requiring that the lucky folks share their bounty with Africa? Or are other factors at work? Say, incessant civil and tribal warfare that takes the young men who could be working the fields off the farms and onto the battlefields? Or how about Muslim warfare on infidels, which includes mass murder of Christians and Animists and the destruction of their fields and industries? How about inattention to all the modern agricultural techniques available to everyone and ongoing adherence to proto-communist tribal ownership of land and the means of production?

Obama sends out the clarion call and a plan for African victory over poverty: “So even as the world responds with food aid in a crisis—as we’ve done in the Horn of Africa—communities can’t go back just to the way things were, vulnerable as before, waiting for the next crisis to happen. Development has to be sustainable, and as an international community, we have to do better.” Shouldn’t the Africans do better as well?

Couldn’t they go back to the way things were fifty years ago? Back to the time that Africa was an exporter of food by Obama’s own admission? Or have they done so much damage to their own infrastructure that only the lavish gifts of the “lucky” can put them back on track? They used to blame it on colonialism, but that magic fifty years has passed, and most Africans have never seen a European colonial government. Obama added that "growth shouldn't be reserved for those who already have enough." And who, Mr. President, gets to determine what is "enough?"


Naturally, we all know what this is leading to. Confiscating other people’s money and bounty to help people who have largely brought their misfortune on themselves. To be "fair," the Africans should eat the lucky rich (figuratively, I think) And let’s not forget the damage caused by drought and global warming. He has a remedy for that. More money. I hope his plan for Africa is better than his plan for California. Obama troops at the EPA and other regulatory agencies have turned America’s food basket in California’s San Joaquin Valley back into the desert it was over 100 years ago.

Pioneers and visionary statesmen saw the potential in the fertile valley, so they found ways to get water to the area, and the desert bloomed. Water is still abundant, but it can no longer reach the Valley because of EPA and state restrictions on the flow of water to protect a useless fish species. And if the Africans don't want to learn from earlier Californians, maybe they and their Arab neighbors could learn from Israel. Oh, scratch that. They're Jews.

Obama threw in pretty much everything except the kitchen sink. “We see an Africa that still faces huge hurdles, stark inequalities, most Africans still living on less than $2.00 a day; climate change that increases the risk of drought and famine (at least there is natural), all of which perpetuates stubborn barriers in agriculture, in the agricultural sector—from bottlenecks in infrastructure that prevent food from getting to market, to the lack of credit, especially for farmers, most of whom are women.” I doubt that his solution will be to impose a minimum wage, carbon offsets, work requirements, and income equality for women. That only works in successful economies that need to be brought down to third-world levels.

But he does allude to his one [temporary] success. “When there is good nutrition, especially in those thousand days during pregnancy up to the child’s second birthday, it means healthier lives for that child and that mother—and it’s the smart thing to do because better nutrition means lower health care costs and it means less need for assistance later on. Aha! More arugula. He will impose Obamacare on people who can’t fight back, then send Michelle to teach them what to eat and how much. Then, when the birth rate goes up and infant mortality goes down, we can introduce them to assembly-line abortion.

That means that only one “fix” remains. Billions of American tax dollars to feed Africans the right diet. The food and the money will come from the “lucky”nations, which largely means the United States. In other words, give them a fish, but don’t teach them how to fish. And make sure it’s not an endangered species, it is mercury-free, government-certified and politically-correct. No California Delta smelt for the Africans.

27 comments:

LL said...

Europeans need to get back into Africa, re-colonize it and make it productive once again in a model of capitalism and imperialism. For once, I agree with Obama.

It's time to put European white people back in charge!!

However, to make sure that the uppity whites don't usurp the new Obama concept for Africa, we need to send both Barack and Michelle there to live in 2013 to help with this effort to fundamentally transform Africa...

Writer X said...

At least Sean Penn got straight to the point: "Pay the F*ck Up" Because the billions that have already been sent have made such a huge difference.

T-Rav said...

Fifty years ago, large chunks of Africa were still under the rule of European powers. So, if I understand Obama correctly, the solution is to restore colonialism, right?

AndrewPrice said...

The irony is that Africa is a truly rich continent, it's just the locals who screw it up.

BevfromNYC said...

T-Rav - No, that is not Obama's idea...oh wait, actually it is. The Europeans saw the value in the undeveloped furtile fields and untouched natural resources just waiting to be exploited hundreds of years ago. Of course some of those natural resources just happened to be people in the form of the slave trade, but hey.

Zimbabwe is the perfect example of all that is wrong in Africa. Mugabe forced the white land owners/colonist who had been very successful growers out by bloodshed and gave their land to blacks who had no idea how to manage the land and to grow anything. As a result, they are starving where once they were thriving and Mugabe is a very rich dictator. THe trick is to let the Western world know how much the people are starving and riddled with disease, so they will send hundreds of billions of dollars that never seems to make it to feed the starving or cure the diseased.

But then again, raising money for the starving and diseased of Africa looks good in the P.R. packets for all those Hollywood starlets...

Notawonk said...

I smell a new "we are the world" remix coming! it will make us all feel better knowing that hollywood/singing artists CARE so damn much to make a buck off the tragedy that is africa. wait, that didn't come out right. wait, wait. yes it did.

rlaWTX said...

There is a Delta in Africa - the smelt would feel right at home!

Even non-profits/NGOs/charities are beginning to see that just dropping food and money on a problem doesn't help - and indeed often hurts. Any estimates on how long until progressives in govt see that??? Give or take 100 years?

tryanmax said...

It seems that anyone claiming there is "no reason" for something just doesn't want to face the reasons. Similarly, anyone claiming "it's for the children" is really out to screw the adults.

Andrew, T-Rav, I'm pretty sure those statements are racist. LL, that is racist. ;-)

Patti, I always preferred the Band Aid song for the holidays, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Of course, you can't say "Christmas" anymore, but you still can't beat lyrics like this:

And the Christmas bells that ring there, are the clanging chimes of doom
Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you

Put aside the fact that it doesn't rhyme and consider the moral ambiguity of that statement (belted out by Bono, no less).

tryanmax said...

rlaWTX, that's smeltist! :-)

T-Rav said...

tryanmax, some of my best friends are black! :-)

T-Rav said...

Bev, Zimbabwe (aka Rhodesia) really is a tragedy. In the pre-Mugabe era, it was gradually developing into a stable democracy and probably would have come to embrace racial equality. I guess there is an equality now, of sorts--everyone is equally subjected to Mugabe and his thugs.

Unknown said...

LL: I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, but maybe it would be a good idea. Some of the more learned people in the former colonies (particularly India) have actually thanked their former "oppressors" for what they brought to formerly backward countries. The don't want the colonialists back, but they at least recognize the accomplishments. Zimbabwe/Rhodesia is probably the best example of a country where they learned nothing, and went off the cliff the moment self-government arrived.

Unknown said...

WriterX: The people in these "poor" nations are going to have to do it for themselves eventually. Most of what we send as money and food is kept by corrupt governments or destroyed as part of the ongoing civil unrest. If we did absolutely nothing, they wouldn't be a whole lot worse off (except the war lords and the leaders, of course).

Unknown said...

T-Rav: Shhh! That's the dirty little secret.

Unknown said...

Andrew: Are you suggesting that the Obama family is pointing the finger in the wrong direction?

Unknown said...

Bev: The sad irony is that Africa is largely an example of what happens when man's technology is taken out of the formula and the people "return to nature." Nature is harsh and unforgiving, and it takes hard work and good technology to tame it. Of course you don't have to work nearly so hard if someone else hands your needs to you. Now that I think about it, that's the Obama plan for America, too.

Unknown said...

Patti: Funny you should mention it. Front and center in the audience listening to Obama was the pro-goodies for Africa icon--Bono.

Unknown said...

rlaWTX: That will happen about the time the do-gooders learn the old truism: Charity begins at home.

Unknown said...

tryanmax: Right on the money (pun intended). There's a reason for almost everything, but admitting what the real reason is is where politicians start distorting everything for their own purposes. And as I mentioned above, Bono was right their grinning back at Obama during the speech.

Unknown said...

tryanmax: Good one. Smeltist!

Unknown said...

T-Rav: OK, but are they Africans?

StanH said...

This discussion always makes me think of that old Sam Kinison routine about how to help Africa, to paraphrase, “don’t send money send U-Hauls, and move them to the food and water…”

I’ve said this before, a couple years ago my company worked on a documentary with a infamous x-president about defeating the Guinea Worm in Africa. This is a terrible parasite that connects to it’s host through their drinking water. The primary culprit, defecating in their own drinking water. This president was standing next to a hut somewhere in Rwanda, where a woman was standing wrapped in a shawl. The woman appeared to be holding a baby at her breast. When this individual asked to see the baby while pulling back the shawl, to his horror, her breast was gapping open, crawling with the Guinea Worms, this person began to vomit. By this same hut one of the team, dug a hole in the ground, and placed a bench with a hole cut in the seat, over the hole in the ground ( a latrine). The villagers were looking at these people like they had just landed there from another planet, it was pitiful. My point, if you have people that have to be told to not to poop, and pee in their drinking water, just how in the Hell can we ever expect them to understand sophisticated farming techniques.

Unknown said...

Stan: That is indeed a serious problem. Another strange story goes back a few decades to the Peace Corps era. The workers were provided with birth control pills for the natives since overpopulation was a serious problem. When the workers went back later, they found that the pills hadn't been used. It turned out the natives had included them in their worship ceremonies instead of taking them as directed. Needless to say, the birth problem had not been solved.

Tennessee Jed said...

nice post, Hawk. Had a little medical emergency with the mother-in-law yesterday. Kind of ongoing so posts may be more sporadic for a few days. Liberals response to everything is to throw money at it, which almost never soves the problem.

rlaWTX said...

From an NRO article about the UN suggested global tax: "The Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe warned Portugal that 'employment, housing, education, and social and medical assistance are vital social rights that may not be ignored even in times of economic crisis.'”
How the blankety-blank are those "RIGHTS"??????

another quote: "And, of course, the U.N. now has a rapporteur on 'the effect of foreign debt on human rights, particularly economic, cultural and social rights.'"
sigh.....

[http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/300537/call-global-tax-jacob-mchangama]

Unknown said...

Tennessee: Sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. Hope everything turns out all right.

If liberals threw as much thought at problems as they do money and bounty, they might actually solve a problem or two.

Unknown said...

rlaTWX: It's easy to guarantee "rights" when you can get someone else to pay for and defend them.

Here's your clickable link: Global Taxes.

Post a Comment