Wastes of lots of moneyHere's my rant... put on your seatbelts! Just a few things that would be wonderful to cure in this world - - with poverty, hunger and famine in the world, oppression in places like Algeria, China, Tibet, Afghanistan and all over Africa, why are people spending millions of dollars on ballooning around the world, breaking world records in mountaineering (also using tons of other countries' money to save them when they fall in the sea, get stuck on the mountain, etc...) and billions of dollars keeping huge "defensive" budgets for obsolete military problems (like the "new" extremely expensive fighter plane we came out with that is 20 years late in production and built for the Cold War, etc... )? Why are we rewarding people who are thinking only of self-glorification and nothing else? Why are so many people in the USA driving these gas-guzzling automobiles (and SUV's when the size is only really for show!)? SUV's are exempt from the punitive "gas-guzzler" taxes, because the government didn't want to punish people that needed a truck for their work - but this is not the case with some suburban housewife that drives around by herself most of the time in this huge greenhouse-gas maker. It is unconscionable that car ads include the macho "it has a HEMI" as the kicker line - - WHY DO YOU NEED SO MUCH POWER BEHIND THE WHEEL?? It just means you needlessly waste more gas! It's just a mode of transportation. And if it's more than that for you, you need to take a healthy dose of reality instead of testosterone - and take a look at the life around you to see how much your gas-guzzling and pollution is costing the rest of us. It doesn't matter if you can AFFORD the gas - the rest of us can't afford the exhaust , its effects on our environment, the repleting of resources and the ensuing political consequences (wars, partnerships with dictatorial and non-democratic governments, etc...) that your machismo costs. Americans wonder why "everybody hates us" - - it is not, as many in power have smirkingly surmised, because THEY "hate our freedom and are against freedom." Our government has put countless tyrants in power (Chile, Congo, etc...) solely for economic gain for the U.S. - - and all of this mainly through our CIA. This is well-documented but not talked about much in the U.S.A. I am not a looney-tuney conspiracy theorist; our CIA is a spy organization, and has been doing dastardly deeds behind the scenes since it began, in order to push American supremacy on the world. (Remember the Iran/Contra scandal??!) The only problem is that when covert action such as this detrimentally affects other countries' governments, it is our CIA and only our very top appointed officials, outside of the public eye, not our elected officials , who are setting international policy. There is no debate; there is no check or balance; there is no recourse for us to react in our democracy. If they act in dishonest and underhanded ways, not only are they misrepresenting the great American people, but they are tarnishing our reputation as a law-abiding state with their actions. Sometimes their behind-the-scenes work has positive effects - many more than we may ever know. However, we must live with our fellow humans by following some laws. If we do not respect the rule of law, how are we to insist others do so? To assume that we are above the law because WE are right is to open the door to everyone else saying that HE is above the law. When our government itself flies in the face of all international law "because we can," we weaken future generations' righteousness. Might does not make right, and we Americans love to be righteous people and hold ourselves up as such. Politics is about every one of us. The abuses at Abu-Graib happened because we let it happen, and we are continuing to break international laws by keeping people without any legal recourse or even formal charges at bases such as Guantanamo Bay. If we are falling into lawlessness ourselves in our foreign policies, how can we point the finger at terrorists? We were given WMD as the only iron-clad reason to go to war with Iraq, when actually Iraq was NOT an imminent threat to us. Only later did Our Dear Leader come up with the hundreds of excuses such as "Well, Hussein is a horrible guy! He's killed lots of his own people." Sure, he's horrible! Ditto for the leader of North Korea, and the leaders a several African countries with whom we still have relations, but we don't seem to be running into a war to free their people! Our president lied to us. Let's not confuse "being free" with "being in our pocket." What a total waste of lives of our brave armed forces. More than 2081 patriots have lost their lives already. People willing to put their lives on the line for our protection are now being used to boost military spending in the budget, give our President more power and free reign to do as he pleases, perhaps fulfill a personal family vendetta (while ignoring or underfunding more dire terrorist threats elsewhere all over the world, not to mention Afghanistan) and prop up our access to a finite resource we are going to deplete within our lifetimes if we continue to increase consumption (which we are.) Why go to war with Iraq when there are no WMD, if not to have a better supply of oil?? Even if that is not the case, where are our conservation efforts, so we don't have to be dependent on OTHER dictatorial states such as Saudi Arabia for our oil? Why is there not any mention of cutting down our consumption of oil in this new "energy bill?" Our presence in Iraq is regrettably not making us any safer - actually, it is making us more hated and resented in Arab countries and across the globe. I can tell you this with certainty, as I am always travelling and talking to foreigners. This is not because our armed forces' comportment is incorrect, but because the reason they are there is incorrect. We did not wait for the legitimacy of international law, and we did not go in with accurate intelligence about conditions or a strategy of what to do when we got there. Iraq is now a hotbed of radical terrorists, drawn from different countries: something it was NOT before we attacked. What a shame. You can not wage a war on "terror" - in order to beat an enemy, you must identify it physically, and "terror" is just an idea. Abuses at Abu Graib were not just because of a few rogue soldiers - it was an endemic problem coming from the top down!
Read the shocking articles in May 2004 in Newsweek about Abu Ghraib! Please! Why not look at the root of our problem, which is overconsumption of a finite resource? We have enough brilliant people to make NEW, GREEN industries out of our fossil-fuel-burning vehicles. We are just too rooted in what we know to change! Why do YOU not have a hybrid or electric car? Do you really need as big a car as you have? I haven't even started to mention all the resources in the USA that are wasted daily because of lack of recycling facilities, sheer laziness and a skewed sense of what is important in life. AMERICANS CONSUME X% OF THE WORLD'S RESOURCES, PUTTING IN X% OF THE WORLD'S INPUT, WITH X% OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION. Can you fill in the blanks? The numbers are astounding. We consume WAY more than our "share" of resources, AND the percentage of GARBAGE and WASTE we put out in the world is also disastrously disproportionate. Americans have to rethink their consuming habits. It does not take much effort to use your consuming power to change industries: buying the most sustainable products, with the least packaging, made in the most non-impactive way. It only takes knowledge and bit of common sense. Write in to that manufacturer to tell him you USED to buy his products before they put them in such non-environmentally-friendly containers. Use a mop, not a swiffer, for example - quit thinking that just because you throw it away means it is GONE. It becomes needless waste in yet another overflowing garbage dump. We need to quit thinking about what is the "easiest," "most comfortable" or "most handy" way of doing everything, and wonder "what is the most sustainable way of getting that done?" Reward environmentally conscious, socially conscious and thoughtful products with your patronage. Spend that extra 5 cents to buy recycled toilet paper... If we, the consumers, ask for it, the market will respond. Is bigger, more, cheaper, really better ?? Or is it just making us even more megalomanic, fat, and forcing the rest of the world to take on this destructive mindset of out-of-control consumption, too? Quit thinking about what's easy and comfortable, and think about what is good for our world! It's not some grainy-crunchy vegetarian Californian idea - - it is vital to our world that we start now with conservation and sustainable habits. Are we saving the world for democracy or for capitalism?? There is nothing sacreligious about questioning capitalism as it exists today - - we, the people of the United States, did not create the mold for this system - it was some economists with their theories - only theories... If these paradigms aren't working (which rampant protests about globalization pretty much prove), then why not soften it with a pragmatic look on things? We do not live in a purely capitalist system, in any case*, (*remember subsidies for agriculture, internationally illegal tariffs on steel, etc..?), so why the bugaboo about having any kind of major social services provided by our government? If you look at the percentage of people's income put toward health insurance, pensions and taxes in the U.S. and then look at the percentage that Europeans pay in straight taxes that cover those services, you will see that the Americans are actually paying more! And getting less. Look at the bigger picture. "Lower taxes" sounds great on paper, but when giving you $200 in a rebate to spend on a couple of pair of shoes means our government can not fulfill its duties, there is something majorly wrong. Let your congressmen and women know how you feel - write them! Stay up to date on the world's real problems, not all the stupid small stuff we find ourselves constantly whining about and our own little small-minded protectionist problems. (Why did we spend so much time debating a bill on SPAM and "the no-call list" instead of things that are killing people all over the world every day?) And why insist that all these third-world poor countries open their markets to our products, when our country is not open to their products?? Look at the bigger picture, please! If people the world over are able to live, be educated, eat, and think freely, they will be less likely to want to cause wars, be terrorists, become part of a fanatical religious movement, or leave their country of origin to try and seek opportunity in the U.S.... This world is actually SO small, we can all make a difference just by being aware and doing each our little bit: helping out our neighbors and opening our hearts to new things. It only takes a little change from everyone to make a huge difference in our world. Remember - change in itself is not bad. It may be a bit scary at first, but not necessarily bad. Get over "what you're used to" and develop new, healthy habits for you, your children and your world. But most of all, be aware! Inform yourself!! Information is power! Don't just read the funnies in your local newspaper. Ask them why they aren't reporting on poverty and famine in the rest of the world. They probably have ONE page for "world news" and don't report on the dire situation in many foreign countries because nothing about that has changed, so it's not NEW! Instead, they have a big 5-page spread on gardening. We are hiding our heads in the sand. The information is out there. Find it and interest yourself in more than your little life on this earth. Sponsor a child, read, vote, travel; open your eyes!!! There is a lot more inspiration in this world than desperation, and you will be surprised that even in the midst of chaos and horror, man still strives for beauty and betterment. Be a part of it.
HUNGER - POPULATION CONTROL -HEALTH
HUMANS BEHAVING BADLY
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Last updated April 2004
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