[quote name='punqsux'][quote name='Goodtone']You call what they have over there civilized? I have been there and they live like they are still in the stone ages. It's 2004 people. Time to get with the program.[/quote]
you cannot judge a poor country against a rich country. you just cant. it would be like going up to a family on welfare and asking why they dont have a porche, its just common sence.
you shouldnt judge the human race's progression based on western civilization simply because the world is not ready for us. we are destroying the world. we are not giving it a chance to adapt to the changes and progress we've made in the past 100 years. too much too fast.[/quote]
Punq is right. We are unable to grasp the fact that different cultures are, in fact, DIFFERENT CULTURES. I worked for the Defenders of WIldlife through the World Wildlife Fund for eight years. I have been everywhere. I worked closely with the 'Environmental Technology Transfer' industry for much of my eight years with these organizations. Here is one of my favorite stories involving the US attempting to rescue the third world from the "Stone Age":
The crop cycle in central Africa is affected by locust swarms every four years or so. The United States has pesticides, the Africans do not. Pesticides kill locusts here in the states, so it stands to reason that we should share our pesticides and show the third world the wonders of modern chemistry. We use it, therefore it is good. The US "introduces" (read:forces) pesticides on central African farmers, preaching the wonders of locust slaughtering and how the crop cycle can now be altered in order to feed many more people over a longer period of time. US says: NO LOCUSTS=MORE FOOD!!! Afrticans respond: But... . US says: YOU MUST LEARN! NO LOCUSTS=MORE FOOD!!! ARE YOU NOT LISTENING?? THIS IS THE WAY WE DO IT IN THE STATES!!! WE BRING YOU OUR TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE IN GOOD FAITH. NOW USE IT!!! Africa says: Well, ok..
So they use it. What the US faiiled to realize, as we do so very often, is the fact that DIFFERENT CULTURES HAVE DIFFERENT CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. We are so egotistical that we have lost sight of the fact that not every country out there shares our core system of capitalistic rules and regulations, or thinks that our way is the best way. The moral of the story I told above is this: The US did not even bother to ask the AFrican farmers about the locust swarms. They forced them to use pesticides in order to prevent the crops being destroyed, all in a good faith effort to rid the Africans of locusts the same way we do here in the states. If they had asked and listened to these farmers of another culture, they would have learned that the farmers WELCOMED the locust swarms. They preferred eating the locusts over the crops. When the locusts would come, they would set up elaborate nets to catch them, and roast them over open fires for food. Crops be damned during a locust year; to them, the swarms were a blessing. The US does not look at locusts as a blessing, therefore NOBODY does, right? That is our shortsightedness in a nutshell. We didn't even ask them. A good friend of mine retold these events to an international panel in Prague- as a result, he is still a 'marked man' today as far as the government is concerned. End of long post...