It's interesting that a vast majority of "poor countries" or LDC's as they're called don't practice socialism or communism in reality but are either tinpot dictatorships or not-particularly-representational democracies. (Not unlike that bastion of capitalism, the US?)
These countries typically spend more on defence and servicing debt than on social services (remind you of, umm... somebody?) Also interesting that the recipe prescribed by the UN and other people to save the children in these countries (e.g.: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr44.htm) typically involves investing in "basic social services" like education, health, water and sanitation. Things that are seemingly more "socialist" or "communist" than "capitalist". Oh, and if it's any consolation, I'm a stark, raving capitalist too. Just couldn't see the connection between poor, starving children and communism the earlier poster alluded to. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ashish Gulhati Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:46 AM To: silklist@lists.hserus.net Subject: Re: [silk] Gates interview on world health &c On 24-Jun-06, at 7:59 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > What does it say to you that of the 4 million babies who die within > their first month, 98 percent are from poor countries? What do > those statistics tell you about the world? > > GATES: It really is a failure of capitalism. You know capitalism is > this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful > inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at > large, it's really let us down. What a freaking brain-dead idiot! (I know, this is not news). He thinks he's so great on statistics, but doesn't seem to comprehend this one simple, glaring statistic: starvation, malnutrition and disease are most prevalent in the least capitalist countries, in a very straightforward inverse-proportional relation. How is it a fucking failure of CAPITALISM that it cannot magically produce goods in SOCIALIST/COMMIE countries? Oh, and his idea of giving his cash away to the fucking governments of commie countries (directly or indirectly, much of the cash WILL find a way into the private bank accounts of parasitical elites) for "health" is just about the worst damn idea in the world. If free cash has (as he says) a bad impact on the kids of billionaires, how will it magically have any better impact on the already-fucking-bastard autocrats of countries starving under the collectivist yoke? > GATES: Right. Here what we have is, with the plural disease, not > only don't the people with money have the disease, but they don't > see the people who have the disease. If we took the world and we > just re-assorted each neighborhood to be randomly mixed up, then > this whole thing could get solve. Yeah? Um, isn't that what exactly open global immigration would do? Go sue the fucking INS for human rights violations, Billy boy. That is really the Right Thing to do! Get rid of immigration and trade barriers, and everything else will solve itself via the simple means of mass exodus of people from collectivist countries. > GATES: the thing that's so stark is that you're in Johannesburg > which is sort of a first world location. Ha! > GATES: I think we make it every day by thinking that national > borders are you know allow huge inequities to exist across those > borders. OK, so what are you going to do about THAT? There is a Supreme Court in the USA, you know, and a Constitution, which does NOT refer to any such concept as "natural born Americans". Only "all men". Or do you not grasp the concept of attacking the problem at its root, rather than fighting a never-ending battle against its symptoms? Or maybe (much less likely) do you realize at some level that the US constitution has already been flushed down the crapper by the very people who have taken solemn oaths to "preserve, protect and defend" it. > GATES: I was in China just two weeks ago talking to the Health > Minister and talking to Jiang Zemin about raising the profile there. That would make a nice MS ad: "Mr. Microsoft - Mingling with Murderers." > And they have - for their level of income - quite a strong health > system. And quite, you know, a willingness to say, okay, if this is > about sex workers we'll go in and we'll register the sex workers. > And we're gonna make sure that certain behavioral changes are > taking place, like Thailand did. Gotta love those "behavioural changes" - like summary executions of capitalists engaged in the manufacture and sale of politically incorrect substances. > GATES: And so well, I'm thinking a lot about that. I'm interested > in any ideas. Yeah? How about championing the abolition of the INS, and open immigration? > GATES: I think understanding the basic facts about the AIDS > epidemic is important. I think knowing how little resources are > going into these things. Knowing that this is not a case of > government waste. I mean there's this notion of government spending > in general and foreign aid that often ends up in some dictators > bank account. Maybe because, duh, it DOES? Oh, and just because a blood-sucking parasite is democratically elected doesn't make him any less of a dictator. Hitler was democratically elected, as was Mao, as is Kim Jong-il. Democracy is simply a disguised and especially dangerous form of tyranny. > And so it is a special thing that the cynicism about government > spending should be suspended here because it can be handled in the > right way. Oh, suuuure. Man, are you blind as well, on top of being brain-dead? The world's not going to forgive you for your fucking crappy software just because you give away some of your stash to tyrannical 3rd world autocrats to buy yourself a "philanthropist" tag. And the world's going to be no better for your handouts, which can, at best, only suppress symptoms while the disease keeps getting worse. That's generally considered pretty dangerous. I would have thought at least one of the medical books you claim to have read would have touched upon this concept! #!
