"Raffingora Garage" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Africa Has self inflicted droughts.The continued nomadic destruction of the >environment called poverty alleviation,come to Afrca and learn how to >totally destruct the environment and abuse human rights and create poverty >by law.
Hm, a happy citizen of the new South Africa it seems. Severe drought in the south now, 12 million at risk, that's caused by pastoralists and their much-vaunted but non-existent nomadic destruction? I don't think so. Half a million facing starvation in Angola - because of the reasons you state or because of a thoroughly evil civil war that would have been over decades ago but for US interference and that of their proxies in the apartheid regime? Zimbabwe, sure, there you have a case, but the extraordinary thing is that they didn't kill all the whites 20 years ago, as would have happened in a similar situation in many other parts of the world. Same goes for Sunny South Africa. East Africa? Pastoralists there yes, and much put upon they are, but please try to relate their pastoralism to drought and hunger with some evidence rather than just "I say so." I don't think you'll find any evidence. One reason for the hunger, among many others, is the over-dominance of maize (exacerbated by food aid) to the exclusion and neglect of many local crops that are better adapted, less destructive and more nutritious. South Africa certainly knows a lot about creating poverty by law, but that's an old thing there rather than a new one. "Come to Africa" - I spent 30 years there, and I think what impressed me more than anything else is people's capacity to be blind to anything other than their own cherished notions. All those starving children in the backyard servants' quarters of rich white homes in Johannesburg and elsewhere - "But we just didn't know, why didn't they tell us?" And: "We treat our servants like human beings." Do they still say that there? It's an Africa-wide phenomenon, this kind of blindness and the damage it causes - Third World-wide in fact. Here are a couple of examples: Sustainable Agriculture Pushing Back the Desert -- 24 Mar 2002: Desertification - land degrading into desert - is often blamed on mismanagement and misuse of land. Local people are allegedly guilty of over-farming, over-grazing and allowing their populations to exceed the environment's capacity. Lim Li Ching contests this myth, describing how local farmers in arid Africa are using innovative means to farm productively without destroying the environment, and highlights some criteria for sustainable agriculture. [more] http://www.i-sis.org.uk/desertification.php Good report, have a read. Here's another: "Leave the farmers alone" http://journeytoforever.org/keith_paul.html ... or stick to your cherished notions, whichever you prefer. Keith Addison >----- Original Message ----- >From: Christopher Witmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> >Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2002 2:16 PM >Subject: Re: [biofuel] Revealed: how the smoke stacks of America have >brought the world's worst drought to Africa > > > > Technology editor? Sounds more like "political propaganda editor." The > > article's thesis may be correct, but it can't be scientifically > > established one way or the other. One thing is for sure -- Africa has > > been experiencing droughts since long before America's smokestacks -- or > > even America -- existed. I'm glad the case for biodiesel doesn't have to > > be based on this kind of mumbo-jumbo "science," which is probably more > > accurately described as an exercise in guilt manipulation. > > > > Keith Addison wrote: > > > > > Revealed: how the smoke stacks of America have brought the world's > > > worst drought to Africa > > > > > > By Charles Arthur Technology Editor ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/3PCXaC/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
